Honor opened MagicPad 4 reservations in China for a 12.1-inch tablet that differs sharply from the 12.3-inch OLED global version.

Honor has opened reservations in China for a tablet called the MagicPad 4, and going by the specifications circulating before launch, it is not the MagicPad 4 the rest of the world has been buying since March. The China model has a 12.1-inch LCD screen and an older Qualcomm processor. The global model has a 12.3-inch OLED screen and Qualcomm’s current top chip.

What Honor itself has confirmed is thin. A teaser poster published on 7 September shows a 12.1-inch tablet in orange, described as a flagship tablet with a “165Hz Honor Oasis eye-care screen” and a “fourth-generation Snapdragon flagship chip”. Honor did not name the processor, did not give a price, and did not give a launch date. The reservation page is live on Honor’s own store in China, and everyone who signs up gets a gift pack and a month of iQIYI.

The specification list filling the gap comes from the Weibo account @睿哥玩数码, and it says the China tablet has a 12.1-inch LCD panel at 3K resolution and 165Hz, with a matte screen option, a Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor, a 10,100mAh battery, six speakers, support for the MagicPencil 4S stylus and an optional Bluetooth keyboard.

What the global MagicPad 4 has

Honor launched the MagicPad 4 at MWC in Barcelona on 1 March. It has a 12.3-inch OLED screen at 3000 x 1920 and 165Hz, peaking at 2400 nits, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor, eight speakers, the same 10,100mAh battery, and a body 4.8mm thick weighing 450g. It runs MagicOS 10 on Android 16. Prices started at EUR 599 as a launch offer, then EUR 699 for 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and EUR 799 for 16GB and 512GB. We love it and are planning for it as our iPad Pro replacement.

Between it and the China upcoming model, the display panel is the difference you’ll see first. OLED v LCD. The resolution and the refresh rate are the same on both.

There’s also the difference in processing power. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 scores about 2.96 million on AnTuTu against roughly 2.37 million for the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, and 2,837 single core and 9,352 multi core on Geekbench 6 against 2,164 and 6,931.

But it seems to be something Honor does: Separating launch models globally and in China. The OLED tablet the world knows as the MagicPad 4 has a twin in China called the MagicPad 3 Pro 12.3: the same 12.3-inch 3K OLED at 165Hz, the same 4.8mm body at 450g, the same 10,100mAh battery with 66W charging, the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 and the same eight speakers. It went on sale there on 23 April at CNY 3,999, about KES 77,000.

So if you’re interested in getting one like we are, ask before you pay. Check whether the screen is OLED or LCD, check which Snapdragon is inside, and count the speakers.

Honor will be holding its launch event in Beijing on 28 September, where the Magic 9 series is expected with its dual 200MP cameras.