r/linuxhardware • u/ibmi_not_as400_kerim • Apr 23 '26
Review [HONOR MagicBook Art 14 2025] Bought a used one just for kicks and it ended up being the best Linux laptop I've ever owned.
I was a bit worried about hardware compatibility but the only thing I had to "fix" for my usage after installing Ubuntu 25.10 on it was to upgrade libinput to version 1.31.0.
Battery life is fantastic, sleep works out of the box, everything is great. I noticed I find myself grabbing this device way more often than my MacBook Air even. Going back to the 60Hz display on the MBA after using the 120Hz OLED on the HONOR is just painful.
I paid 940 Euros for a used Singaporean model but I'm seriously considering buying another one for full price.
What does not work:
- fingerprint reader
- in Windows it's possible to use the edges of the trackpad to adjust screen brightness and volume. In Linux the haptic trackpad reacts to sliding ones finger up and down the edges but nothing happens. I never use that feature, so I didn't look into making it work.
- Audio works but needs a bit of adjusting with Easy Effects
Things that surprised me that it works:
- touch screen
- removable webcam - really didn't expect this. It works wonderfully!
More details:
It weighs less than 1kg and feels quite premium. I got the emerald green one and my younger sister who's always eyeing MacBooks and cares about the physical looks of electronic devices thought that it's a really nice-looking machine.
At full brightness (up to 1600 nits, according to specs) it idles at around 6-7 W, in dark mode. With OLED, the brighter the content, the more power it consumes but I was still surprised that it's lower than 10W, since the screen has a refresh rate of 120Hz.
I don't know if the fans completely stop spinning or if the device is just silent but I can rarely ever hear the fans spin up.
The Core Ultra 7 255H along with the 32 Gigs of 8400MT/s RAM feel super snappy, especially the trackpad gestures just feel so snappy and smooth. The only device that can compare is my MacBook Pro but it's over twice the price.
The only thing that could've made this device even better for me would have been it having a PCIe 5 drive but that's probably not possible at this price range.
Opening the device up is easy, though there's not much one can do, except change the internal drive. I opened it to check out the webcam mechanism out of curiosity. Don't lose any of the chassis screws though, finding emerald green screws is going to be difficult!
Overall, for my use case, this is an 8.5/10 Linux machine in 2026 at its current price. It's a hidden gem. Buying it used for less than 1000 Euros makes it a 10/10.
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u/circark Apr 23 '26
How is audio quality? That’s a big plus from the MacBook imho
Too bad fingerprint is not working. They are no open drivers for it?
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u/ibmi_not_as400_kerim Apr 23 '26
The audio quality is worse than the one of the MacBook for sure, at least in Linux. In Windows, it's pretty good and possibly even on par with the MacBook Air at least, because it seems to have better subwoofer drivers or so. I'm not much of an audio person so I don't know. You can definitely hear the richer audio in Windows, though.
I managed to make the audio sound better using Easy Effects and one could possibly go even further but I didn't want to bother. For my needs, is sufficiently good.
Too bad fingerprint is not working. They are no open drivers for it?
This is the fingerprint sensor:
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 27c6:6f94 Goodix Technology Co., Ltd. Goodix USB2.0 MISCand there are some online posts about how some people got it running. I just never bothered to look into it but now I might, considering how much material there's out there for it.
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u/spryfigure Apr 23 '26
Did you try to get the fingerprint reader to work, or is it generally impossible (proprietary firmware blob)?
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u/ibmi_not_as400_kerim Apr 23 '26
This is the fingerprint sensor:
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 27c6:6f94 Goodix Technology Co., Ltd. Goodix USB2.0 MISCand there are some online posts about how some people got it running. I just never bothered to look into it but now I might, considering how much material there's out there for it.
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u/Correct-Ad4372 Jun 04 '26
https://www.reddit.com/r/Honor/comments/1go55j4/honor_magicbook_art_14_linux_compatibility/
Take a look here.
Tochpad gestures with edge scrollling are done, as well as fan control. One of FP readers also.
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u/Zestyclose_Half_3354 Jul 10 '26
What about gaming? Can it handle android emulator?
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u/ibmi_not_as400_kerim Jul 12 '26
I haven't tried that. Is there a specific way to try this? If you let me know, I can try
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u/tozinn09 May 23 '26
Thank you for the review. Did you tried ubuntu 26.04 which has a newer kernel version(7)?