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Honor Magic4 Lite 5G Camera test

This device has been retested in the latest version of our protocol. Overall, sub-scores and attributes are up to date. For detailed information, check the What’s New article
OTHER AVAILABLE TESTS FOR THIS DEVICE

Competing in the Advanced price segment, the Honor Magic4 Lite 5G is the most affordable option in Honor’s Magic4 line. The device is powered by a Snapdragon 695 chipset and comes with a 6.81-inch LCD display, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

The rear camera features a 48MP primary module, accompanied by 2MP depth and macro cameras. There are no ultra-wide or dedicated tele cameras. Video can be recorded in FullHD resolution.

Let’s see how the Honor Magic4 Lite 5G camera compares to the competition in the DXOMARK Camera tests.

Key camera specifications:

  • Primary: 48MP sensor, 26mm equivalent focal length, f/1.8-aperture lens, PDAF
  • Depth: 2MP sensor, f/2.4-aperture lens
  • Macro: 2MP sensor, f/2.4-aperture lens
  • LED flash
  • 1080p/30fps video

About DXOMARK Camera tests: For scoring and analysis in our smartphone camera reviews, DXOMARK engineers capture and evaluate over 3000 test images and more than 2.5 hours of video both in controlled lab environments and in natural indoor and outdoor scenes, using the camera’s default settings. This article is designed to highlight the most important results of our testing. For more information about the DXOMARK Camera test protocol, click here. More details on how we score smartphone cameras are available here.

Test summary

Scoring

Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.


Honor Magic4 Lite 5G
61
camera
85
Photo
85

130

84

130

82

125

84

124

90

117

64

82

50
Bokeh
50

85

53
Preview
53

93

28
Zoom
24

120

0

122

40
Video
57

116

47

120

89

120

71

118

112

120

76

86

33

119

Use cases & Conditions

Use case scores indicate the product performance in specific situations. They are not included in the overall score calculations.

BEST 180

Outdoor

Photos & videos shot in bright light conditions (≥1000 lux)

BEST 169

Indoor

Photos & videos shot in good lighting conditions (≥100lux)

BEST 138

Lowlight

Photos & videos shot in low lighting conditions (<100 lux)

BEST 154

Friends & Family

Portrait and group photo & videos

Please be aware that beyond this point, we have not modified the initial test results. While data and products remain fully comparable, you might encounter mentions and references to the previous scores.

Pros

  • Fairly wide dynamic range
  • Nice and stable white balance under indoor lighting
  • Accurate autofocus in bright light
  • Wide simulated aperture and nice blur gradient in bokeh mode
  • Fairly low video noise
  • Good video exposure in bright light and indoors
  • Accurate and fast video autofocus

Cons

  • Frequent exposures instabilities
  • White balance casts and noise in low light
  • Fusion artifacts
  • No ultra-wide camera, lack of detail at tele settings
  • Underexposure and lack of dynamic range in night shots
  • Underexposure in low light video
  • Highlight clipping and lack of detail in video
  • Lack of saturation in video, especially in bright light
  • Loss of fine detail in video
  • Ineffective video stabilization

With a DXOMARK Camera score of 95, the Honor Magic4 Lite 5G does not make it anywhere close to the top of the Advanced ranking. The camera is capable of producing decent images that are a little desaturated in good light conditions, but things fall slightly apart in low light and other challenging conditions.

In still image mode, exposure is good in bright light and indoors, but we did see underexposed images when shooting in low light or in high-contrast situations. A cool blueish white balance cast can be visible in outdoor images, and yellow casts can appear in low light. Colors are desaturated in all conditions. The autofocus works pretty accurately, but a slightly narrow depth of field means subjects toward the back of a scene can be rendered soft.

The level of captured detail is slightly low in low light, and images lack fine detail. This is partly due to slow exposure times often resulting in some slight image blur. Noise is well managed on faces but noticeable on plain color backgrounds in most conditions. Our testers also observed some fusion artifacts, as well as ringing, noisy edges, and color quantization.

In this indoor image, dynamic range is quite wide, with good exposure on the face. White balance is neutral, the level of detail is fairly high, and noise on the face is well under control.

The camera’s main issue is exposure repeatability. HDR processing is not always triggered, which can result in quite different looking images across a series of consecutive shots. In this sample, you can see that the first and third shots show pretty good dynamic range, with decent detail in the sky in the background and good subject exposure. Tone compression results in a lack of contrast, though. The frame in the middle looks very different, with strong clipping in the background and an underexposed subject.

Frame 1: wide dynamic range, good subject exposure
Frame 2: limited dynamic range, underexposed subject
Frame 3: wide dynamic range, good subject exposure

The Honor does not feature an ultra-wide camera and  has to make do without a dedicated tele. This means that digital zooming is used for zooming into the distance. As a result, tele images have poor detail. Dynamic range is limited as well, and portrait subjects are often underexposed. There is also image noise, and moving subjects tend to be blurred.

Honor Magic4 Lite 5G, long range tele
Honor Magic4 Lite 5G, crop: lack of detail, noise, underexposure on face
Samsung Galaxy A33 5G, long range tele
Samsung Galaxy A33 5G, crop: lack of detail, noise, slight underexposure on face
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro, long range tele
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro, crop: lack of detail, noise, slight underexposure on face

In video mode, noise is well under control, and the autofocus reacts fairly accurately and swiftly. However, video mode is held back by some fairly important issues, including a lack of stabilization and strong underexposure in low light.

In addition to aforementioned lack of stabilization, in this sample, we can see a lack of dynamic range resulting in strong contrasts as well as both shadow and highlight clipping. Color rendering on skin tones, greenery and sky is nicer on the comparison devices, and we can also see some exposure instabilities. On the plus side, noise is well under control, and the autofocus works well.

Honor Magic4 Lite 5G, strong camera shake, shadow, and highlight clipping, color rendering issues, underexposure

Samsung Galaxy A33 5G, good stabilization, nice contrast

Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro, good stabilization, nice color and skin tones

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