The HONOR Magic V2 is the latest foldable offering from HONOR. The V2 follows the Magic V and HONOR is pulling out all the stops.. It seems that the foldable smartphone war has shifted into high gear.
Design and Build
The HONOR Magic V2 has excellent build quality. The materials used make the phone feel very premium and also feels great in the hand, thanks to the rounded edges on the phone.
It’s clear that Honor has spent a lot of time thinking about the aesthetic and materials used in this phone.
The phone has a great form factor. Which means it can be used folded for everything, you only need to unfold when you want a big screen. This makes the phone much better than most foldables.
The HONOR Magic V2 claims to be the thinnest and lightest foldable. Comparing the phone to non-folding slab phones, it’s not a lot thicker and in some cases just as thick. This is a huge benefit. The weight of the phone is light, but has enough weight to make it feel premium.
A special mention to the phone case that came in the box. It has a kickstand that makes the phone sit flat, as it’s the same height as the camera bump. It also adds enough protection to the phone that you feel safe and it has a swiveling kickstand that can be used in 2 different orientations along for a nice viewing experience.
Performance & Battery
The HONOR Magic V2 would need to have some pretty serious specs in order to run those screens. When it comes to speed and performance, the Magic V2 absolutely nails this thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip.
The phone is fast, so much that even benchmarks are blown out of the water.
Here are the specs:
| Display | 6.43inch, 1060 x 2376, 2,500 nits peak brightness |
| Folded | 7.92inch, 2156 x 2344, 1,600 nits peak brightness |
| Refresh rate | 120Hz |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 |
| RAM | 16GB |
| Storage | 256GB/512GB/1TB |
| Rear cameras | 50MP main (f/1.9), 50MP ultrawide (f/2.0), 20MP telephoto (f/2.4) |
| Front camera | 16MP selfie (f/2.2) |
| Battery | 5,000 mAh |
| Charging | 66W wired |
| Size | 6.37 x 2.92 x 0.31 inches (161.9 x 74.1 x 7.8 mm) |
| Weight | 231g (~8.15 ounces) |
The 5000 mAh battery is decent too, and lasted us a full day of heavy usage without any issues while still having around 50 % battery life at the end of the day. This with a screen on time of 7 hours, spread between both screens.
You get a 66W fast charger in the box and that means the phone can charge up pretty fast, so even if you run out of juice, plugging it in for 20-30 mins will last you for the rest of the day.
Displays
As you can tell, this phone has 2 screens. The outside/front standard-ish 6.43inch display where you will probably spend most of your time. The inside screen is the one that folds, coming in at 7.92inch.
Both screens have a ~402 ppi, which means they are sharp.
The beauty of the Magic V2 is that (as mentioned above) the outside screen is perfect for your daily use, so much that you would only really need to open up the phone for tasks that could benefit from using a bigger screen. Tasks like spreadsheets, or emails. For everything else, 90% of the time, the outside screen will be more than enough.
The folded screen does have a crease, as you would expect. Thankfully this bump is a very minor one and something you start to quickly overlook.
The hinge for the folding screen is supposed to be pretty solid, thought we did hear some minor creaking as we opened/closed the phone. Thought HONOR Claims a 400,000 open/closes, which should last you a long time.
Camera
You get a total of 5 cameras in the Magic V2. The 3 main back cameras, and two selfie cameras (one outside and one inside).
The cameras are adequate and can take some good pictures, though a lot of the quality relies on the image processing after taking the picture.
The low light performance was pretty great too, it felt like a lot of image processing heavy lifting to match the picture between the back and selfie cameras.
Have a look at these pictures
Software & Features
The software has many positives but also many shortcomings.
To start with, the phone is very performant. That is owing to the chip, but even the software flows and glides and everything just runs smoothly.
You get lots of features, especially around multi-tasking. Like a good split screen with extra floating screens (like windows) and quick launch panel. A great experience for power users, but can be a bit overwhelming for the casual user.
Only downside was the look. I didn’t enjoy the overall look of the theme and the phone had a few unnecessary apps that you have to setup or get rid off. This was especially annoying when setting up the phone as you are asked for loads of permissions for apps that you might not even want to use. Thankfully hiding/ignoring these apps is possible, but it requires some work to do so.
There are a mixed bag of features with the Magic V2. You get an IR Blaster, which allows you to remotely control your TV or AC, it’s a nice feature to have but will hardly ever be used.
Notably missing is the wireless charging and the headphone jack. Both are not a deal breaker for me personally since I prefer to plug my phone in, and most phones are without the headphone jack.
Final Thoughts
The HONOR Magic V2 is a great phone for anyone who wants the convenience of a bigger screen, but can do most of their regular tasks on a smaller screen.
With the great performance, build and battery life, this phone overshadows any of its problems.
The HONOR Magic V2 should absolutely be in your shortlist of foldable phones.
