Honor MagicPad 4 Launches Into the 165Hz Android Gaming-Tablet Arms Race

Honor's MagicPad 4 enters the Chinese market today alongside the Magic 9 phone family, bringing another high-refresh Android tablet into an increasingly competitive gaming category. The headline specification is a 12.1-inch LCD running at 3000 by 1872 pixels and up to 165Hz.

That refresh rate is considerably beyond the traditional 60Hz tablet experience and gives supported games room to deliver much smoother motion, while the large panel also makes the MagicPad useful for streaming and productivity when owners eventually remember they bought a tablet rather than an unusually thin games console. The interesting broader trend is how rapidly Android tablets are separating into identifiable gaming tiers.

Devices from Honor, iQOO, Lenovo and others are now competing on refresh rates, cooling, processor performance and accessory ecosystems in much the same way gaming phones did several years ago. Of course, 165Hz only matters when software can actually feed the display enough frames, and sustained performance remains more useful than a spectacular number printed on the box.

Even so, tablet makers have clearly discovered that 'excellent for spreadsheets' does not generate quite the same excitement as 'your virtual rifle moves at 165Hz.'