Honor made waves at MWC Barcelona with the introduction of its latest AI-driven solutions, showcased on the Magic6 Pro and its new AI PC, the MagicBook Pro 16.
Important to note that the Magic series was already launched in the Chinese market. The Magic6 Pro was released in January 2024, and Magic V2 foldable was released in July 2023, but made the devices made their global debut at MWC Barcelona.
It also showed off the Porsche Design Magic V2 RSR foldable, and teased that a Porsche Design Magic6 RSR will be coming soon.
The Magic V2 foldable is 4.7mm thin, regarded as the thinnest foldable on the market, which is set to launch in South Africa soon, alongside the Magic6 Pro flagship under the Magic Series branding. The Porsche Design branded devices are to be confirmed for the SA market.
Honor’s AI discussion at MWC
CEO of Honor, George Zhao, says: “As we race ahead into the AI era, Honor is committed to delivering human-centric innovations that bring open and seamless experience to address our consumers’ desires and pain points.”
Zhao hopes the new hardware will “revolutionise the user experience” with its ‘AI capabilities, while breaking boundaries in human-device interaction’.
Also speaking at a panel discussion called “Putting Humans First in AI Development: Key Considerations for Creating AI for Smart Devices” on Monday, 26 February, Zhao was joined by Alex Katouzian from Qualcomm Technologies, Inc and John Hoffman, CEO of GSMA.
Zhao: “We believe AI will reconstruct operation system and rebuild our future smartphone experience. Honor will advance our AI strategy by integrating it across MagicOS and all Honor devices, ensuring a human-centric experience that delights our users with every interaction.”
Honor’s platform level AI will let devices from different operating systems talk to each other, like Android smartphones and tablets, and Windows PC. It will allow multiple operations between devices, like sharing screens, calls, notifications, camera, networks, files, apps and inputs from a keyboard or mouse.
It’s new Magic Portal feature will allow for single drag and press functions between these devices instead of doing it in multiple steps, which is an issue currently between Android and Windows PC. It will work for maps, notes, email or the share function. According to Honor, the single drag function works for 100 apps globally.
Honor partnered with Qualcomm to demonstrate the use of open-source Llama 2 on its Magic6 Pro, which is an on-device AI that works offline, similar to Samsung’s GenAI features launched on the S24 Series in January.
Zhao says platform-level AI and LLMs enables the company to seamlessly blend AI devices such as AI PCs and AI smartphones into users’ daily lives, understanding their intent and anticipating their needs. “The more consumers engage with the devices, the more tailored and helpful the experience becomes,” added Zhao.
The company also stressed that AI cannot exist without a foundation of security. “We call upon the industry to collaborate on AI governance to ensure the privacy and security of individuals,” Zhao urged. According to the company, its MagicGuard technology has obtained privacy certifications, such as the ePrviacySeal.
AI features – Magic6 Pro; MagicBook Pro 16
The Magic6 Pro features an AI Falcon camera system that the company calls “Sportography”. Using its AI Motion Sensing Capture feature, the device can “predict and capture decisive moments in ultra-high definition” from activities like martial arts, jumping, fencing or dancing.
It uses a 50MP lens with variable aperture, a 50MP ultra-wide lens, and 180MP periscope telephoto lens with 2.5x optical zoom and 100x digital zoom.
The phone also features AI through its Magic Portal that will learn user behaviour and messaging to make complex tasks into single-step processes.
The feature will recognise an address in a text message and will direct the user to Google Maps for navigation. It will also let users share content like search results, booking details for trips etc, with a single drag onto social media apps like TikTok or Facebook. It also supports image-based shopping experiences.
Meanwhile, the MagicBook Pro 16 uses an AI engine for its CPU, GPU and NPU, for on-device ML tasks. It can intelligently allocate resources for different tasks (minimise latency or provide superior graphics quality), and offer AI features for speech services, like subtitles, voice search or for meetings, and others like smart picture search, smart document summary, text comprehension, and Magic Text.
The AI PC is yet to be confirmed for the South African market.