Honor MagicPad 4 ( Test): The Thinnest Tablet in the World at 4.8 mm

The Honor MagicPad 4 is the thinnest tablet in the world, even thinner than the iPad Pro which already excelled in this area. And yet that is not to say it sacrifices its configuration. A Snapdragon processor never seen before in a tablet, an enormous battery, an OLED screen in the right format for multimedia — the technical specification alone made testing it worthwhile.

It has now been more than a month of almost daily use. After initial hands-on, here is the full assessment.

The Honor MagicPad 4 is a flagship Android tablet built around the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor and an ultra-thin 4.8 mm magnesium alloy body.

It is hard to forget that first contact with the Honor MagicPad 4. It is silly — we are talking about a tablet — but such fineness!

Record Thinness

Honor has succeeded in the feat of reducing the thickness to only 4.8 mm. To put the context, this is thinner than the iPad Pro 13 (5.1 mm) and the iPad Air 13 (5.6 mm). This quest for slimness is not done at the expense of lightness, since the device weighs around 450 grams.

Hand Feel

In hand, it floats, it is a sheet, but it does not inspire fear as to its solidity. For that, you can count on a unibody metal chassis that offers excellent finish. Two colours are available: Grey and White.

Bezels and Display

The handling is sublimated by ultra-thin borders of less than 4 mm which offer a screen/body ratio of 93%. The OLED screen is really magnified this way.

Speakers

Despite its extreme fineness, the MagicPad 4 retains an 8-speaker system that already pleased on the MagicPad 2.

Unibody Construction

It is designed in an all-metal unibody chassis. Honor assures that this has significantly increased its robustness compared to the previous generation. But to reduce the weight, the choice was made to only have the external envelope in metal. The internal part of the chassis is in plastic.

The display is one of the big strong points of this tablet. Honor abandons the LCD technology of the MagicPad 3 for a 12.3-inch OLED panel. The 3K definition of 3,000 x 1,920 pixels ensures a density of 290 PPI.

Format

The panel is in approximately 16:10 format. This is completely different from an iPad Pro in 4:3 format. If Honor tells us a story of productivity with this tablet, one cannot help but think it is just as well suited for a multimedia experience. OLED 16:10 is a super combo for films and series.

Refresh Rate

You can also play with it in good conditions thanks to good fluidity ensured by a 5-step adaptive refresh rate climbing up to 165 Hz, surpassing the 120 Hz of the iPad Pro.

Brightness

But it is especially the brightness that impressed: an announced peak of 2,400 nits. Much better than the previous generation and even better in reality! Under the test probe, the tablet climbed up to 3,000 nits in HDR on the CalMAN Ultimate software from Portrait Displays. In SDR, it is more modest with 830 nits. But the result is still good for a tablet.

Colour Accuracy

On the colorimetry side, it is not bad with a DeltaE that barely exceeds the target values in SDR and HDR. The temperature is good at 6,341K, fairly close to the 6,500K of daylight. White is really white. As for black depth, this is OLED — so it is infinite.

Regarding colour gamut, perfect on sRGB but only 90% of DCI-P3.

Eye Protection

To protect the eyes, there is the panoply of Honor eye protections: PWM dimming at 5,280 Hz to eliminate flicker, AI defocused display to reduce visual fatigue, and circadian display increasing melatonin by 20%.

The MagicPad 4 inaugurates the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 platform. Etched in 3 nm, this octa-core chip climbs up to 3.8 GHz. It is the little sister of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 installed notably in the Magic 8 Pro.

Benchmarks

According to the benchmark compilation, the MagicPad 4 obtains a normalised score of 59,991 points. It places neck and neck with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra (59,863) and the Redmagic Astra (59,881). It remains however slightly behind the OnePlus Pad 3 (62,566).

RAM

Memory side, there are two configurations: 12 GB or 16 GB of RAM. The test model was the less well equipped of the two. And yet at no time did it feel limited. The MagicPad 4 runs like clockwork. Even in game, it delivers on Genshin Impact sessions with all graphics options pushed to maximum. 60 fps is held.

Throttling and Thermal

The throttling test confirms the good impressions. Honor's tablet is totally devoid of it. The processor runs at full speed over an extended duration, without ever failing — proof of very good cooling system optimisation.

You could fear a big heat dissipation on the shell. It is not the case either. Using a thermal probe, 31°C was recorded at the hottest point of the chassis after an hour of stress test.

The tablet runs on MagicOS 10 (based on Android 16). Honor has particularly worked on productivity with a PC Mode capable of managing up to 20 floating windows simultaneously.

AI Features

Artificial intelligence is omnipresent via the AI Meeting Agent which allows real-time audio transcription, automatic meeting report writing, and voice imprint noise reduction (AI Voiceprint).

Apple Interoperability

But the real surprise comes from interoperability with the Apple ecosystem. The MagicPad 4 can serve as a wireless extended screen for a Mac, fully recognise AirPods, and natively support editing of Keynote, Pages, and Numbers documents. It even allows direct iCloud backup, thus breaking the usual barriers between Android and Apple products.

Software Updates

The MagicPad 4 is delivered with six years of both software and security updates. A nice score that allows seeing ahead.

As often on tablets of this format, the photographic part remains secondary. There is a 13 megapixel rear sensor (f/2.0) with autofocus.

On the front, the 9 megapixel camera (f/2.2) is optimised for video conferencing. Shots are correct under good light, but much less exploitable as soon as brightness drops.

Despite its fineness, the MagicPad 4 embeds eight speakers. The audio rendering is IMAX Enhanced and DTS X:Ultra certified. Honor's AI audio spatialisation offers a wide soundstage, ideal for watching films.

The connectivity embeds what is best. So there is Wi-Fi 7, but also Bluetooth 6.0 which makes its appearance on this model. For network speed, a whole season of Tehran was downloaded in just a few minutes. The USB-C port is at the 3.2 Gen1 standard, allowing fast transfers and efficient video output.

You do not lose 1 mm of thickness without paying for it at some point. To reach 4.8 mm thickness, Honor had to reduce the battery capacity to 10,100 mAh.

Battery Test Results

Fortunately, the switch to OLED, the energy efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, and the MagicOS 10 optimisations allow holding a day's work without problem. On PCMark, a little over 8h is held. Playing a 2h30 film only consumes 11% of battery, which is in the good average. Above all, standby consumption is almost nil.

Charging

The 66 W fast wired charging allows quick percentage recovery, even if one would have liked higher power to compensate for the drop in raw capacity.

The MagicPad 4 is available from 1 March 2026. It comes in two versions:

• MagicPad 4 12+256 GB at €699
• MagicPad 4 16+512 GB at €799

There are additional accessories such as a stylus or a case with keyboard.

Positive Points

• A record fineness of 4.8 mm without sacrificing solidity
• Extremely bright 165 Hz OLED screen
• Solid performance and perfect thermal management
• An immersive 8-speaker audio system
• 6 years of updates
• 93% screen/body ratio
• Apple ecosystem interoperability (Keynote, Pages, Numbers, iCloud)

Negative Points

• Very anecdotal photo part
• Battery down compared to previous generation (10,100 mAh vs 12,450 mAh)
• No dedicated photography hardware