HONOR Magic V2 Assessment: Skinny, Mild, and Mighty

All of the foldable telephones that I’ve tried to date have had one main drawback – they’re all fairly chunky. They’re both too heavy or simply too thick that it looks like carrying a brick in my pocket — and this comes from somebody who makes use of an iPhone 14 Professional Max with a Casetify case, which is already fairly chunky and heavy.

Nonetheless, once I noticed HONOR’s Magic V2 at IFA final 12 months, I used to be amazed. How has HONOR been capable of pack such specs and highly effective {hardware} into a tool this slim and lightweight? This foldable provides one thing distinctive in comparison with the likes of OnePlus Open, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, and Pixel Fold. And now, after having spent a part of greater than three weeks with it, I believe it has the potential to be the most effective foldable cellphone of the 12 months.

In fact, there are some drawbacks, just like the absence of an official IP ranking, the much less spectacular software program, and the excessive price ticket, although it will get many issues proper. However the query stays: Can the Magic V2’s strengths justify its steep value, or do its weaknesses maintain it again? Here is our full evaluation of the HONOR Magic V2.

Value and availability

Almost six months after launching in China, HONOR formally launched the Magic V2 in Europe and the UK on January 26, 2024. There’s just one mannequin of the foldable, which comes with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage and is priced at £1,699.99 (~$2,150) within the UK and €1,999 in Europe.

Whereas it’s a important bounce in comparison with the Magic Vs, which retailed for £1,399, HONOR is providing numerous pre-order incentives. The pre-order items embrace Bang & Olufsen Headphones valued at £459, 6 months of display safety, and a 66W HONOR SuperCharge Energy Adapter. In the event you place your order earlier than March 1, 2024, you possibly can seize a further £200 low cost by utilizing the code “AV2PR200” at checkout.

The HONOR Magic V2 is available in two shade choices: Phantom Purple and Black Vegan Leather-based. Plainly the Magic V2 RSR version, which the corporate has developed in partnership with Porsche, will solely be out there later this month — the corporate has teased its launch at MWC later this month.

Design and Show

Let’s begin with the design, and as you may need already discovered, the HONOR Magic V2 is extremely skinny and lightweight foldable. This gadget is simply 4.7mm skinny when unfolded and 9.9mm skinny within the folded state. To place this in perspective, it is related in thickness to as we speak’s common slab telephones; for instance, OnePlus’s newest OnePlus 12 is 9.2mm thick.

The gadget can be fairly light-weight, weighing both 237g (glass model) or 231g (vegan leather-based model), relying on the variant you select. For comparability, Samsung’s newest Galaxy S24 Extremely additionally weighs 233 grams. Within the hand, the Magic V2 looks like a daily slab cellphone when it is closed, because of it being extraordinarily skinny and slim.

On the again, you get a triple-camera setup in a barely protruded rectangular cutout with HONOR branding on the underside. I actually just like the end of the Phantom Purple unit I’ve right here with me. As for the buttons, they’re well-placed and on the other aspect when unfolded, making them simple to make use of. When folded, they’re at completely different ranges (and peak), which makes them simple to distinguish. And for these questioning, the facility button additionally doubles as a fingerprint reader.

Now, let’s discuss concerning the hinge, which is constructed from a sturdy Titanium alloy and examined for over 400,000 folds, in response to HONOR. It makes just a little squeaky sound when opening, however it’s total actually sturdy. The hinge means that you can open the gadget at an angle between 60 and 150 levels, and when folded, there is not any hole between the 2 halves. Nonetheless, the gadget is so slim, and since there is no such thing as a hole, I initially discovered it troublesome — and was nearly nervous — about opening it too forcefully.

Nonetheless, the general construct high quality is premium, utilizing supplies like glass, metallic, and titanium. The gadget feels luxurious. For the entrance show safety, HONOR has opted to make use of a Nanocrystal Glass 2.0 — no Corning Gorilla Glass right here — however the firm says this glass provides ten occasions higher drop resistance than typical glass. There isn’t a official IP mud or water resistance right here, which might have supplied further assurance on the market within the wild, however it appears HONOR has left that for the following model.

However, in case you are frightened about your gadget, HONOR features a kickstand case within the field for added safety. The satin glass end of the Magic V2 might be slippery, and given its value, you would not wish to danger dropping it. The kickstand case, which has a leather-like end, supplies a greater grip in addition to some safety from each day put on and tear safety (together with the hinge).

Whilst you can completely use this cellphone solely with the entrance 6.43-inch OLED show, the true magic occurs while you unfold the gadget. You’re welcomed to an enormous 7.92-inch OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh fee and a pixel decision of two,344 x 2,156. However, the most effective a part of the Magic V2 is that the show crease is barely noticeable. I handed over my Magic V2 unit to numerous first-time foldable gadget customers, and so they have been left amazed at how delicate the crease is; you actually should search for it.

Each the outer and inside shows are of fantastic high quality. The quilt display boasts a 6.43-inch OLED show with a 120Hz refresh fee and a formidable peak brightness of 2500 nits. The inside show has a peak brightness of 1600 nits, making it simply seen outdoor. Not solely that, however each screens help HDR10+ playback, offering an excellent media consumption expertise.

Much like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, the Magic V2 helps stylus enter, however HONOR does not embrace a stylus in the usual version bundle. The Porsche Design variant does include a stylus within the field, however there does not look like a purchasable accent for the usual version on the corporate’s web site.

Software program and Efficiency

The HONOR Magic V2 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor. And whereas it might not be the most recent chip on the block – the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 takes that crown — the foldable nonetheless provides improbable efficiency in your on a regular basis wants. Coupled with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, this foldable runs snappy. Apps open shortly (and stay in reminiscence), the gameplay is clean (even throughout lengthy intervals), and it does not overheat.

Whereas some could say that the staggering €2000 value doesn’t justify getting a year-old chip, and whereas there’s some reality to that argument, we’ve got come to the day and age the place the chipsets are extra highly effective than what we require, making the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 greater than succesful. The truth is, it’s the similar chipset that powers the OnePlus Open and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, so you will not miss out on something.

Concerning gaming, widespread titles like “Participant Unknown’s Battle Grounds,” “EA Sports activities FC Cell,” and even Netflix’s newest GTA video games make glorious use of the inside display, taking on the entire area and offering an immersive expertise. General, you may be happy with the speedy efficiency of the V2 fold.

Now transferring onto software program, the Magic V2 runs on MagicOS 7.2, based mostly on Android 13 out of the field. Whereas it might not be the most recent software program, HONOR tells me the gadget will obtain Android 14 someday sooner or later. The truth is, HONOR tells me that it’ll present 4 years of software program upgrades and 5 years of safety updates for this gadget, which is on-par with what its rivals provide. And for these questioning, the Magic V2 comes with Google Play Retailer and all Google companies out of the field (if that was ever a query).

As for the MagicOS 7.2, it’s closely skinned, and similar to different Chinese language ROMs, it’s closely modded to seem like iOS. And that is not essentially a nasty factor; you get loads of customization choices within the settings, from altering the At all times On show to the themes, and app icons. Nevertheless it’s simply that I am extra of a fan of a Pixel-like UI. Regardless, the software program on Magic V2 is polished and user-friendly. App switching between the duvet display and the inside foldable display is instantaneous, and infrequently, apps adapt to the display with out requiring relaunching.

The Magic V2 helps multitasking with as much as three apps open concurrently (two aspect by aspect and a 3rd with a floating window on high). You’ll be able to add much more apps and retailer them in a sidebar for simple entry. Coming into the multitasking view is fairly seamless as nicely. Whenever you’re utilizing the inside display and the app is in full-screen mode, you may see a small bar seem over the app, after which you possibly can both swap to full-screen, side-by-side mode, or floating views.

Nonetheless, there is not any conventional dock on the backside. As a substitute, HONOR makes use of a unique navigation model, the place you press and maintain the again button, and a small aspect display of apps seems. It is not essentially dangerous, only a distinctive method in comparison with what you is likely to be used to, particularly when you’ve been utilizing an iPad for years like me.

On the entire, the Magic V2 is a multitasking powerhouse, and when you’re an influence person who’s used to doing issues aspect by aspect, you may love this foldable. Whereas HONOR has to work with some companions and app builders to completely optimize apps for this foldable, a lot of the important apps work as required out of the field and that leads to an pleasant expertise.

Speaker

Till now, the iPhone 15 Professional Max has been the gold customary for stereo sound setup for me. Most Android telephones fail to match the iPhone’s deep and highly effective audio high quality — which, for my part, makes or breaks the media consumption expertise of a tool. Nonetheless, the Magic V2’s audio system are a pleasing shock. They ship distinctive sound that is in contrast to another Android cellphone I’ve used earlier than. The audio is wealthy, loud, and packs a punch, placing it on par, if not higher, than my iPhone.

Digital camera

Foldable telephones usually lag behind conventional smartphones when it comes to digital camera efficiency, and the identical holds true right here. On paper, the HONOR Magic V2 has a fairly versatile digital camera setup, together with a 50MP major sensor with OIS, a 50MP f/2.0 ultra-wide digital camera, and a 20MP f/2.4 telephoto sensor with 2.5x optical zoom. There’s additionally a 16MP selfie shooter on each the duvet and foldable inside screens.

In good lighting situations, the digital camera fares nice. It captures sharp, detailed photographs with vibrant (and generally overly punchy) colours. Colours aren’t washed out, if something, and the digital camera captures clear particulars and crowd pleasing contrasts. Nonetheless, it is price noting that the first digital camera tends to overprocess photographs, making them look considerably synthetic or overly vibrant at occasions.

One factor I seen is that the shutter pace of the first digital camera could be very quick. This implies the foldable excels at capturing fast-moving topics. For instance, take a look at the picture under of a street signal captured from a transferring bus at 50km/h – the small print are impressively crisp.

The two.5x optical zoom digital camera proves helpful in numerous situations and delivers detailed and sharp outcomes. And although there is a 10x zoom choice within the digital camera app, I would advise in opposition to utilizing it, because the ensuing photographs are usually blurry and noisy, as proven within the samples under. The ultra-wide photographs preserve good element, although there’s a slight shade shift. In low-light situations, the digital camera performs on par with different foldables, preserving shade accuracy and producing pleasing-to-eyes images.

General, when you want the picture processing model of iPhones, which tends to be extra toned down and natural-looking, you may discover the HONOR Magic V2’s digital camera a bit too vibrant. Nonetheless, when you like images with particulars and vibrant colours, you may love this digital camera. You’ll be able to take a look at our full digital camera samples of the Magic V2 down under:

Digital camera Samples

Battery

Now, that is the place the Magic V2 beats each different foldable in the marketplace. Regardless of being this skinny and slim, the Magic V2 encompasses a large 5,000 mAh cell, which is greater than what each different foldable on the planet provides. This has been doable resulting from a brand new silicon battery tech that HONOR is utilizing within the Magic V2, and the foldable does provide distinctive battery life. You’ll be able to simply go a full day on a single cost, and the most recent gadget replace appears to have additional improved this.

Even with intensive use of the inside foldable display, which consumes extra energy resulting from its measurement and 120Hz refresh fee, I constantly ended my day with at the least 20% battery remaining. Nonetheless, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and MagicOS 7.2 appear optimized sufficient for battery expertise.

By way of charging, the Magic V2 supplies 66W quick USB-C charging, which might take the gadget from 0% to 100% in about 45 minutes. Sadly, there is no such thing as a wi-fi charging, which is type of disappointing given the premium value of the gadget. However, a fast top-up within the morning ought to simply preserve you powered all through the day.

Ultimate Verdict

So, the query stays: is the HONOR Magic V2 price spending £1,700? Nicely, the reply to this query is a bit difficult. On one hand, the Magic V2 stands out as an ultra-thin and light-weight foldable that feels surprisingly like a daily cellphone. It packs a succesful processor, an enormous battery that simply lasts a full day, and impressively quick charging. Its cowl display provides a well-recognized cellphone expertise, in contrast to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, which has a narrower cowl display – one thing I am not a fan of.

Nonetheless, it is vital to think about that the Magic V2 lacks wi-fi charging, an official IP ranking for water and dirt resistance, and it comes with a hefty price ticket. That mentioned, when you think about the general bundle the Magic V2 delivers, it definitely ranks among the many finest foldable telephones out there. It is significantly interesting when you’re seeking to transition from a standard Android cellphone because it provides a foldable expertise in a equally sized kind issue.

Nonetheless, when you’re keen to attend for foldable costs to drop and persist with a daily smartphone for now, that is a legitimate selection — possibly even look ahead to the corporate’s Magic6 Professional. Nonetheless, with the Magic V2, HONOR has set a brand new customary for foldable units, and it will be intriguing to see how the competitors responds within the coming 12 months.