The Honor MagicBook Art 14 doesn’t feel real

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Honor might not be the first name that springs to mind when you think of high-end laptops, but at this year's IFA, the company unveiled the brand new MagicBook Art 14, a laptop that feels like a real breath of fresh air when it comes to design. In fact, it was the design alone that prompted me to write this very article. Alongside top-notch performance, especially on the Snapdragon variant, this looks to be a fantastic laptop, both in looks and handling, and I'm very excited to see more.




Disclaimer: Honor sponsored my trip to IFA 2024, including accommodation and transportation. The company neither requested nor requested the creation of this article.

It is thin, light and surreal to hold

It doesn't feel like a real laptop, and that's a good thing… I think

Let's start with the most important thing, which is the design and the light weight of this laptop. As is usual with the thinnest and lightest laptops on the market, the Honor MagicBook Art 14 is made of magnesium alloy, but even considering that, it is a very lightweight device. It weighs just over 1 kg and the company advertises a thickness of 10 mm, but the spec sheet states that it is actually 11.3 mm thick, which is still very thin.


That alone isn't necessarily impressive, but then you realize that this thing has a 14.6-inch display. For such a large display, that weight is practically unheard of and it's super impressive. It helps that the laptop has tiny bezels and a 97% screen-to-body ratio.

So, yes, when you pick up this laptop, you're immediately impressed by how light it is, but what makes it really interesting is how it feels. Touching this laptop, especially the Sunrise White version, feels completely surreal. It's so incredibly soft to the touch and almost rubbery to the touch. That goes for every surface too, including the lid, palm rest, touchpad, and even keyboard. It almost doesn't feel like a real laptop, but more like a fake or a toy. I honestly don't know how to describe it, and I don't know what to think of it either. I love how unique it is, and if you feel like metal is a bit uncomfortable or cold to use, this definitely changes all that. It feels super smooth and more inviting. But in my short time trying it out, I couldn't shake the weird feeling. I like it, but it's hard to say if I'll really love it in the long run. The Emerald Green model feels different, it's a bit more textured, which I didn't like as much. The touchpad on this model also feels more like a standard touchpad.


That said, I'm very annoyed that all the fun color combinations and finishes on this laptop are exclusive to the Intel version. I haven't had a chance to touch the Snapdragon version yet, but when I saw it on stage, it just looked like a regular gray metal laptop. This is very frustrating because I want an Arm laptop and it's annoying to have to settle for a boring look and feel.

The magnetic webcam is really cool

The right way to make small bezels


I remember a few years ago when companies were really keen on having the smallest possible bezels and Honor was part of that. Back then, Honor used a webcam in the keyboard and that was terrible to say the least. Since 2020, companies have been putting the webcam back where it belongs, but Honor has now taken a new approach that is pretty great.

The laptop has a magnetic webcam that's tucked inside the laptop base. When you push it in, it pops out so you can pull it out and snap it into place on the top of the display. When you're done, snap it back into place.


The simple genius of this idea is the kind of idea I love to see companies try. I'm curious to see what people think about it, but I can totally see that it's a good idea. Such small bezels definitely make for a futuristic-looking design, and honestly, most people don't use their webcams that often, so that's fine.

Honor makes it even cooler by letting you remove the camera and snap it into the inverted position so the lens faces backwards. It's a clever way to show off the things around you. The notebook also seems to respond pretty smoothly to removing and attaching the webcam, with a little animation on the screen letting you know if the camera is attached or disconnected. I suspect apps also need to know how to handle this smoothly, although the Windows Camera app at least seems to cope well with it and you don't have to close and reopen the app or anything like that.


I have some doubts about durability, be it because of the magnetic connector or the mechanism for pulling out and storing the webcam, but Honor seems confident that this won't be an issue.

The Snapdragon version is more exciting

Besides the design

Man on stage holding an Honor MagicBook Art 14 Snapdragon notebook with a picture of the laptop on a large screen in the background

Launching the Honor MagicBook Art with Intel Core Ultra Series 1 processors along with the Snapdragon X Elite was an interesting choice. Intel just announced the Core Ultra Series 2 models, which seem to be a big leap forward, and the Snapdragon X Elite is also right up there in terms of performance and efficiency. It almost feels like Honor launched two different generations of this laptop at the same time, considering the Snapdragon X Elite seems to be the clear winner here.


This makes it all the more annoying that the Snapdragon version doesn't have the cool design options. The fact that this laptop only comes in a standard silver color scheme, even though there is the beautiful Sunrise White model, is very annoying. Hopefully Honor will reverse this decision at some point and release a Snapdragon model in this color scheme.

That said, I'm very excited to try out the MagicBook Art 14 and expect to receive a review unit of the Snapdragon model in the near future. I can't wait to spend more time with it.

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