Honor’s recent launch event saw the Magic V5 foldable take the lion’s share of coverage and interest, but it wasn’t the only product on show. The Honor MagicPad3 arrived with a larger screen and increased battery life to challenge the Android tablet market.
The Honor MagicPad3 ‘s Competition
Samsung’s recent launch of the Galaxy Tab S11 and Tab S11 Ultra shows the South Korean company targeting the premium part of the tablet market. At the same time, the OnePlus Pad 3 has focused on delivering as much performance as possible while keeping a competitive price.
Honor has taken another approach with the MagicPad3. This isn’t a laptop that will match Samsung’s hardware on a line-by-line comparison. Nor is it pushing the envelope with as much power as possible. Instead, Honor is looking towards an device that offers strong expertise in all areas, but with a handful maximised to work in day-to-day use; the battery life, the display and the additional keyboard.
Powering The Honor MagicPad3
Honor has packed a 12,450 mAh battery into the MagicPad 3, giving it one of the largest batteries across itself and the competition. The battery is built around a silicon-carbide construction, which offers more energy density in a similar space compared to the previous generation of battery technology.
In practice, I’m comfortably getting nearly twelve hours out of the MagicPad3, more than enough for a full day of work if I use it non-stop. Practically, that’s a few days between charges, possibly up to a week, depending on usage patterns, which is helped by the MagicPad3’s ability to hold most of its battery charge when in standby.
That’s backed up by support for fast charging up to 66W, and that charger is included in the box. Charging from near empty, thirty minutes should bring you up to half charge in the MagicPad3, which should be enough to get you home from wherever you are.
Looking At The Honor MagicPad3.
One of the most significant impacts a tablet can have is the expansive display. With a focus on running all day, you’re going to spend almost all of that looking at the display. The MagicPad3 benefits from Honor’s eye comfort technology, which will tweak the colours on the display to reduce the harsher blue lights. The strength of this can be set by the user, as well as a regular schedule for turning it off and on, or going for full manual control.
There is a trade-off here. The display is a 13.3-inch LCD display which is larger than the 12.2-inch display in the MagicPad2, but the latter was an OLED display. OLED displays in general offer more vibrancy in colours, deeper blacks, and are more efficient in terms of power. The overall brightness is down from 1600 nits to 1000 nits.
What you do get is a higher refresh rate of 165Hz available and an increased resolution of 3200×2136 pixels. The 3:2 aspect ratio is more comfortable when working on documents or creating media (the MagicPad2 had a 16:10 ratio display; great for watching media but a touch cramped vertically when writing up a script or review).
Honor’s community is certainly discussing the OLED to LCD as a downgrade. I think the comparison is closer than you might think when reading the forums.
Typing On The Honor MagicPad3.
I find it hard to recommend a tablet that doesn’t have the option for a keyboard. While there are strong use cases for tablets that are for media consumption only, if I’m at home, I have better alternatives, and when I travel, I want as much flexibility as possible. That means a keyboard.
Not only does Honor have a keyboard for the MagicPad3, those buying right now (around 4 weeks after the launch event) should note the deals available online.
As part of the launch, the MagicPad3 is being offered with a £100 discount, as well as a free Smart Touch Keyboard and Magic-Pencil 3, on the official website. While these are marked as “limited time offers”, I’d note that the MagicPad2, released in Oct. 2024, still has a cash discount and smart Bluetooth keyboard available for free when you purchase through the official site.
This gives a combined price of £499 for a tablet, keyboard, and stylus. That’s less than Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S11 and OnePlus’ Pad3, and makes the MagicPad3 worth considering if you are looking for a secondary device in the tablet format.
Is The Honor MagicPad3 For You?
Honor’s MagicPad3 looks to balance out specifications and price. There’s an emphasis on day-to-day usage born out by the larger battery and the robust keyboard which has a good amount of travel in the keys. Couple this with the large display and the substantial 512 GB of storage, and you have an attractive package. The value will lessen if the keyboard becomes an extra purchase, but right now the MagicPad3 is one of the best Android tablets at the current price point.
Now read more about Honor’s Magic V5— launched at the same event as the Honor MagicPad3 — and how it is redefining foldable smartphones in Europe and beyond…
