Honor Magic V2 review: a benchmark-setting beauty

Honor Magic V2: Two-minute review

Despite what Samsung’s TV marketing would have you believe, foldable phones haven’t yet come close to meaningfully disrupting the candy bar-shaped mainstream – but there’s no denying that mobile manufacturers the world over (save for Apple) are committed to investing heavily in the foldable ideal. 

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, Google Pixel Fold and OnePlus Open arrived last year to shake up our list of the best foldable phones, but Chinese smartphone brand Honor – which has fast become a major industry disruptor – also has a new foldable flagship in its shop window: the Honor Magic V2.

We say ‘new’, but this successor to the excellent Honor Magic VS (head over to our hands-on Honor Magic VS review for our full thoughts on that device) has actually been kicking around for over half a year. The Magic V2 was officially unveiled in China back in July 2023, before being unveiled again – this time to the world – at IFA 2023 in September. The phone was then launched for European sale in January 2024 alongside a Porsche-branded version of the Magic V2, which is set for its own follow-up reveal at MWC 2024. 

So, where does that leave the Magic V2’s availability right now? Well, as of February 2, the phone is available to order from Honor directly – as well as from Amazon, Three, Very, Argos and Currys – at a cost of £1,699.99 (or €1,999 in European markets).

And therein lies the first thorn in the side of this handsome foldable phone. Admittedly, £1,699.99 (or €1,999) is not an outrageous amount of money for a dual-screen device in 2024 – the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Google Pixel Fold, for instance, both start at an even higher £1,749. But Honor built a rod for its own back by pricing its previous foldable so competitively.

The original Honor Magic V never made it to the West, but last year’s Magic VS debuted for £1,399 at launch. Relatively speaking, that was an affordable price for a foldable phone – especially one boasting such impressive hardware. By pricing the Magic V2 at a comparatively eye-watering £1,699.99, Honor can no longer hide its new phone’s (admittedly few) shortcomings behind the banner of affordability. 

As such, we’ll be comparing the Magic V2’s key features to those of the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Google Pixel Fold and OnePlus Open throughout this review. 

The good news (for Honor, at least) is that the Magic V2 is thinner, lighter, more attractive, and just as powerful as all three of those devices. The phone packs last year’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset – which sounds disappointing, but really isn’t – and a display that borrows heavily from the excellent Honor Magic 5 Pro.

The Magic V2’s camera setup is similarly impressive – though not without its quirks – and the phone’s dual 5,000mAh battery is big (and thin) enough to provide lasting, usable power. The bad news? The Magic V2’s beautiful design is only made possible by the total lack of an IP water-resistance rating. That’s not a deal-breaker for me personally, but it does mean that the Magic V2 is an objectively less durable phone than its big-name competition.

There’s no wireless charging, either, and Honor’s operating system (MagicOS 7.2 at the time of writing) takes some getting used to if you haven’t encountered it before. MagicOS isn’t bad, per se, but it’s not as polished as Samsung’s One UI 6 or Google’s super-streamlined version of Android. MagicOS also interferes with photography a little too much for my liking.

But ultimately, the Magic V2 is all about style. When unfolded, its design is so much slicker than any other foldable design on the market right now, and when folded, the Magic V2 could genuinely pass for a modern-day candy bar handset (it’s that thin!).

So, if you value design over all else, this is the foldable to buy. For almost everything else, the Magic V2 just about keeps pace with its globally-available foldable competition. 

Honor Magic V2 review: Price and availability

• Costs £1,699.99 / €1,999
• Currently unavailable in the US and Australia

As above, the Honor Magic V2 was first unveiled in China on July 12, 2023, before being showcased globally at IFA 2023 on September 1. The phone was then launched for European sale on January 26, 2024, and began shipping on February 2. 

It’s currently available to order from Honor directly – as well as from Amazon, Three, Very, Argos and Currys – at a cost of £1,699.99 (or €1,999 in European markets). Only one storage configuration is available: 512GB (with 16GB RAM).

For reference, the Honor Magic VS started at £1,399 (for the 8GB RAM / 256GB model), while the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 starts at $1,799.99 / £1,749 / AU$2,599 (for the 12GB RAM / 256GB model). In other words, this is a competitively priced – albeit outrageously expensive – handset. It’s still £50 cheaper than its biggest competition, but some £300 more expensive than its predecessor.

As with most Honor devices, the Magic V2 is unlikely to be made available in the US or Australia any time soon.

• Value score: 3 / 5

Honor Magic V2 review: Specs

Check out the Honor Magic V2’s full specs below:

Honor Magic V2 review: Design

• 156.7 x 74.1 x 9.9mm when folded
• 156.7 x 145.4 x 4.7mm when unfolded
• Weighs just 231g
• No IP water-resistance rating

It’s fitting that this review should begin with our verdict on the Honor Magic V2’s design, because, quite frankly, that’s the most important aspect of any foldable phone. And what a design this is.

The Magic V2 is a large, book-style foldable that looks similar to the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Pixel Fold, but by measuring just 156.7 x 74.1 x 9.9mm when folded and 156.7 x 145.4 x 4.7mm when unfolded, it’s also the thinnest foldable smartphone available in the world right now.

The Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Pixel Fold measure 6.1mm and 5.8 mm at their thinnest, respectively, so for Honor to undercut both models by more than a millimeter is seriously impressive. To help you visualize just how thin the Magic V2 is when unfolded, imagine two Euro coins stacked on top of each other – you could probably pass this phone underneath your bedroom door.

The Magic V2 trumps the competition at its thickest, too, measuring just 9.9mm when folded (versus 13.4mm for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and 12.1mm for the Pixel Fold). In candy bar mode, Honor’s latest foldable is just one millimeter thicker than the conventionally-designed Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, and at 231g, it’s also 3g lighter.

So, yes, the Magic V2 is the thinnest and lightest book-style foldable money can buy right now, which likewise makes it the most physically practical device of its kind. Foldable phones – not least the Honor Magic VS – have often been criticized for being heavy, un-pocketable devices, but Honor has gone some way to mitigating that criticism here.

The Chinese manufacturer has used “proprietary steel” and a titanium hinge – one that can supposedly be folded up to 400,000 times – to achieve such impressive design credentials on the Magic V2, with the phone’s dual “silicon-carbon batteries” also measuring just 2.72mm thick (that’s about the thickness of a credit card).

The major downside of all that aesthetic innovation is that the Magic V2 offers no official IP rating – meaning it’s not as water resistant as, say, the Galaxy Z Fold 5. Honor told us that the Magic V2 can comfortably withstand the odd shower sprinkling, but this is definitely not a phone to be taken for an underwater photoshoot.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Honor Magic V2 review: Display

• 7.92-inch OLED foldable display
• 6.43-inch OLED cover display

Being a foldable phone, the Honor Magic V2 has two displays. The first is a 7.92-inch, 2156 x 2344-pixel foldable OLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support, and a peak brightness of 1,600 nits. The second is a 6.43-inch, 120Hz OLED cover display with a 1060 x 2376 resolution, which uses drop-resistant nanocrystal glass.

Both screens have around 402 pixels per inch, and use Honor’s proprietary dynamic dimming display technology to achieve an impressive 3840Hz PWM dimming cycle rate, which essentially helps to minimize strain on the eyes (PWM refers to the management of screen flicker). You’ll find the same display smarts inside the Honor Magic 5 Pro and Honor 90.

In practice, the Magic V2’s dual displays are big, bright, smooth and more than suitable for gaming and watching movies (thanks in part to that aforementioned HDR10+ support). They’re largely in line with what you’ll get from the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Pixel Fold, though the former has slightly smaller bezels around its edges.

• Display score: 5 / 5

Honor Magic V2 review: Cameras

• 50MP (f/1.9) main lens
• 50MP (f/2.0) ultra-wide lens
• 20MP (f/2.4) telephoto lens, with 2.5x optical zoom
• 16MP front-facing camera

Understandably, foldable phone manufacturers have yet to make cameras the core focus of their dual-screen devices, and that doesn’t change with the Honor Magic V2. That said, Honor has nonetheless equipped the Magic V2 with a respectable trio of rear lenses. 

Specifically, the phone boasts a 50MP (f/1.9) main lens, a 50MP (f/2.0) ultra-wide lens, and a 20MP (f/2.4) telephoto lens, with the latter offering 2.5x optical zoom. The main and telephoto cameras also have optical image stabilization (OIS). There’s a 16MP front camera on each screen, too. On the video front, you can shoot in up to 4K quality at up to 60 frames per second.

The OnePlus Open represents the current standard for foldable phone cameras, with its 48MP (f/1.7) main lens, 48MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide lens and 64MP (f/2.6) telephoto lens offering 3x optical zoom. The Magic V2 can’t match the Open (nor, in truth, the Google Pixel Fold) for photographic versatility, but it’s certainly not far behind either phone in terms of overall image quality.

The Magic V2’s rear snappers – particularly that 48MP main lens – deliver consistently detailed, well-lit photos that will no doubt satisfy most users. Nightography is decent, too, though the OnePlus Open and Pixel Fold edge the Magic V2 in this department, owing to their larger sensor and more advanced AI smarts, respectively. 

As we’ve come to expect from Honor phones, colors captured on the Magic V2 are exceptionally vivid. By and large, this is a good thing, but the phone sometimes takes things too far, to a point where the balance looks off. As you can see in the above photos – taken on a bright sunny day – greens can appear really green and blues can appear really blue. I’d rather this be the case than having too little contrast, but the Magic V2’s tendency to overcompensate in the colors department can occasionally make photos look a tad artificial. 

The phone’s telephoto zoom lens is consistently great at 2.5x magnification, maintaining impressive levels of detail in almost all lighting conditions. However, things take a turn for the ugly at 10x magnification, when blur creeps in to soften all that glorious detail. 

As for the Magic V2’s 16MP front cameras, they’ll do a suitable job on video calls, but don’t expect to capture Instagram-breaking selfies with this phone.

• Cameras score: 3 / 5

Honor Magic V2 review: Performance and software

• Runs Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset
• Runs MagicOS 7.2 atop Android 13
• Available in a single storage configuration: 512GB (with 16GB RAM)

Under the hood, the Honor Magic V2 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, which is the brain you’ll find inside many of last year’s best Android phones.

At the time of the phone’s China release, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 marked the latest and greatest Qualcomm mobile chipset, but the Magic V2’s delayed arrival in Europe means that – in terms of on-paper performance – it now plays second fiddle to newer phones that use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, like those in the Samsung Galaxy S24 line.

That sounds like a bad thing, but in reality, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 remains a phenomenally speedy chipset that can handle browsing, streaming and gaming – or all three simultaneously – with ease (this is 2024, after all). In European markets, the Magic V2 only comes in one configuration – 16GB RAM with 512GB of storage – but that pairing is enough to deliver the level of performance you’d expect from a four-figure Android flagship. 

Other performance specs include a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, 5G support and stereo speakers, and the Magic V2 supports a stylus on both of its screens, too – though, unlike in China, this isn’t included with the phone, which is a little disappointing.

On the software front, the Magic V2 runs MagicOS 7.2 – which is based on the now-year-old Android 13 – and comes pre-equipped with Google apps, meaning the likes of the Play Store, Maps and Gmail are ready and waiting on first boot-up. 

MagicOS 7.2 is well-optimized for dual-screen multitasking, offering support for split and floating windows, and the Magic V2 comes equipped a raft of enhanced smart features – like Parallel Space, which lets you use apps from the its ‘Main Space’ and ‘Parallel Space’ at the same time (these two virtual spaces can run apps independently without affecting each other). As such, you could theoretically play two games at the same time on the Magic V2, which, although gimmicky, does at least serve as proof of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2’s enduring power in 2024.

Unfortunately, there’s not much in the way of customization options on Honor’s latest foldable. Lock screen customization, for instance, is incredibly limited, as is the functionality of the phone’s always-on display (AOD). Some apps need to be forcibly blown up to full-screen mode, too, despite clearly being optimized for dual-screen use, and there’s also a dizzying amount of user agreements to get through on first use.

None of these issues are deal-breakers – generally speaking, the software on offer here is perfectly fine. However, MagicOS is certainly less polished than Samsung’s One UI 6 or Google’s proprietary version of Android; which is a shame, given that the Magic V2 boasts objectively superior hardware to both of those phones.

The good news is, Honor is clearly willing to iron out the kinks. The brand has pledged to support the Magic V2 with an impressive five years of security updates and four years of Android updates, which is in line with Samsung’s update commitment to the Galaxy Z Fold 5. Note, though, that the move to Android 14 will swallow up one of those four Android updates.

• Performance and software score: 4 / 5

Honor Magic V2 review: Battery life

• 5,000mAh battery delivers all-day battery life
• 66W SuperCharge charger not included in the box

Like its predecessor, the Honor Magic V2 packs a dual 5,000mAh battery that can be fully recharged using Honor’s 66W SuperCharge tech in under an hour. Annoyingly, Honor won’t include this charger in the box, but I’d recommend picking it up for the extra £24.99 expense if you don’t already have a similarly powerful USB-C charging brick.

Using that charger, I was able to reach 48% and 80% charge in 15 minutes and 30 minutes, respectively (from a completely dead state). A full charge of the Magic V2 took just 48 minutes, which is pretty darn impressive for a phone packing a battery of this size.

That 5,000mAh cell is larger than the one you’ll find inside both the Galaxy Z Fold 5 (4,400mAh) and Pixel Fold (4,727mAh), but it’s worth remembering that this increased size doesn’t come at the expense of weight (quite the opposite, in fact). 

On the battery life front, I was able to use Magic V2 all day – or rather, from about 8am to 11pm – without issue, and I’d still have an hour or two of juice left at bedtime. I also found that I’d get around 40 mins of last-ditch charge from the phone while the battery icon was near-totally depleted, which was a welcome surprise.

Unfortunately, the Magic V2 doesn’t offer wireless charging, so the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Pixel Fold win out on that front. However, the phone’s manual charging speeds are far superior to those of its big-name competitors, which I think is the more valuable feature.

• Battery score: 4 / 5

Should you buy the Honor Magic V2?

Buy it if…