Honor has made the thinnest and brightest tablet ever – and its laptop promises to outlast your longest shoot

Every February, the world's phone and device makers descend on Barcelona for Mobile World Congress: a vast trade show where the industry gets to show off whatever it has been quietly building for the past year. Alongside the usual parade of new handsets, the event increasingly features tablets and laptops as manufacturers push to own more of the desk as well as the pocket. 

This year, Chinese brand Honor has arrived with two productivity devices that deserve serious attention from photographers and content creators who need reliable, colour-accurate tools on the move. I got hands-on with both of them, and I'm here to tell you they're worthy of consideration… even if you've never heard of the company that makes them. 

What problems are they trying to solve?

There's a particular kind of misery familiar to anyone who's spent a full day shooting and returned to the hotel or airport gate to start culling — only for the battery warning to appear within the first twenty minutes of editing. Honor is very much aware of this experience, and its two new devices feel like a direct response to it.

Let's start with the MagicPad4, because the headline figure is the kind of number that makes you want to double-check it. At 4.8mm thick, this is the thinnest tablet ever produced. Thinner than the iPad Pro at 5.1mm, and comfortably thinner than the iPad Air at 6.1mm. 

It doesn't in any way feel flimsy though, and there's a reason for that. The Crescent Structure chassis uses aerospace-grade composite materials that are 30% stiffer and 32% lighter than a conventional frame. Consequently, when I held the MagicPad4 for the first time, my reaction isn't just that it's thin. It's more that it feels deliberate; as though thinness was the entire brief, rather than a happy side effect.

The display, though, is where photographers will pay most attention. The 12.3-inch OLED panel delivers 2,400 nits peak brightness – the highest of any tablet currently on the market – alongside a 165Hz refresh rate and 3K resolution. 

For editing images or video on the move, the combination of brightness and colour accuracy matters enormously, and in the well-lit chaos of an packed exhibition hall, the screen held up impressively. Colours looked rich without tipping into oversaturation, and at 3.9mm the bezels are 49% narrower than the iPad Pro's, meaning almost none of the front panel is wasted on frame.

Honor has put effort into the eye-comfort side too, which is worth noting for anyone who spends long sessions in post-production. PWM dimming runs at 5,280Hz, a high figure that reduces perceived flicker at low brightness settings, which matters during late-night editing. TÜV Rheinland certification covers both low blue light and flicker-free performance, and Honor's AI Defocus Display technology is also onboard. 

Under the hood 

It felt fast in use, and again that's not surprising. The MagicPad4 is the first tablet to feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 on a 3nm process, and the 10,100mAh battery charges at 66W.

There's also a PC mode that activates when you connect a keyboard, switching the tablet to a desktop-style interface with floating windows, a familiar taskbar, and support for up to 20 open windows simultaneously. For photographers who carry an iPad for light laptop duties on the road, this is a compelling alternative to a "proper laptop"; and at 4.8mm, it takes up considerably less space in a camera bag. 

Honor also stressed the MagicPad4 can run OpenClaw, a locally-deployed AI assistant, making it very capable for a tablet when it comes to on-device AI processing. It's available to pre-order now, with retail availability from 3 March. Prices start at £599.99 for the 12GB RAM version in grey or white, or £699.99 for the 16GB version in grey.

A laptop that actually lasts

The MagicBook Pro 14 is the less eye-catching of the two devices, but arguably the more practically significant one. Updated for 2026, it pairs Intel's Core Ultra processor with a colour-accurate, touchscreen 14.6-inch 3K OLED display and a claimed battery life of 15 hours and 30 minutes, achieved through a substantial 92Wh battery. 

At just 1.37kg, it's light enough to carry all day without noticing. Honor was direct about the benchmark it's chasing: the MacBook Pro has long been the reference point for laptop battery life, and Honor claims the MagicBook Pro 14 not only matches it but also outperforms it on video rendering and file exporting tasks.

For photographers, the OLED display is the headline feature alongside the battery. LCD laptop screens, however capable, cannot match OLED for contrast and black levels, and both matter when making tonal decisions in post. The 3K resolution gives enough screen real estate for serious editing work without feeling cramped, and the touchscreen adds a useful extra dimension for those accustomed to tablet-style interaction. 

Honor confirmed the laptop integrates seamlessly with other Honor devices through its Magic Ring system, and supports file and photo transfer with iPhones and iPads via Honor Share — useful for photographers who shoot on Apple hardware but want to edit on the MagicBook.

Taken together, the MagicPad4 and MagicBook Pro 14 make a coherent pitch to working photographers and content creators: a tablet light and thin enough to always have with you, and a laptop that won't run out of steam before your shoot is finished. 

The tablet is available to buy now. The MagicBook Pro 14's UK pricing is yet to be confirmed. On the evidence of my hands-on experience at the event, both do what they promise — and the MagicPad4, at least, does it in a way that makes the competition look noticeably, measurably bulkier.