Honor MagicBook X15 Review | 10th Gen Intel Core i3 Processor

March 21st 2022

8 mins read

Honor MagicBook X15 Review | 10th Gen Intel Core i3 Processor

Best Budget Laptop in Nepal???

Honor MagicBook X15 is a budget laptop powered by Intel’s 10th Gen processors intended for people looking for a cheap laptop. Offered at a price of Rs.76,000 (in Nepal) for the i3 model that we have, the device brings a sleek design, decent IPS display, pop-up webcam, and much more. It is a decent laptop for its price point but is it worth it? Let’s find out.

So, after using the laptop for around 15 days, here’s our review of the HONOR MagicBook X 15.

Honor MagicBook X15 Price in Nepal

Honor MagicBook X15 price in Nepal is Rs.76,000 for the i3 model, while the i5 model costs Rs.92,000. You can buy this Honor laptop from authorized stores in Nepal.

Honor MagicBook X15	Price in Nepal
i3, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD	Rs.76,000
i5, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD	Rs.92,000

Design and Built

Dimension: 357.3 x 229.5 x 16.9 mm
Weight: 1.56 Kg
Build: Aluminum chassis
Ports: USB-A 3.0 Gen1, USB-C, USB-A 2.0, full-sized HDMI, a 3.5mm audio jack
Color: Space Gray

When you open the box, you’ll be greeted with a sleek-looking laptop in a color which Honor calls Space Gray. The laptop has an aluminum chassis, which makes it slim and lightweight at 16.9mm and 1.56 kg, respectively. The other advantage of its slim and lightweight profile is that it's easy to carry around even if you don't have a specific laptop bag.

Having an aluminum chassis is a rear feature for budget laptops, and it makes the MagicBook X15 one of the most premium-looking laptops for the price range.

The underside of the MagicBook X15 is made out of polycarbonate. There’s a series of rubber feet to ensure grip, grills for ventilation, and a couple of downward-firing stereo speakers on the left and right sides. The audio quality is exactly what you would expect from a budget laptop. It gets loud but lacks depth, which is okay for occasional use. For better audio quality, you need to hook it up with an external speaker or headphones through a 3.5mm audio jack or Bluetooth.

Talking about ports, the 3.5mm jack is accompanied by a USB-C port for charging, a USB 3.0 Type-A, an HDMI, and a USB-A port. The number of ports can be enough for most, but we felt it’s not plenty full. If you need to connect more peripherals, we recommend an external USB hub.

Keyboard and Webcam

Camera: 720P (pop-up)
Keyboard Numpad: No
Keyboard backlight: No
Security: Fingerprint scanner (integrated into the power button)

When it comes to the keyboard, there are large (16.5×16.5 mm) keys with a short travel distance. The keycaps are slightly rough to the touch, but we got decent typing experience out of it. Similarly, the trackpad is large and smooth. It is accurate with moving cursor, multitouch gestures, and clicks. The downside to this keyboard is the lack of a numeric keypad and backlighting. We felt like Honor could have utilized the space more by adding a numeric keypad or by slightly increasing the travel distance to prevent misclicks. Similarly, backlighting would have been a great addition to the laptop, but it’s too much to ask for a budget laptop.

The keyboard also houses a unique feature but a common one on the Honor’s MagicBook lineup. There’s a hidden 720p webcam underneath a key (between the F6 and F7 keys), which pops up only when you press it. The quality of the video is pretty decent with the webcam, but the weird recording angle is not the best and one for our liking. That being said, the webcam placement is perfect for those who are concerned about their privacy. And talking about privacy, the power button on the laptop doubles as a fingerprint scanner for security. Also, we found the scanner quick and responsive.

Display

Size: 15.6-inch
Type: IPS
Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels
Bezels: 5.3mm (right and left), 87% screen-to-body ratio
Eye Comfort: TÜV Rheinland low blue light and flicker-free certification

As the name X15 suggests, the laptop features a 15.6-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The slim 5.3mm top and side bezels, along with a slightly thick chin, offer a decent 87% screen-to-body ratio. There’s TÜV Rheinland certification for producing low blue light levels and a flicker-free viewing experience, as well. These features help reduce eye stress.

Although it’s an FHD IPS panel, the color reproduction is nice and vibrant with a cooler color temperature. It is nice and bright for indoor use but struggles in outdoor conditions. Its vibrant screen is great for media consumption like YouTube and Netflix.

The display quality on the MagicBook X15 is surprisingly good for a budget laptop. Apart from its minimalistic design, the display is one of the best features of the laptop for me, personally. For a laptop priced at Rs.76,000, it is one of the best laptop displays you can buy in the Nepali market at this price point.

Performance

CPU: 10th Gen Intel Core i3-10110U | Intel Core i5-10210U
RAM: 8GB DDR4 2,666MHz RAM
Srorage: 256GB PCIe NVME SSD (i3), 512GB PCIe NVME SSD (i5)
Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics (Integrated)

When it comes to performance, the model that we have is powered by a 10th Gen Intel Core i3-10110U processor. It is a dual-core CPU with four threads, 4MB Intel Smart Cache, and 4.10 GHz max turbo frequency. The processor is further paired with 8GB DDR4 2,666MHz RAM, Intel UHD Graphics, and a 256GB PCIe NVME SSD.

This modest processor is great for casual users to perform daily computing tasks, web browsing, online studies, Netflix, online meetings, and Office work (like Word, Google Docs, Excel). However, graphics demanding works like video editing, photo editing, and gaming were hard to tackle for the laptop. It can perform basic photo editing and launch Photoshop or games like PUBG Mobile, but you’ll see a definite lag and delay while using them.

One of the advantages of having a modest processor is that it rarely overheats. The only time the laptop overheat was when we tried playing different games on the laptop. Even when the laptop overheats, there’s an S-shaped cooling fan that works pretty well and is surprisingly quiet.

The laptop also comes in a higher 10th Gen i5-10210U CPU model with 512GB SSD at Rs.92,000. Although the two models have a huge price gap, you won’t see a drastic upgrade when it comes to performance. As we mentioned earlier, the laptop is suitable for casual users to perform basic computing tasks.

Battery

Battery Type: Li-Polymer
Power: 42Whr
Battery life: 6 hours

Honor MagicBook X15 packs a 56Wh battery and ships with a 65-watt USB-C power adapter. When it comes to battery life, the laptop provides up to 6 hours of screen-on time on basic moderate use. While using the device for social media, YouTube, and works at 60 to 70% brightness, we got around 6 hours of backup. Graphics intensive works did drain the battery quickly, giving less than 4 hours of backup.

Yes, the battery life on the X15 is not enough to go through a whole workday, but the 65-watt USB-C power adapter does fuel the battery pretty quickly. We were able to get a 50% charge in just 45 to 50 minutes.

Our Verdict on the Honor MagicBook X15

With minimal design, vibrant IPS display, and modest performance, the Honor MagicBook X15 is (in our opinion) one of the best budget laptops in the Nepali market for casual users. It looks premium, is easy to carry around, and the pop-up webcam is sure to catch people's eyes. However, it’s not the same for the i5 model. Priced at Rs.92,000 with minimal upgrades over the i3 model, the i5 model seems to be overpriced. You can easily find laptops with better performance from brands like Acer, Asus, and more in that price range in the Nepali market.