HONOR Magic V2 Review | Geek Lifestyle

The HONOR Magic V2 has finally landed in the Philippines, and it promises to be one of the best foldable phones that you can get in the market.

That’s because the Magic V2 promises to be unlike other foldable phones thanks to its 9.9mm folded thickness and 231g weight — comparable to a typical flagship. This should make it feel much better to use given that it’s far from bulky. Aside from its slim and light design, the Magic V2 also packs a flagship processor and an impressive camera setup, all while having 120Hz LTPO OLED screens both inside and outside. To top it all off, the phone has a 5000mAh battery despite how thin and light it is.

HONOR’s new foldable is no doubt great when reading the specs sheet, but does it deliver in actual use? After testing the phone out, we can attest to the fact that the Magic V2 might be one of the best foldables that you can get thanks to its design.

Geek-sthetic

Design-wise, the Magic V2 looks kind of like a standard smartphone when folded as its nearly bezel-less cover is more comparable to an actual flagship phone screen than a typical cover screen on other foldables (especially previous-gen ones). Of course, the shape makes it clear that this is not a typical phone given the rounded right edges and straight left side.

Moving to the back, HONOR thankfully went with a matte finish for the back, giving it a nice and grippy feel if you don’t use the included case (more on that case later). The back also has the phone’s larger triple rear camera module which juts out a bit, owing to just how thin the phone is. This camera bump is noticeable, but it won’t get in the way of how you grip the phone, meaning it shouldn’t be an issue for users.

When unfolded, you’ll see the large 7.92 display which has a nearly square aspect ratio. While it’s not a large as a proper tablet, it’s still closer to a tablet than a smartphone given much room it has for apps. Though take note that the screen has some fairly noticeable matte-finish bezels. In our time with the phone though, this wasn’t distracting, not to mention that it gives the phone extra grip (along with protection when folding it close).

As mentioned in the intro, the HONOR Magic V2 is an incredibly thin phone for a foldable. This makes it way more comfortable to use in both configurations.

In fact, I found that I can comfortably use the Magic V2’s cover screen just like I would with a regular phone. This makes it a proper 2-in-1 smartphone/tablet combo as you can use it like a regular phone when folded and a tablet when unfolded. For reference, I find that other foldable phones like this are too bulky to comfortably hold when using just the cover screen.

If you do need to unfold it to take advantage of the larger screen, the HONOR Magic V2’s hinge feels great to fold and unfold. Aside from promising to be durable with its “Titanium Hinge” (well, it’s shaft cover is made from titanium alloy at least), the hinge has a nice snap to it when you fully unfold it. Plus, you can unfold it partway through to get sort of laptop-style configuration. We’re not exactly sure how you can take full advantage of this mode, but it’s still nice that the hinge allows for it if there are apps that can use it.

What’s also nice about the Magic V2 is that it comes with a free case inside the box. This case not only feels great, but it also comes with a cover for the hinge for extra protection. Though our favorite thing about the case is that it has a kickstand — definitely a welcome feature if you want to watch something on this phone.

Binge-Watching Factor

When you want to watch a movie or show on this phone, you’ll want to use the larger main screen to do so. Of course, given the square aspect ratio, you’ll get big black bars at the top and bottom (that is, unless you watch old movies or shows with 4:3 aspect ratios).

Because of this, the Magic V2’s effective screen size for 16:9 or widescreen content is closer to a standard smartphone. Still, even though you won’t get to maximize the square screen, binge-watching on the main display is still a great experience thanks to the vibrant colors of the LTPO OLED panel. The OLED screen’s deep blacks also help in making the black bars unobstructive.

If you’re outside and want to watch something, we can confirm that the viewing experience on the cover screen is also great. This is thanks to the fact that HONOR did not skimp out with the cover screen as it’s also an LTPO OLED display.

Sure, it’s smaller, but it’s nice to have the cover screen be good for binge-watching. After all, there may be times when you’re outside and want to watch something while holding the phone instead of placing it on a table.

As for sound, the HONOR Magic V2 features stereo speakers on the cover screen side. Given how thin the phone is, the speakers might not be class-leading in terms of volume and sound quality. Still, their audio output is pretty good for casual video-watching.

For the best experience though, you’d want to use headphones or external speakers which should be wireless. That’s because this phone does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack, though it’s understandable in this case given how thin the phone is.

Gaming Prowess

The Magic V2 is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor. It might not be the newest processor, but it’s still a flagship SoC, meaning it promises great performance for most games.

In our time with the phone, we found that the Magic V2 was able to run popular MOBA and FPS games at the max settings with ease. Of course, even with the flagship SoC, the fact that it’s not billed as a gaming phone means you won’t be able to max out games like Genshin Impact. Still, most users would be satisfied with the performance that this phone delivers for gaming.

What we do want to focus on is the gaming experience when it comes to the display.

When using the main screen, most games can be set to either run at 16:9, 4:3, or in full screen. In our experience, we preferred playing most games in the 16:9 aspect ratio. Sure, this mode doesn’t make full use of the big screen, but it’s still quite comfortable to play even with the big black bars.

What also convinced us to play in this mode is that, generally, this is what you’ll see in games when going full-screen:

For MOBAs, the sides get cut off which is not a good way to play. This is also the case with other games that we tried, meaning for competitive multiplayer, it’s not recommended to go full-screen on this phone.

On the flip side, there are single player games that work well in this configuration, so the big screen could work for those titles.

Finally, the cover screen has a more standard smartphone aspect ratio, meaning playing on it is a surprisingly good experience. Even holding the phone horizontally is pretty comfy when playing on the cover screen thanks to how slim the phone is.

Geek Photoshoot Capabilities

For its cameras, the phone has a 50MP main + 50MP ultrawide + 20MP 2.5x telephoto triple rear camera setup, as well as one selfie camera on the cover screen and the inner scree (meaning there are two selfie shooters here).

To start, the main 50MP camera takes quality photos that are no doubt flagship-level when it comes to detail. The images taken in daytime not only have good detail, but they also have vibrant colors while not being unnatural.

At night, the main camera can also take high quality low light photos when using the camera’s Night Mode. On the third image above, the details are still clear despite the shot being taken in incredibly dark conditions. This is thanks to the combination of the good image processing that the phone has coupled with the main shooter’s OIS. Though it’s worth noting that the images have a warmer tint to them when using the Night Mode.

Moving to the ultrawide camera, the shooter’s daytime performance is also great as images are detailed and sharp, all while having good colors. Meanwhile, shots at night aren’t as detailed as the main camera, but they’re still pretty good overall when using the Night mode.

As for the telephoto shooter, 2.5x and 10x zoomed shots are of good quality. Plus, it’s easy to take zoomed-in shots on the phone thanks to its OIS which minimizes camera shaking.

OIS is also helpful when taking 2.5x zoom shots at night. Of course, quality takes a noticeable dip when you push the zoom to 10x at night, so you may want to stick with 2.5x when shooting in low light.

Finally, the phone’s selfie shooters take pretty good photos in most lighting conditions. While not class-leading, the cameras should satisfy most users who are looking to shoot social media-ready selfies.

Everyday Reliability

When it comes to everyday usability, the HONOR Magic V2 shined as it proved to be an excellent daily driver. This is thanks in part to its performance as it handled all our daily needs with ease, from email and browsing to some content creation workloads.

Perhaps the best thing about it when it comes to day-to-day use is how great it is to have such a large screen. Aside from being able to open multiple apps at once for multitasking, working on a bigger display is a much better experience compared to a standard smartphone. Coupled with the fact that it can act like a standard phone when using the cover screen, the Magic V2 feels like a true 2-in-1 device.

For the most part, we were happy with how the phone performed, though we did run into some issues on the software side. When setting the phone to auto-rotate, we noticed that the phone sometimes turns off auto-rotate when using its other configurations such as the half-folded mode. This is fairly minor, but it was a bit annoying to have to turn auto-rotate again.

As a whole, the phone’s UI could use a bit more polishing for a better experience, though this should be fixable with some updates, so here’s hoping those get worked on.

Finally, the phone has a large 5,000mAh battery which may seem small at first for a phone with two screens. Thankfully, the battery was more than enough for a day of use as we routinely found that the phone still had around 30% remaining after a day. Even if you use this phone heavily, you should have enough charge for a day.

When you need to top it up, the phone comes with a fast 66W charger, meaning you can fill the phone up in less than an hour from 0.

Final Geek Lifestyle Verdict

The HONOR Magic V2 has two great screens, as well as a slim and sleek design, coupled with excellent everyday performance, making it a true flagship phone. It can also run today’s popular games with ease thanks to its flagship SoC, not to mention that its cameras can capture great photos in a wide array of lighting conditions.

It’s not perfect at this point as there are still improvements to be made on the software side. Despite this, the Magic V2 is still one of the best flagship foldables that you can get as its a proper 2-in-1 device. This is thanks to its slim design which means you can comfortably use it as a phone with the cover display, or as a tablet with the main screen.

At its PHP 79,999, the Magic V2 is a significant investment, but if you’re eyeing a foldable phone and want to get the best in terms of everyday usability and are willing to spend, you can’t go wrong with HONOR’s newest flagship entry.

HONOR Magic V2 specs:

• 7.92 inch (2156 x 2344) foldable LTPO OLED display, 120Hz refresh rate
• 6.43 inch (1060 x 2376) LTPO OLED cover display, 120Hz refresh rate
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor
• 16GB RAM
• 512GB storage
• Rear cameras: 50MP main + 50MP ultrawide + 20MP 2.5x telephoto triple rear camera setup
• Front camera: 16MP
• 5G, LTE
• Side-mounted scanner, USB Type-C port
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e/7, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot, Bluetooth 5.3
• 5000mAh battery with 66W wired Fast charging
• Android 13 with MagicOS 7.2
• Price: PHP 79,999