REVIEW: Honor Magic V2 raises bar for foldable phone design

The Honor Magic V2 mobile phone raises the bar for foldable phone design.

The smartphone is very much thinner and lighter than its high-priced rivals, and borrows enough high-spec features from Honor’s premium candy bar devices,

However, like all foldables, you will have to dig very deep in your pocket for the privilege of owning one.

Foldables

It is unlikely that prices will come down anytime soon, and instead of forking out huge amounts of cash, contracts maybe the way to go. But these agreements bind you for up to two and three years and this can be a real schlep when phone manufacturers are literally launching new devices every year.

With the Honor Magic V2, you will also have to settle for middling software and no water resistance, which is a hinderance.

That said, you cannot ignore that the Honor Magic V2 is a good phone. During my tech review period, curious onlookers, were not convinced it was a foldable phone because it was so slim and light.

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Features

The world’s thinnest, lightest, and durable smartphone, the Honor Magic V2 allows for split-screen multitasking when unfolded.

The Magic VS measures 156.7 x 145.4 x 4.7 mm unfolded and 156.7 x 74.1 x 9.9 mm folded while only weighing 231g.

It has advanced multitasking capabilities, such as the ability to have up to four apps on screen – two in split-screen and two more in smaller free-floating pop-out windows.

The displays have gotten improvements across the board. The internal one now supports up to 120Hz refresh rate (90Hz on the Vs), and maximum brightness is specified at 1600nits (800nits on the old model).

While the Magic V2 is Honors newest flagship, it does sports last year’s tech with flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 5G chipset with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. It might not be new but that chipset still offers impressive performance.

I must also mention that when opening and closing Honor Magic V2, there was an unsettling scratchy noise. This could have been related to the particular review model I was sent.

An exciting few weeks for me… I am reviewing the new Honor Magic V2 foldable smartphone thanks to Honor South Africa. The Magic V2 is thin. It is the first foldable of its kind to go below 10mm in thickness, if only barely… #Honor #MagicV2 @HonorAfrica pic.twitter.com/pK5JBvFNPH

— 𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚣𝚎𝚕 𝙿𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚕 ⚡️ (@FaizelPatel143) March 12, 2024

Cameras

The cover display’s claimed brightness has been doubled, too – to 2500nits. Both are LTPO OLEDs, of course and feature 3840Hz PWM dimming. Diagonals remain unchanged at 7.92 inches on the foldable panel and 6.43 inches on the cover, but the aspects have been slightly tweaked.

The camera system has gotten some tweaks too. The rear setup now features two 50MP modules for main and ultrawide (somewhat of a sidestep from the Vs’ 54MP+50MP arrangement), and a new 20MP telephoto that offers 2.5x zoom (the Vs had a more basic 8MP 3x unit).

Two 16MP selfie cameras, one per display, complete the picture – now with f/2.2 apertures vs. the Vs’ f/2.45 ones.

While this all sounds good, I did see the rear camera struggle a little with processing as I accelerated past subjects, while recording a video.

Availability and Pricing

The flagship Honor Magic V2 comes in black with an interesting vegan leather back available, But be prepared to pay for the luxury of owning a foldable retailing at R 39 999.

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