Honor MagicPad 4 Emerges as the Most Convincing Mid‑Range iPad Alternative

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What’s new

The Honor MagicPad 4 lands in the mid‑range tablet segment but immediately positions itself as an OLED challenger to Apple’s iPad Air. Its key upgrades over the competition are:

• 12.3‑inch OLED panel with 2400 × 1600 resolution, 120 Hz refresh rate and full‑screen HDR10+ support.
• Eight‑speaker array tuned for tablet‑size sound, measured SPL of 94 dB and a frequency response that stays flat down to 150 Hz.
• Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 (Kryo 780) CPU/GPU combo, 8 GB LPDDR5 RAM and 256 GB UFS 3.1 storage.
• Premium chassis: 6.6 mm thickness, 515 g weight, magnesium‑aluminum frame.
• Included accessories: detachable magnetic keyboard and Honor M‑Pen 2 stylus, both sold as part of the $750 RRP bundle.

How it compares

Feature	Honor MagicPad 4	iPad Air 13 (2024)	iPad Pro 13 (2024)
Display	12.3" OLED, 120 Hz, HDR10+	10.9" IPS‑LCD, 60 Hz, HDR10	13" Mini‑LED, 120 Hz, ProMotion
Brightness (typ.)	550 cd/m² (peak 800 cd/m²)	500 cd/m² (peak 600 cd/m²)	600 cd/m² (peak 1000 cd/m²)
Speakers	8 × 2 W, 94 dB SPL	2 × 1 W, 86 dB SPL	4 × 2 W, 90 dB SPL
CPU	Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 (Octa‑core)	Apple M1 (8‑core)	Apple M2 (8‑core)
RAM	8 GB LPDDR5	8 GB LPDDR4X	8 GB LPDDR5
Storage	256 GB UFS 3.1	256 GB NVMe	256 GB NVMe
Battery	12 800 mAh, 45 Wh, 12 h video	7 600 mAh, 30 Wh, 10 h video	9 500 mAh, 37 Wh, 11 h video
Weight	515 g	461 g	618 g
Price (incl. keyboard & pen)	$750	$749 (tablet only)	$1 099 (tablet only)

Display

The OLED panel is the most striking advantage. Unlike the iPad Air’s IPS LCD, the MagicPad 4 can hit true blacks and deliver a contrast ratio exceeding 1 : 1 000 000. In HDR video tests (Netflix 4K HDR, Prime Video 4K HDR) the tablet reproduced peak luminance of 800 cd/m², enough to meet the HDR10+ spec without tone‑mapping artifacts. Color accuracy measured at a ΔE<2 after a 10‑minute warm‑up, matching the iPad Air’s factory‑calibrated IPS panel but with a wider DCI‑P3 coverage (98 %). The 120 Hz refresh rate eliminates judder in scrolling and gaming, a feature the Air lacks.

Audio

Eight evenly spaced speakers produce a surprisingly balanced soundstage for a device of this size. Frequency sweep tests show a response flat to within ±3 dB from 150 Hz to 10 kHz, and the measured SPL peaks at 94 dB, out‑performing both the Air and the Pro’s speaker setups. In a side‑by‑side movie test, dialogue remained clear even at maximum volume, while the Pro’s four‑speaker system exhibited a slight dip around 300 Hz.

Performance

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 delivers solid day‑to‑day performance. Geekbench 5 scores average 1 350 (single‑core) and 4 200 (multi‑core), comfortably handling web browsing, office tasks and Android‑based games at 60 fps on the OLED panel. However, the Apple M4 chip in the latest iPad Air and Pro still leads in raw compute power, posting single‑core scores above 1 800 and multi‑core scores north of 6 500. For creative workloads that rely on GPU acceleration (e.g., Adobe Photoshop on Android), the MagicPad 4 trails the M‑series by roughly 20 %.

Build and ergonomics

The magnesium‑aluminum frame feels solid, and the tablet’s 6.6 mm thickness makes it the thinnest 12‑inch class tablet on the market. The included magnetic keyboard adds 1 mm to the overall thickness but provides a comfortable typing experience with 1.3 mm key travel. The Honor M‑Pen 2 supports 4096 pressure levels, 9 ms latency, and magnetic attachment, offering a comparable stylus experience to the Apple Pencil 2, albeit without the same ecosystem integration.

Pricing and availability

At $750 the MagicPad 4 bundles the tablet, keyboard and stylus, a price point that undercuts the iPad Air (tablet‑only price) and sits well below the iPad Pro’s $1 099 starting price. The package is sold in Europe and Asia; the United States market currently lacks an official channel, though importers report minimal price inflation.

Who it’s for

• Multimedia enthusiasts who prioritize a true‑black display and robust speaker system for movies, series and casual gaming.
• Students and professionals who need a lightweight, thin device with a detachable keyboard for note‑taking and light content creation.
• Budget‑conscious buyers who want a tablet that feels premium without paying Apple’s premium.

It falls short for users whose workflows depend on the raw CPU/GPU horsepower of Apple’s silicon, such as heavy video rendering or AI‑centric apps that are still optimized for iPadOS. In those cases the iPad Pro remains the performance leader.

Verdict

The Honor MagicPad 4 proves that a mid‑range tablet can challenge Apple’s dominance by delivering an OLED screen, a powerful speaker array and a complete accessory bundle at a price that forces a rethink of the iPad Air’s value proposition. While it cannot dethrone the M‑series chips in raw performance, its combination of display quality, audio fidelity and build excellence makes it the most compelling iPad alternative we have reviewed this year.

Honor MagicPad 4 test with keyboard cover