Home > Smartphone comparison > Magic 5 vs Honor 90 – which one to choose?

Honor Magic 5 vs Honor 90

68 out of 100
Honor Magic 5
VS
59 out of 100
Honor 90
Honor Magic 5
Honor 90

Here we compared two smartphones: the 6.73-inch Honor Magic 5 (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) that was released on February 27, 2023, against the Honor 90, which is powered by Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition and came out 3 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory
  1. Differences
  2. Review
  3. Specs
  4. Benchmarks
  5. Battery life
  6. Camera
  7. Comments

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Honor Magic 5
  • 93% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1682K versus 873K)
  • The rear camera has a 2.5x optical zoom
  • Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5
  • Stereo speakers
  • Faster storage type - UFS 4.0 versus UFS 3.1
  • 75% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 1943 and 1110 points
  • Has a built-in infrared port
Reasons to consider the Honor 90
  • More recent OS version: Android 14 versus 13
  • Ready for eSIM technology

Review

Evaluation of Honor Magic 5 and Honor 90 crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Magic 5
77*
Honor 90
66
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Magic 5
61*
Honor 90
59
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
Magic 5
68*
Honor 90
59
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
πŸ“± Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

To get an accurate value-for-money index, update the default prices with actual prices from your country’s retailers (for the selected memory configs) and press the "Calculate" button.
Currency
8 / 256 GB
VS
8 / 256 GB
17.1
(Bad)
Value Index
18.7
(Bad)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests
Phone:
Magic 5
vs
Honor 90

Display

Type OLED AMOLED
Size 6.73 inches 6.7 inches
Resolution 1224 x 2688 pixels 1200 x 2664 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.76:9 19.98:9
PPI 439 ppi 435 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes Yes (60-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 600 nits 1000 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1600 nits 1600 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Screen protection Tempered glass Tempered glass
Screen-to-body ratio 90.5% 90.4%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming		 - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
Display tests
RGB color space - 99.7%
PWM - 728 Hz
Response time - 1 ms
Contrast - ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
Magic 5
n/a
Honor 90
1181 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3]

Design and build

Height 161.4 mm (6.35 inches) 161.9 mm (6.37 inches)
Width 75.5 mm (2.97 inches) 74.1 mm (2.92 inches)
Thickness 7.8 mm (0.31 inches) 7.8 mm (0.31 inches)
Weight 191 g (6.74 oz) 183 g (6.46 oz)
Waterproof No No
Rear material Glass Plastic
Frame material Metal Plastic
Colors Black, Blue Black, Silver, Blue, Green
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Screen-to-body ratio
Magic 5
90.5%
Honor 90
90.4%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Honor Magic 5 and Honor 90
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition
Max clock 3200 MHz 2500 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 2 + 2 + 3) 8 (1 + 3 + 4)
Architecture - 3 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A510
- 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A710
- 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A715
- 1 core at 3.2 GHz: Cortex-X3		 - 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Cortex-A510
- 3 cores at 2.36 GHz: Cortex-A710
- 1 core at 2.4 GHz: Cortex-A710
L3 cache 8 MB -
Manufacturing TSMC Samsung
Lithography process 4 nanometers 4 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Hexagon
GPU
Graphics Adreno 740 Adreno 644
GPU shading units 1536 768
GPU clock 680 MHz 443 MHz
FLOPS ~2089 GFLOPS ~680.4 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Honor Magic 5 and Honor 90
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Magic 5 +75%
1943
Honor 90
1110
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Magic 5 +72%
5104
Honor 90
2968
Compute Score (GPU)
Magic 5 +216%
9353
Honor 90
2963
Compute Score (GPU) 9353 2963
Single-core score 1943 1110
Multi-core score 5104 2968
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
Magic 5 +93%
1682877
Honor 90
873573
CPU 535690 324311
GPU 511415 119050
Memory 238088 174797
UX 397684 255415
Total score 1682877 873573
Samples Less than 3 [8 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Magic 5
n/a
Honor 90
276
Stability - 98%
Graphics test - 2 FPS
Graphics score - 276
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Magic 5
n/a
Honor 90
857
Graphics test - 5 FPS
Graphics score - 857
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Magic 5
n/a
Honor 90
11977
Web score - 10439
Video editing - 7300
Photo editing - 27068
Data manipulation - 9185
Writing score - 11979
Submit your benchmark results

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Honor Magic 5
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-01-15 (POOHxyz πŸ‡ΉπŸ‡­)Geekbench 6 GPU9353
πŸ“˜ 2025-01-15 (POOHxyz πŸ‡ΉπŸ‡­)Geekbench 6 CPU1943 / 5104
Add View all (2)
Honor 90
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-06 (STEVEN MP)AnTuTu 11920942
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-23 (Zamorokk)AnTuTu 11886048
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-10 (Damon)AnTuTu 11805921
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-01 (MrVolt)AnTuTu 11836065
πŸ“˜ 2026-02-19 (Zhiger)AnTuTu 11876570
Add View all (13)

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR4X
Memory clock - 2133 MHz
Channels 4 2
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 UFS 3.1
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 13 Android 13 (Can be upgraded to Android 14)
ROM Magic UI 7.1 MagicOS 8.0
OS size - 23 GB

Battery

Capacity 5100 mAh 5000 mAh
Max charge power 66 W 66 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging No No
Reverse charging Yes Yes
Fast charging Yes (50% in 16 min) Yes (80% in 35 min)
Full charging time 0:48 hr 1:12 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing - 08:26 hr
Watching video - 11:56 hr
Gaming - 04:40 hr
Standby - 84 hr
General battery life
Magic 5
n/a
Honor 90
19:10 hr
Add your battery life

Main camera

Matrix 54 megapixels 200 megapixels
Image resolution 8768 x 6144 16256 x 12192
Zoom Optical, 2.5x Digital
Flash Dual LED Dual LED
Stabilization Digital Digital
8K video recording No No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 30FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion - 960 FPS (720p)
Angle of widest lens 122Β° 112Β°
Lenses 1) Standard: 54 MP
2) Telephoto: 32 MP
3) Ultrawide: 50 MP
1) Standard: 200 MP
2) Ultrawide: 12 MP
3) Depth: 2 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode		 - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
Standard lens
Image resolution 54 MP 200 MP
Aperture f/1.9 f/1.9
Sensor Sony IMX800 Samsung ISOCELL HP3
Sensor size 1/1.49" (β‰ˆ 0.67 inch) 1/1.4" (β‰ˆ 0.71 inch)
Pixel size - 0.56 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Digital Digital
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 32 MP -
Aperture f/2.4 -
Stabilization Optical -
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 50 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.2
Focal length 13 mm -
Sensor size 1/2.5" (β‰ˆ 0.4 inch) -
Pixel size - 1.12 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Magic 5
n/a
Honor 90
128
Video quality
Magic 5
n/a
Honor 90
126
Generic main camera score
Magic 5
n/a
Honor 90
122
Bokeh - 60
Preview - 64
Zoom - 86
Samples - Photo samples of Honor 90 from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 4096 x 3072 8160 x 6112
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 30 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display		 - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.2 5.2
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG		 - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port Yes No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* No Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 18
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Mono
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos - No
Speakers test
Max loudness
Magic 5
n/a
Honor 90
91.1 dB

Other

Category Flagship Mid-range
Announced February 2023 May 2023
Release date March 2023 June 2023
Launch price (MSRP) $900 $499
Successor - Honor Magic 8 - Honor 500 Pro
Sensors - Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint		 - Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Yes, 66 W Yes, 66 W
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Honor Magic 5 is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
43 (57.3%)
32 (42.7%)
Total votes: 75

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