'Late But Great': What We Like About the Honor Magic V2

Owning a foldable phone is like tasting real butter for the first time. Once you’ve tried the good stuff, it’s tough to go back to anything else. 

After using a “regular” phone for years, I made the witch to my first Fold phone in 2020 and haven’t looked back since. Sure it does have its issues (warping on screen protector, relatively heavier on the hand, the so-called green line of death that’s a pain to get fixed), I stuck with that phone until it was time to upgrade three years later—to the same phone brand’s updated Fold model. Real butter.

But I got my hands on a review unit of Honor’s dog in the Fold phones fight—the Magic V2—and it’s got me rethinking a few things. 

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The Honor Magic V2

First, Honor is a Chinese consumer electronics brand that might initially sound unfamiliar to those who’ve stuck with the so-called “giants” in mobile phones over the years—the Apples and Samsungs of the world. But if you quit being a phone snob for a hot second, you’d realize that Honor’s got some things going for it.

For one, as of the third quarter of 2023, it’s got the highest market share of smartphone shipments in its home country of China, at 19.3 percent. That’s nothing to sneeze at considering how many other brands are competing for consumers’ attention in that market and elsewhere.

And for another thing, Honor’s product line has had some pretty impressive winners in recent years (special mention to the X9b, supposedly the “toughest” phone out there, with tons of durability tests out there if you’re interested).

But we’re here to talk about the Magic V2, and, coming from someone who’s been a Fold phone user for at least four years, it’s got another winner on its hands.

Here are some of the things that I liked about the Honor Magic V2:

1| It’s incredibly thin. And light

The true thickness of a foldable phone is measured when it’s folded, and in that state, it’ll always be much thicker than conventional mobile phones. The Honor Magic V2 is about 10 millimeters when folded (although Honor sticks with its own measurement of 9.9 millimeters) and weighs about 235 grams. That’s roughly as light as a typical TV remote control, or slightly heavier than a deck of playing cards.

Photo by PJ Cana.

The brand’s core messaging for this model is that it’s the world’s thinnest foldable phone, and that’s a claim that other brands might find hard to challenge. I mean, how much thinner can these things get?

Compared to my regular Fold phone, that’s quite an improvement in thinness and weight. The weight, in particular really isn’t an issue, but already I preferred the overall feel of the Honor Magic V2 in my hand than my regular phone.

The cover screen measures 6.43 inches, which, if you’re keeping track of these things, is about as big as a standard nonfolding phone. That means it’s bigger overall than similar models from other brands (like my regular Fold phone, which is just 6.2 inches). The main screen, meanwhile, is 7.92 inches (versus my phone’s 7.6-inch display). 

So to recap: the Honor Magic V2 is thinner overall, but has bigger screen dimensions versus competing brands. 

2| The battery life

Consumers have lamented for years how miserable they are with most mobile phone models’ battery life, and, to their credit, the manufacturers have listened. These days, how long a phone lasts without needing a quick charge is a central selling point for newer models, and the Honor Magic V2 is no different.

With 5000mAh Honor Silicon-Carbon Dual Batteries, the brand claims the unit can last for as long as three days, but that’s likely for mild users who don’t feel the need to check their social media accounts every few minutes. Personally, the Magic V2 lasted about two days with me on a full charge before it warned that battery was low, which is still pretty impressive. I’m lucky if my regular fold phone makes it until the end of the day without needing a charge, and no I’m not that lucky.

3| Hardware and storage

The new Honor Magic V2 has 16GB of RAM with 512GB of storage, but the brand has partnered with Porsche Design for amore premium model that take storage up to 1TB. Admittedly, I used it for mostly standard stuff in the few days I had it, like taking photos and videos on a quick weekend beach trip, social media browsing, navigation apps (like Waze and Google Maps), and the occasional video and audio streaming.

The phone worked pretty seamlessly, without any issues. If you’re pretty basic with mobile phone use, that’s good news. 

My one nitpick with the Magic V2 is that there’s no support for wireless charging, which was a pity because I used a friend’s car on the weekend drive that had this feature, but couldn’t test it out on the new phone. I still had to take out the provided charging line.

Photo by PJ Cana.

4| Multi-tasking and productivity

The advantage of a foldable phone is most apparent on its main screen. If you prefer keeping things simple and working on an app at a time, that’s fine, but there’s also an option to open two at a time on split screen mode. There’s supposedly an additional option to have a third app open on top of the two other apps, but I was unable to test this out.

In any case, the two apps I opened (YouTube and Chrome browser) worked as they were supposed to, without any lag. This is not a feature you can say about non-foldable phones.

In conclusion

The Honor Magic V2 phone might be a late entrant in the Fold phone wars, but it’s certainly making a strong case for the “late but great” argument. The phone isn’t a halfhearted attempt to steal a slice out of the foldable phones segment, but is actually a convincing competitor that should make other brands worry.

Best of all, for a foldable phone, the Magic V2 is priced at P79,999, which is more than reasonable and definitely a steal compared to others in its segment. I may not be ready to trade in my regular phone yet (you can’t blame me, I just got it less than four months ago), but if, god forbid something happens to it, I know which phone I’m getting as a replacement.

Customers who pre-order the Honor Magic V2 from February 21 to March 1, 2024, for P79,999 will get a FREE Honor Watch GS 3 and Harman Kardon Aura Studio 4 HIFI Speaker worth P28,000