Honor MagicBook Art 14 (2025) Review (Translated)

[u/Creative-Expert8086]

Originally from https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/HBLD5Fi0GX0tL_jju358VQ

(translated & adapted from 笔吧评测室 / Laptop Commentary Studio)

Quick Specs:

• Intel Ultra 5 225H (Arrow Lake)
• 32GB LPDDR5x 8400 MT/s (soldered)
• 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD (1×M.2 slot)
• 14.6" 3120×2080 OLED, 120Hz, 100% DCI-P3, AR anti-reflective coating, touch-enabled
• 60Wh battery, 1.03kg chassis, 12.7–13.6mm thick
• Ports: TB4 (80Gbps, PD65W, DP2.1), USB-C (40Gbps, PD65W, DP2.1), USB-A 5Gbps, HDMI 2.0, 3.5mm combo jack
• Charger weight: 191g
• Price in China: ¥8499 ($1,170), with subsidy ¥6799 ($935)

Highlights:

• Extremely thin and light, premium build quality
• Excellent OLED panel with AR coating → better outdoor readability than typical glossy OLEDs
• Innovative magnetic clip-on webcam (screen bezels are ultra-thin, so camera is external)

Drawbacks:

• Runs warm under load (keyboard hot spot ~44°C)
• Keyboard surface picks up fingerprints
• Battery capacity is modest at 60Wh

Performance & thermals:
Dual-fan, vapor chamber style cooling.

• Stress FPU: CPU at ~81°C, ~26W sustained, P-cores ~2.4–2.7GHz, E-cores ~1.3–1.8GHz.
• Noise: ~43dB under full load.
• Keyboard center peak temp: 44.4°C (on the G key). Palm rest stays cooler at ~31°C.

Battery life: ~7h30m in simulated daily usage script.

Display quality:

• 120% DCI-P3 volume, 100% coverage, color-accurate (ΔE <1)
• Max brightness ~508 nits SDR / ~765 nits HDR (below Honor’s marketing claim of 1600 nits)
• Flicker: DC dimming above ~85 nits, 4320Hz PWM below that

Why Arrow Lake instead of Lunar Lake?
The studio notes that this chassis screams Lunar Lake (super-thin, low thermal headroom, LPDDR5X-only). But Honor went with Arrow Lake because:

1. Lower cost – Arrow Lake reuses Meteor Lake board design with minor tweaks; Lunar Lake would require a new board.
2. Roadmap risk – Intel has confirmed Lunar Lake has no successor. Investing in a one-off platform is too costly for Honor.

So from an OEM perspective, Arrow Lake = safer, cheaper, less risky.

My Verdict

Lmao, another classic Honor moment — basically copying Huawei. The Huawei MateBook Pro X was one of the best Windows ultrabooks in 2024, but with U.S. sanctions cutting off future models, Honor clearly wants to capture that displaced buyer base.

Arrow Lake does bring big efficiency gains over Meteor Lake, but this chassis is objectively a step down from Huawei’s 2024 effort — Huawei managed to stuff a larger 70Wh battery at a lighter weight with even better build quality.

Still, given the current ultrabook landscape, Honor did produce a solid contender:

• AR-coated OLED feels more comfortable than the sea of PWM-heavy Samsung OLEDs elsewhere
• The design is sleeker and more modern compared to Lenovo ThinkBook/ThinkPad at similar price points, which stick to a more rigid “classic business” aesthetic

If you want something that looks and feels closer to a MacBook but runs Windows, the MagicBook Art 14 (2025) is definitely worth a look — just don’t expect gaming performance or marathon battery life.

[u/RealisticMost]

I got the Snapdragon version and it really is superb. Fans are dead silent and the device is cool all the time. I like the responsiveness of the OS.

[u/Creative-Expert8086 → u/RealisticMost]

Oh, this is the intel version, the SNAPDRAGON is good if were cheaper

[u/Appropriate-Ad-2884]

Thinking about getting one but split between this one and the Lenovo yoga 7i slim. Any thoughts?
Both costs about the same in my region

[u/Creative-Expert8086 → u/Appropriate-Ad-2884]

This is better in every way if you don’t care about resale value or global warranty. Lenovo’s Yoga line isn’t even considered high-end anymore (with ThinkBook and ThinkPad positioned above it). It might not be worth the price if compared head-to-head with the X1 ThinkPad, but it’s definitely better than the Yoga.

[u/Appropriate-Ad-2884 → u/Creative-Expert8086]

Thanks!

X1 is out of price range unfortunately, but X9 might fit. Would you say the art is still preferable over the X9?

[u/Creative-Expert8086 → u/Appropriate-Ad-2884]

I posted about the X9 just now, worth having a read.

[u/Creative-Expert8086 → u/Appropriate-Ad-2884]

X9-14 is trash, X9-15 aura is GOAT, the battery life is very stunning for that

[u/user3170]

How separate are Honor and Huawei these days? Some of their products still look very simila, a bit suspiciously so

[u/Creative-Expert8086 → u/user3170]

Although Honor and Huawei are technically two separate legal entities, Honor absorbed a massive part of Huawei during the split—most notably the original Honor crew and one of Huawei’s two premium design teams. They essentially inherited Huawei’s full design establishment, which is why their products often look nearly identical. Under George Zhao’s leadership, this tendency became even more blatant. He gained a reputation for deliberately mimicking Huawei’s mainline designs, trying to make consumers feel as if the two brands were still one. Just look at the Honor X50 and X60—they’re practically carbon copies of Huawei’s models. The MagicBook Art 14 still carries the 2024 chassis from Zhao’s era, so it’s no surprise Honor is once again blurring the line on purpose.