Honor Magic V2 Review: Slimline Sophistication

The Honor Magic V2 launched in China in the summer of 2023, and made a splash as the slimmest book-style foldable so far. The international launch took its sweet time, though, with the phone not available to buy in Europe until January 2024.

The Magic V2 launched with cutting-edge specifications, but things move quickly in the world of smartphones, and that means the processor is slightly outdated at the time of the European launch. Most flagships are shipping with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, while the Magic V2 runs the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. 

In practice, it’s not really an issue, it’s still a very fast processor and no other flagship foldable is offering a newer chip. The OnePlus Open and Galaxy Z Fold 5 also run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, for example. But it won’t stay that way for long.

The Magic V2 costs £1699 in the UK, and that’s a hefty sum for a phone with ageing hardware, but with a slick, lightweight design and promising specs elsewhere, it could still prove worthwhile. I was excited to see how it stacks up against the competition, and after spending a week using it as my main device, here’s my verdict.

Design & Build

• Super slim and lightweight
• Titanium hinge
• No IP rating

I’m testing the special edition Porsche Design Magic V2 RSR, but for the purposes of this review, I’ll be talking about the Magic V2 in general. Aside from the looks, the two phones offer identical specifications and features. 

That said, if you do opt for the Porsche Design edition, you’re in for a visual treat. The rear has a lovely Agate Grey finish, with an aerodynamic ridge down the centre and a sleek sweeping curve over the camera array. It’s designed to resemble the lines of a high-end sportscar (like a Porsche, funnily enough) and it just looks luxurious.

Comparatively, the standard Magic V2 is a little less striking, with a mostly flat rear panel and comfortable curved edges. There are two options to choose from there – Black and Purple – with the former featuring a vegan leather rear panel and the latter made from glass.

The first thing you’ll notice about the Magic V2 is just how slim it is. At just 9.9mm when closed, it’s really quite a remarkable achievement. A weight of 231g means it’s lighter than the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, and it’s thinner than some non-foldable phones, including the Vivo X100 Pro (if you factor in its gigantic camera bump).

I have previously shied away from using a foldable long-term, as I always felt they were too bulky and heavy, but that’s not the case here at all. I could easily see myself living with the Magic V2 in my pocket.

The volume rocker and lock button are positioned on the right-hand side when the phone is folded, but they’re each on different sides of the internal display. This means they’re staggered by a few millimetres. It’s easy to get used to, but it can make multi-button presses, like taking a screenshot, feel very strange at first. The fingerprint reader is built into the lock button and works very reliably.

I could easily see myself living with the Magic V2 in my pocket

The standard Magic V2 comes with an aramid fibre case with integrated kickstand, which is pretty nice.

However, if you opt for the Porsche Design edition, you’ll get one of the nicest cases I’ve ever used. It has a PU leather finish that feels like a car interior, and has stitching to matches the lines of the rear panel. It looks and feels great, and it extends to protect the titanium hinge, which is something that’s missing on most foldable case designs.

The Porsche Design package also comes with the Honor Magic Pen active stylus, as well as a presentation box to keep it safe. This is an accessory that’s sold separately in some regions, but it’s not yet available for standalone purchase in the UK.

The stylus works well on both the internal and external displays, which gives it a leg up over Samsung, as the S Pen only works on the folding display of the Z Fold 5. There was a little more latency than I would like, but the pen tracks well, and registers pressure reliably, too.

I’d be careful with that internal display, though, as I can easily image it getting scratched by some enthusiastic doodling. 

There’s no official IP rating on this phone, either, but Honor assures us that it’ll be fine with splashes of water. You’ll need to be more careful of dust, but that’s true of all foldables.

Screen & Speakers

• 6.43-inch and 7.92-inch OLED displays
• 120Hz LTPO, 3840Hz PWM dimming
• Stereo speakers

The displays on the Magic V2 are each impressive in their own right. Both the 6.43-inch cover and 7.92-inch internal screens are OLED, with support up to 120Hz refresh rates and PWM dimming rates of up to 3840Hz. This is one of the highest dimming speeds that I have ever come across, so if you suffer eye strain from screen flicker, this could be the foldable for you.

LTPO displays mean the refresh rate can also drop all the way down to 1Hz automatically, helping to save battery life.

When it comes to brightness output, the external screen boasts a whopping 2500 nits at peak, whereas the internal display maxes out at 1600 nits. They’re both bright, and perfectly usable outdoors, but the outer display will be your best bet in harsh sunlight. That’s true in general, anyway, as the flexible panel attracts more unwanted reflections than the smooth glass of the outer screen.

The outer display has dimensions that match most non-foldable smartphones, and that’s one of my favourite things about the Magic V2’s design. You can easily mistake it for a standard smartphone, and I often did, by picking up the wrong phone from my desk. I’ve never had that happen with a foldable before, and the result is that it feels extremely natural, whether in the hand or the pocket.

If you suffer eye strain from screen flicker, this could be the foldable for you

When you open up the Magic V2, you’re greeted by one of the largest panels of any foldable, and one of the shallowest creases, too. It’s not completely invisible, and you can still feel it when you run your finger across the screen, but it’s much better than the dip you get with Samsung or Google. You’ll only really notice it when it catches the light, and in dim conditions, it essentially vanishes.

Both panels are high-resolution and produce vivid and accurate colours. I especially enjoyed catching up on Netflix shows on the large internal screen, which always looked their best thanks to Dolby Vision and HDR10 support. Gaming on the internal screen is very fun, too. Not all games like the square-ish aspect ratio, but Genshin Impact works well, and that’s my favourite time-sink lately.

The speakers are positioned on the top and bottom of the Magic V2 while folded, or on the left and right unfolded, depending on how you hold it. You get some solid stereo separation and more bass than most phones, but they’re not the loudest around. They always sound great and there’s little to no distortion, so as long as you’re not listening next to a construction site, you’re in for a good time.

Specs & Performance

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
• 16GB RAM
• 512GB/1TB storage

As I mentioned in the introduction, the Magic V2 runs on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. It was Qualcomm’s flagship chip when the phone launched in China, but after a long wait for the international release, it’s now slightly outdated. 

However, if we ignore other flagship phones and strictly focus on foldables, the Magic V2 it matches its main competition in terms of performance, and in some ways, it beats them. It has more RAM than the Z Fold 5, and the Porsche Design edition offers double the storage of the OnePlus Open, for example. The only problem is, proper 2024 foldables are on the horizon (at the time of writing), and they’re guaranteed to pack newer processors than this. 

That said, I never found that this chip held me back in use. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is still extremely powerful and the Magic V2 feels consistently fast and responsive. I was able to fully max out the settings in Genshin Impact, running it on the large folding display at 60fps, and I never noticed any stuttering or slowdowns.

Honor has also worked with Asphalt 9: Legends makers Gameloft to ensure that the game runs smoothly at the full 120fps.

The phone gets a bit toasty if you’re playing for a while, but never to the point of concern. It’s impressive stuff considering how slim this phone is, as there’s not much room for cooling, but whatever Honor has done internally works wonders.

The Magic V2 feels consistently fast and responsive

The Magic V2 multitasks well, too, likely owing to the generous 12GB of RAM. It had no problem running multiple apps on the internal display, whether in split-screen mode or as floating windows.

You can also choose between 512GB and 1TB of fast UFS 4.0 storage. There’s no support for expandable storage, but pretty much no-one will need it.

Honor Magic V2 benchmarks

Here’s how the Magic V2 compares to some of the best book-style folding phones around, including its predecessor:

Cameras

• 50Mp main sensor
• 50Mp ultrawide
• 20Mp 2.5x telephoto
• Dual 16Mp selfie cameras

The Magic V2 packs in a lot of cameras, as most foldables do. Around the back, there are three lenses: a 50Mp f/1.9 main camera, a 50Mp f/2.0 ultrawide (that doubles up as a macro lens) and a 20Mp f/2.4 2.5x telephoto. These are joined by dual 16Mp punch-hole selfie cameras on each display, and you can also take selfies with the rear cameras using the cover display as a preview.

This camera system is capable of taking some great pictures. There’s plenty of detail from all of the rear cameras, and on the whole, the images look sharp and vibrant.

The colour processing is a little more aggressive than I’m used to, with blues and greens tending to be a slightly oversaturated, but it makes for some eye-catching photos.

If you prefer a more natural look, the Pro mode gives you some more control over the final image, and you can even shoot RAW in the native camera app if you want complete control.

The main sensor is the most impressive, as usual, but the supporting lenses are solid, too. The ultrawide is the least sharp, but it’s a useful focal length, and the high-resolution sensor ensures that detail is retained. The 2.5x telephoto is great in the daylight, too, but it struggles a little more when the light gets low.

This camera system is capable of taking some great pictures

After living with flagship phones that offer 5x (or similar) telephoto cameras, I couldn’t help but wish for more reach with this camera system. The 2.5x is nice, but it feels less versatile than a longer zoom. The camera app offers you a 10x zoom option, but it’s best avoided, as the images come out looking muddy and lacking detail. It’s just too much of a digital crop for the 2.5x lens to handle.

Portrait mode works very well, and the Magic V2 was able to reliably separate my subjects from the background in a variety of lighting conditions. Night mode is good, too, but you’ll want to stick to the main lens at night, as the smaller sensors of the ultrawide and telephoto give less detailed images in these conditions.

The rear cameras can all shoot video at up to 4K60 and the front-facing cameras support 4K30. Results are decent, but the stabilisation lags behind some of the competition. There are plenty of options in the app for video shooters, though, including the ability to apply LUTs (look-up tables) and even a LOG profile.

Battery Life & Charging

• 5000mAh battery
• 66W charging support
• Power adapter only included with Porsche Design edition

The battery life of the Magic V2 is brilliant, and this is all thanks to a massive 5000 mAh battery that has somehow been squeezed into the slim chassis. It’s the largest battery among the…