Honor Magic V2: One of the Most Compelling Foldables I’ve Ever Used

Honor’s Magic V2 is among the most compelling foldable telephones I’ve ever used. From the light-weight design and vivid, expansive shows to the respectable cameras and reliable battery life, there’s loads I like about it. Ahead of its European launch, Honor despatched me the worldwide model of the Magic V2, and it impressed me as quickly as I took it out of the field.
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This telephone is unusually moveable, for one factor. And it does not essentially really feel like I’m holding a foldable telephone, until I slide my thumb over to the place the screens meet. The V2 remains to be the lightest and slimmest book-style foldable telephone accessible, despite the fact that it was first launched final yr. When folded, it is simply 9.9 millimeters thick, making it barely thicker than a bar telephone and handy to hold round. For reference, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5, a direct V2 competitor, is 13.46 mm thick when it is closed.Read extra: Best Foldable Phones in 2024The Magic V2 weighs 231 grams. That’s 2 grams lower than Samsung’s new Galaxy S24 Ultra and greater than 50 grams lower than the Google Pixel Fold. The V2’s skinny and light-weight design makes it really feel extra like an everyday telephone and fewer like an experiment. (I ought to observe that the OnePlus Open, which my colleague Eli Blumenthal reviewed final yr, comes near matching the V2’s svelte, light-weight construct.) Despite the telephone’s compact dimension, Honor managed to pack it with flagship specs, together with final yr’s still-peppy Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, a triple-camera module full with a telephoto lens and a big battery that helps 66-watt quick charging.  Sareena Dayaram/CNETBut as compelling as it’s, the Magic V2 nonetheless has some shortcomings. It does not have an official IP score for water- and dust-resistance. The Z Fold 5, by comparability, is rated IPX8 for water-resistance and might be immersed below 1.5 meters of freshwater for as much as 30 minutes. Nearly all foldables lack dust-resistance aside from the IP52-rated Motorola Razr Plus, which provides some resistance towards mud and water splashes. It does not have stylus help both, not like the Z Fold 5 and OnePlus Open.Not all apps are optimized for the V2’s screens both, which is an identical challenge my friends had reviewing different foldables. The CNN app, for instance, is not but optimized for the internal display screen once you obtain them. But you possibly can change the decision within the Settings panel, and it mainly resolved the issue. The Magic V2 is on sale in elements of Europe and the UK, beginning immediately for £1,700 (converts to roughly $2,160 or AU$3,280) or 1,999 euros. This is a decrease beginning value within the UK than the £1,749 Galaxy Z Fold 5 ($1,800, AU$2,559), however the Z Fold 5 prices 1,899 euros. Honor says there are presently no plans for a launch within the United States.I beforehand wrote about my expertise with the show and design {hardware} of the Magic V2, when it was launched in China final yr. This article’s protection will give attention to the software program, digital camera, efficiency and battery.  What the Magic V2 appears like when folded. Sareena Dayaram/CNETUsing the Magic V2Thanks to the abundance of display screen actual property, the Magic V2’s massive inner show makes it a superior multitasker in comparison with my regular bar telephone. I might stream a film in a single window, browse Instagram on the opposite, and sort out an electronic mail in a 3rd floating window. I might additionally take notes when on Zoom calls since I might overlay a Zoom video over a phrase doc. The Magic V2 runs on MagicOS 7.2 based mostly on Android 13, which Honor says provides a slew of sensible options to help in multitasking. A singular addition to the combo is a characteristic known as Privacy Call. It’s an AI-based “directional sound technology” designed to stop sound leaking, or when the individual you are speaking to on a name might be heard by individuals round you, even when they don’t seem to be talking loudly. Honor says the display screen and the receiver work collectively to regulate the quantity of the incoming audio to swimsuit completely different environments. I examined it out and it labored as marketed.Honor additionally launched a characteristic known as Magic Text, which jogs my memory of the iPhone’s Live Text characteristic from iOS 15 in 2022, that Honor says acknowledges textual content content material on a picture and converts it into editable textual content. Sareena Dayaram/CNETThe Magic V2’s 5 camerasThe Magic V2 has 5 cameras. You get a 50-megapixel predominant digital camera, 50-megapixel ultrawide digital camera and a 20-megapixel digital camera with a telephoto lens on the again. You also can use this trio to take selfies because of the foldable design of the Magic V2, and you can too use the duvet display screen as a viewfinder. There’s a 16-megapixel digital camera on the duvet display screen and a second 16-megapixel digital camera below the show of the internal display screen. Here are the cameras in motion. Under vivid lighting environments, this telephone managed to take crisp and shade correct photographs.  Sareena Dayaram/CNET Ultrawide digital camera instance.  Sareena Dayaram/CNET Taken on default settings. Sareena Dayaram/CNET Example of two.5x zoom. Sareena Dayaram/CNET 10x zoom instance. Sareena Dayaram/CNET Zoomed all the best way in at 40x. Notice how the picture begins to seem like a watercolor portray. Sareena Dayaram/CNET Taken indoors. The digital camera manages to seize the flecks of mud on the desk in addition to the shadows on the wall. Sareena Dayaram/CNET My canine Rocky’s fur coat is a hotter golden brown in actual life.  Sareena Dayaram/CNETIn normal, images from the V2 are respectable, however they don’t seem to be the most effective you will get from a telephone. Photos taken with vivid mild have been good. However, I discovered the pictures shadowy in indoor or low mild environments. If you are not a die-hard photographer, then the V2’s cameras ought to be simply high-quality for taking snaps. To be honest, the V2 is not the one folding telephone with this challenge. Foldable telephones’ cameras are usually a weak spot in comparison with equally priced non-foldable telephones. You’re primarily paying for the telephone’s massive, versatile show that permits multitasking slightly than for the form of top-of-the-line cameras you discover on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Pixel 8 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max. Magic V2 battery and efficiencyHonor crammed a 5,000-mAh silicon carbon battery into the Magic V2’s slim and svelte body. In my expertise, the battery lasted all through the day after reasonable use: fast telephone calls, social media scrolling, studying emails, watching YouTube movies and listening to music. For the total evaluate, I’ll present a spread of battery endurance assessments.Since it was launched in 2023, the Magic V2 runs on that yr’s top-of-the-line processor from Qualcomm, which is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. In my expertise, it might deal with nearly the whole lot I threw at it, together with graphic-intensive video games like Genshin Impact and working Zoom video calls whereas taking notes. Here’s the way it stacks up towards some rivals.Performance assessments PhoneGeekbench 6 single-coreGeekbench 6 multicore Honor Magic V2 1,8244,254Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 2,0145,419Google Pixel Fold 1,4583,540OnePlus Open 1,5714,556Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 1,8424,508 ConclusionOverall, I used to be impressed with the Magic V2 folding telephone. It has slick {hardware} that makes Honor’s Magic V2 essentially the most moveable book-style foldable telephone I’ve ever used. It’s backed up by high-end specs together with a zippy processor, a flexible digital camera module with a telephoto lens, an internal display screen with a hard-to-find crease and quick charging. I nonetheless have extra testing to do, so hold a watch out for my full evaluate subsequent week.
Honor’s Magic V2 Foldable Is Lighter Than Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra
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