Honor Magic 6 Lite Review

The Honor Magic 6 Lite is an exciting addition to the budget smartphone market with its premium design and impressive 108MP primary camera; you’d easily mistake this as costing much more than £350 RRP.

Early Bird Bonus Offer / Discount

Until the 6^th of February, you can get a £35 discount voucher plus an Honor Pad X8 Neo, which currently retails for £100 on Very. Honor will also provide 12 month screen protection cover, which is typically £50, and covers one screen replacement within 12 months.

This will take the phone down to £315 + a free tablet, which you could probably sell quite easily.

Specification

• Display: 6.78 inches AMOLED, 1B colours, 1220 x 2652 pixels, 120Hz, 1200 nits (peak)
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 (4 nm)
• RAM: 8GB
• Storage: 256GB
• Rear Camera:
  • 108 MP, f/1.8, (wide), 1/1.67″, PDAF
  • 5 MP, f/2.2, (ultrawide)
  • 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro)
• Front Camera: 16 MP, f/2.5, (wide)
• WiFi: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct
• Bluetooth: 5.1, A2DP, LE
• USB: USB Type-C 2.0, OTG
• Charging:            35W wired
• Battery: 5300 mAh
• SIM: Dual SIM
• IP Rating: IP53, dust and splash resistant
• Dimensions: 163.6 x 75.5 x 8 mm
• Weight: 185 g
• RRP:£350

Design and Build Quality

The Honor Magic 6 Lite is a beautifully designed smartphone that belies its affordable pricing. It sports a large, curved display with thin bezels, giving it a modern and sleek look.

The vegan leather backplate of the Sunrise Orange variant adds a touch of sophistication and offers a good grip, making the phone comfortable to hold despite its size.

The camera module on the back is encased in a large circular housing with a striking gold trim, adding to the phone’s premium appeal.

The build quality is impressive, with the device sporting an IP53 rating for dust and splash resistance.

Display

The 6.78-inch curved AMOLED display is something you don’t often see on phones at this price point. With a resolution of 1220 x 2652 pixels, the screen offers sharp visuals and vibrant colours. The 120Hz refresh rate ensures smooth scrolling and improved responsiveness. The screen is also capable of reaching a peak brightness of 1200 nits, making it easily readable even under bright sunlight.

Overall, I think the appearance and build quality of this phone are two of its main selling points. It looks much more expensive than it is.

Camera

The Honor Magic 6 Lite features a triple camera setup at the back, led by a 108 MP main camera with a 1/1.67″ sensor.

This is then paired up with a mediocre 5MP ultrawide and a mostly useless 2MP macro camera.

This camera arrangement of one decent camera and two not-so-decent cameras is consistent with all affordable and mid-range phones.

The primary camera is excellent. The photos I took down Blackpool promenade were in the middle of a storm with 40mph gusts, which made it challenging to keep the phone stable, yet it produced excellent shots.

You could argue there is some over-processing; the colours and overall aesthetic look visually more dramatic than in real life, but most people, including myself, prefer this approach.

There was some perceived shutter lag, which is likely a consequence of the large 108MP sensor paired with a mid-range chipset, but this didn’t seem to have a negative effect on the quality of the photo.

Performance and Benchmarks

The phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset, which, while not the most powerful on the market, delivers a smooth and responsive performance for regular usage.

 The 8GB of RAM ensures smooth multitasking, and the generous 256GB of storage provides ample space for all your apps, photos, and videos.

I carried out the usual range of benchmarks. These are not particularly accurate for real-world performance but do help gauge how well chipsets compare.

• Antutu:
  • Overall: 471509
  • CPU: 150294
  • GPU:47466
  • Memory: 145250
  • UX:128499
• Geekbench:
  • Single Core: 946
  • Multi Core: 2766
• 3Dmark Wild Life Stress Test:
  • High: 2395
  • Low: 2390
  • Stability: 99.8%
  • Battery: 79% to 76%
  • Temperature: 22° to 29°
• PCMark: 12228

The benchmarks of this phone do provide some useful insight into the chipset. The CPU performance isn’t significantly worse than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 on the Poco X6 and is similar to the MediaTek Dimensity 8020 on the Infinix Zero 30.

However, the GPU performance is not good when compared to different chipsets. It performs about as well as the MediaTek Dimensity 920, but it is a massive upgrade from the previous generation Snapdragon 695.

That being said, the low GPU performance means the battery barely drains during a stress test.

Overall, the performance is adequate, this isn’t a phone you’d buy if you are a keen gamer, but it  works perfectly well for day to day tasks.

Battery and Charging

One of the standout features of the Honor Magic 6 Lite is its mammoth 5300 mAh battery. Most phones with a flagship chipset only have 5000mAh. While this is only 6% higher, the combination of this large battery and midrange chipset means this phone can easily last over a day. You should easily be able to get two days out of it, but I am one of those people that changes nightly.

The phone supports 35W wired charging, allowing for fairly quick top-ups when needed, but this is quite a bit slower than the charge speed from affordable brands like Poco, which has 67W for the Poco X6.

Android 13 / MIUI 14

The Honor Magic 6 Lite runs on Android 13, with Honor’s custom Magic UI 14 overlay on top. While it might take some getting used to for those accustomed to stock Android, Magic UI offers a range of customisation options and unique features that enhance the overall user experience.

I have used Magic UI on and off for several years now, so I am quite familiar with it. While I do prefer the Pixel UI, I am quite happy with the Honor UI.

There is some bloatware, you have Facebook, Booking, Netflix, TikTok, Trip.com and WPS Office preinstalled. All of which can be uninstalled.

Honor also has a variety of their own apps, including their own App market, My Honor, Themes, Honor Health, and System Manager. None of these can be uninstalled, but some can be disabled. With things like System Manager you can disable some of its functions.

Price and Alternative Options

The Honor Magic 6 Lite has an RRP of £350 but during the early bird promo, you can pick it up for to £315 + a free Honor Pad X8 Neo tablet worth £100.

The previous Honor Magic 5 Lite has an RRP of £330 but is available for just £200 via Amazon.

I’d strongly suggest considering the Honor 90; it has a much higher RRP of £400 but is available on Amazon for just £350. This benefits from the superior Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, a significantly better 200 MP 1/1.4″ primary camera, an improved 12MP ultrawide, a better 50MP selfie camera, WiFi 6, 66W wired charging and 15W wireless. The only downside is the overall design doesn’t look quite as premium and the battery is smaller.

I recently reviewed the Poco X6, which has a superior Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 and faster charging, but the camera is nowhere near as good, the overall appearance is not as attractive, and it has more bloatware.

Overall

The Honor Magic 6 Lite is a well-rounded budget smartphone that delivers a host of impressive features for its price point.

Its beautiful design, large, vibrant display, solid performance, and fantastic battery life make it a solid choice for anyone looking for an affordable phone in 2024.  

That being said, depending on discounts at the time of purchase, if I was parting with my own money, I’d be tempted to buy the Honor 90 for the better chipset, camera, and faster charging.

James Smythe( Editor-in-chief )

I am James, a UK-based tech enthusiast and the Editor and Owner of Mighty Gadget, which I’ve proudly run since 2007. Passionate about all things technology, my expertise spans from computers and networking to mobile, wearables, and smart home devices.

As a fitness fanatic who loves running and cycling, I also have a keen interest in fitness-related technology, and I take every opportunity to cover this niche on my blog. My diverse interests allow me to bring a unique perspective to tech blogging, merging lifestyle, fitness, and the latest tech trends.

In my academic pursuits, I earned a BSc in Information Systems Design from UCLAN, before advancing my learning with a Master’s Degree in Computing. This advanced study also included Cisco CCNA accreditation, further demonstrating my commitment to understanding and staying ahead of the technology curve.

I’m proud to share that Vuelio has consistently ranked Mighty Gadget as one of the top technology blogs in the UK. With my dedication to technology and drive to share my insights, I aim to continue providing my readers with engaging and informative content.