Design, build quality, handling

Honor didn't really change much about the overall design of its foldable moving from the last gen Magic Vs. You get pretty clean lines and rounded corners and sides for a comfy, in-hand feel.

There is no outward "austerity" so to say. Honor opted for simplistic and clean surfaces. There is nothing particularly recognizable and signature about the main camera island - at least on the 'regular' V2.

The Porsche Design RSR version is bolder in its styling, naturally. There's a ridge running along the vertical center line, and the camera island has its bottom end angled towards that protrusion. It does add personality where there isn't much on the plain model.

If you haven't held a foldable recently, you might be surprised how well and tightly the phone folds on itself. It is almost a perfect 180-degree bend with practically no air gap when folded. It's nothing like the earlier foldable designs from say Samsung (or their later designs, for that matter, up until the Z Fold5). That being said, this tight fit is not exactly an achievement that the Magic can be awarded points for - rather, it's more like the current standard.

These tight radiuses of bending of the foldable display are as much an achievement on the display end of things as they are on the hinge side. The Magic V2 uses a constant-tension style hinge which means that you can leave it open at any angle you desire. There is still a satisfying snap as you close and open it fully. Despite its technically advanced nature, the hinge on the Magic V2 is actually pretty unassuming.

It is colored the same as the rest of the body of the phone and has no specific design elements to it - not even a brand logo. It just disappears away in the background both figuratively and literally once you have the phone fully unfolded.

You can still inject some style and personality into your Magic V2 purchase by opting for one of the different finishes. Officially, the phone comes in a selection of Black, Silk Black, Silk Purple and Gold.

Our review unit is in Silk Purple, which, as the name implies, feels kind of silky and velvety to the touch. Silk Black supposedly has the same surface finish, just in a different color. The Gold option looks more "milky white" from our experience in person and its surface is smooth to the touch.

Then we have what we believe to be the more interesting and "premium looking" variant of the Magic V2, which comes with an eco leather back finish.

We should perhaps clarify that the leather variant of the Magic V2 is a bit thicker, measuring 10.1 mm folded and 4.8 mm unfolded, instead of the 9.9 mm and 4.7 mm of the other versions. The leather also adds a surprising amount of weight with the phone measuring 237 grams instead of 231 grams.

Then there's, of course, the Porsche Design RSR version of the Magic V2 with its own distinct design and styling. We have to admit we quite like the look of it, though carrying Porsche Design branded stuff probably needs a special attitude on life.

As sophisticated as the hinge design is, the display crease remains somewhat of an issue. The hinge itself opens the display up nice and flat, but the crease is just intrinsic to the panel. It is both visible and pretty easy to feel while swiping horizontally.

Whether in Porsche Design or in regular spec, the Honor Magic V2 is a truly premium device, and it feels the part. The hinge is smooth and reassuring. It is made from titanium on the inside, which should last a long time.

As for the two body parts - these also feel very sturdy with practically no flex. We would expect as much, given that the middle frame is made from a magnesium alloy.

The Magic V2 has a glass covering the outer display, though Honor does not specify exactly what kind of toughened glass. The same goes for the back side, unless you go for a leather-backed variant.

Overall, we have no complaints about the build quality of the Honor Magic V2. However, we can't help but look at the competition in the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 in particular and its IPX8 ingress protection rating in envy. The Honor Magic V2 lacks any official IP rating, as is the case with most foldable phones.

That said, we did notice that the SIM tray has a pretty beefy rubber gasket, which suggests that the Magic V2 could, potentially, survive some exposure to the elements. We would definitely not recommend testing that on purpose, though.

As already mentioned, the Honor Magic V2 sits very comfortably in the hand thanks to its rounded corners and sides. While folded, the phone has a surprisingly compact silhouette and is quite easy to operate one-handed. We can easily reach the top corners of the external 6.43-inch display.

Using an unfolded Magic V2 single-handedly is always going to be a challenge. After all, it measures 156.7 x 145.4 mm. Honor tweaked the display aspect ratio a bit coming from the Magic Vs, but regardless, you are going to want to use two hands. Or a hand and a stylus. That also works thanks to the included stylus support on the Magic V2.

In terms of controls, we have to say that the volume rocker and power button are both well-positioned height-wise and easy-enough to use. However, the two controls end up on the two different halves of the device and aren't aligned when the phone is folded, which takes a bit of getting used to for making screenshots, for example.

The Magic V2 has a side-mounted fingerprint reader embedded inside the power button. That is the way things go with current foldables. The reader is very snappy and accurate, and we have no complaints whatsoever.

Large bendy display, large flat one on the cover too

The Magic V2 has a couple of very nice displays that won't leave you wanting in any major way. Both of them are LTPO OLEDs, and they have a 120Hz maximum refresh rate, promise plenty of nits, and have 10-bit color and Dolby Vision support. Both displays support 3840Hz PWM dimming for a flicker-free experience and are also compatible with stylus input.

Starting with the one inside, it has a 7.92-inch diagonal and a 2,156x2,344px resolution in a squarish 9.8:1 (1.09:1) aspect ratio with pixel density working out to 402ppi. That's 10% more area than the Galaxy Z Fold5's internal display display and 28% more pixels.

Admittedly, the Honor isn't as bright as the Galaxy or, for that matter, any of the other major foldables, though we don't think there is anything bad about its 933nits worth of max brightness.

The cover display is possibly more interesting since it's a lot bigger than the Galaxy's (by some 18%), not to mention being in a much more sensible aspect ratio (20.2:9 vs 23.1:9). It's got a 1060x2376px resolution and also a 402ppi density. That cover panel is larger than the other globally available large foldable, the OnePlus Open, if only marginally so.

This panel is noticeably brighter too - we measured just under 1,300nits on the Magic V2's cover display. That's a class-leading result that leaves the Galaxy and the OP Open some 12-13% behind.

Refresh rate

Both displays on the Magic V2 support refresh rates up to 120Hz and both are LTPO so they should be able to adjust that refresh rate dynamically and in relatively fine steps. In practice, we only saw 120Hz and 60Hz values, plus the occasional 90Hz.

Of course, there's the usual selection of modes that let you cap things at 60Hz or leave most of the frame rate selection to the phone. The high refresh rate was available for gaming on most of the 2D arcade titles that we normally try, though some 3D games were capped at 60Hz/60fps.

Streaming and HDR

The Magic V2 supports all the major HDR standards, including HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, and it has Widevine L1 for high-res DRM-protected content streaming. The Netflix app did confirm Dolby Vision, both in the playback spec and visually, and YouTube also gave us HDR streams.

Being still on Android 13, the Magic V2 doesn't really support the Ultra HDR image format ushered in with Android 14, though it does have the capability to display its own photos with a highlight brightness boost in its own gallery app. It doesn't work with photos from other phones though, and it doesn't work in Google Photos either.

Honor Magic V2 battery life

Our new Active Use Score is an estimate of how long the battery will last if you use the device with a mix of all four test activities. You can adjust the calculation based on your usage pattern using the sliders below. You can read about our current battery life testing procedure here. For a comprehensive list of all tested devices so far, head this way.

The Magic V2 features a relatively new type of battery, silicon-carbon, with a 5,000mAh capacity. That's an impressive amount, given that it fits inside the thinnest book-type foldable in the world at the time of release (9.9mm) and one of the lightest ones too at 231g.

Let's first look at the numbers for the large folding display as that is where most of the action is. The Magic V2 beats its foldable opponents on capacity, however, efficiency leaves a lot to be desired. Gaming is the one area where the phone does truly well for its class, but even then, it only matches the Galaxy Z Fold5.

In the other categories, the V2 loses and by a fairly large margin too. As a result, the Magic V2 achieves an uninspiring Active Use Score that is roughly an hour and a half short of its main opposition.

Moving over to the cover display, the talk time is the same, of course, as we do the test with the screen off. The web and video scores go up by 36% and 37%, respectively; the gaming time adds 19%.

In this scenario, the Magic V2 places between the Galaxy Z Fold5 and the OnePlus Open, which is a win considering it has by far the largest external screen of the three. Still, the Active Use Score of 13:29 falls a bit short of traditional bar phones.

Charging speed

The Magic V2 ships with a 66W Honor SuperCharge adapter, the same one we got with the Magic Vs, and the same one we tested the Magic6 Pro with (since that one ships without a charger). The V2 returned slightly slower results than the Vs, so maybe it's the new battery chemistry that's better for density but not quite as great for charging speed. That said, the Magic V2 does remain meaningfully faster than the Galaxy in this regard.

The Magic V2 doesn't have wireless charging, though, which the Galaxy Z Fold5 does feature. Then again, the OnePlus Open is also lacking in this respect.

Speaker test

The Magic V2 features a two-speaker system with the units placed on each end of the handset's top half (when folded) - essentially the same arrangement as on the Magic Vs. As before, the top speaker outputs upward through a grille in the frame as well as through an earpiece slit, so it serves double duty.

We'd be surprised if it hadn't been the same on the Vs. But the V2's top speaker gets the right channel when you're holding the device in a vertical orientation, whether in phone or tablet mode - most other implementations assign the left channel to the top speaker. In landscape, the software will send the correct channel to each speaker to match the orientation of the phone in space. In any case, either speaker will also output some of the opposite channel's sound at a much lower volume.

Bottom speaker • Top speaker

The Magic V2 earned a 'Good' rating for loudness, a notch below the previous model. That also means it's not as loud as the company's regular flagship, the Magic6 Pro, or the de facto foldable standard, the Galaxy Z Fold5. The V2 is louder than the OnePlus Open, so there's that. Sound quality is good on the V2, certainly better than on the Open, though not quite as well balanced as on the Galaxy.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.

Still Magic OS 7.2, and still Android 13 underneath

The Honor Magic V2 is still running MagicOS 7.2 on top of Android 13 - that's essentially the same software we had on the Vs before it, with only a 0.1 increment on the in-house layer. Either way, MagicOS means you get fully-functional Android with support for the Google apps suite, unlike Huawei's software builds, which are limited in one way or another.

Word on the street is that there's ongoing beta testing of an Android 14 upgrade for the foldable, but we're already way more than fashionably late with this review to be waiting any longer for another OTA. The Magic6 Pro from a couple of months ago is on Android 14 with MagicOS 8, but not so on the V2.

MagicOS 7.2 on the V2 looks and feels a lot like the 7.1 on the Vs, only with a bit of extra polish. You get the large folders functionality and the cards bar that sits under app icons to indicate that the app supports cards (another name for the in-house widgets). Still missing is an app info button upon long press - to get to the app permissions and such, you need to go through the main settings menu.

MagicOS 7.2 basics

On the internal display, you get the same homescreens as on the cover one, two of them side by side. Certain apps that have a tablet UI will switch to that, as will the settings menu.

Main screen interface

There's a rather well-implemented and intuitive multi-window functionality for the internal display. A horizontal split is also available - something you can't get on all foldables.

Multi-tasking on the main screen

Benchmarks

The Magic V2 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which isn't too surprising, given that it was announced last summer. But key competitors like the Galaxy Z Fold5 and the OnePlus Open are also on the same generation silicon, so it's not like the Magic will be underequipped in comparison.

And indeed, the 4nm SD 8 Gen 2 remains plenty powerful today. It's got an octa-core CPU (X3 + 2xA715 + 2xA710 + 3xA510 core configuration) with the prime X3 core clocked at 3.2GHz for our international version of the device (3.36GHz for the China spec). All variants feature 16GB of RAM and there are three storage options - 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. Our review unit is the 512GB version and the storage speeds we've been getting in benchmarks are consistent with the UFS 4.0 standard.

In our usual CPU benchmarks, the Magic V2 returned numbers that are about what you'd expect from its chipset, maybe just above the average. There was a bit of a difference in the CPU scores between the 'regular' and 'performance' modes, which also impacted the Antutu scores, but overall things are up to the expected high standard.

We've discontinued GFXBench graphics benchmarking as the app is often banned/blacklisted on the phones we receive for review. The graphics performance ranking in 3D Mark is just as meaningful, so we suggest you refer to that one instead.

What wasn't particularly great was the Magic V2's behavior under stress, with a fairly erratic graph in the CPU Throttling test and rather low results for stability both under prolonged loads both on the CPU and the GPU.

CPU Throttling test • 3DMark Wild Life stress test

The hair comb effect in the CPU performance graph gets even more pronounced in performance mode, where the high-performance bursts are shorter and the dips are deeper. There was also an unusually choppy result in the 3DMark Wild Life Stress test.

All things considered, while far from ideal, the behavior is easily explained with the V2's slimline build, and we wouldn't expect much more from it. Nor would we make too big of a deal out of these graphs, really.

Performance mode: CPU Throttling test • 3DMark Wild Life stress test

50MP main and ultrawide cameras, 20MP telephoto

The Magic V2 has a triple camera on its back, in a mostly conventional arrangement of a wide primary unit, an ultrawide, and a short telephoto. Honor isn't being too open about the hardware inside the phone though, and we're left guessing about specifics such as sensor and pixel sizes, let alone the names of the components.

What we do know is that the primary camera is based on a 50MP sensor, paired with a stabilized 25mm lens with an f/1.9 aperture.

The ultrawide camera features another 50MP sensor, in this case mated to a 13mm lens with an f/2.0 aperture. This camera also has autofocus.

The telephoto is where most foldables don't quite deliver, and the ultra-thin V2 doesn't sound like a prime suspect for miracles in this area, particularly with its modest camera bump. Indeed, it has a 20MP sensor for the task, with a Quad Bayer color filter, by all accounts. That sits behind a 62mm lens, which does have OIS.

An 8x8 array of laser beams is used to aid focusing across all three rear cameras.

• Wide (main): 50MP, f/1.9, 25mm, PDAF, 8x8 dToF Laser AF, OIS; 4K@60fps
• Ultrawide: 50MP, f/2.0, 13mm, PDAF; 4K@60fps
• Telephoto: 20MP, f/2.4, 62mm, PDAF, OIS; FullHD@60fps
• Cover/internal camera: 16MP, f/2.2, 21mm, fixed focus; 4K@30fps

More than just a party trick, the ability to use the rear cameras while getting a viewfinder on the cover screen makes large foldables some of the best options for capturing selfies - the Magic V2 included. And sure enough, you can also enable the live view when taking photos of other people.

Rear camera selfies • Live view for your subjects

Daylight photo quality

Main camera

The Magic V2's main camera captures excellent daylight photos. They are packed with detail and there's a nice, natural rendition to it. Colors are vibrant but not to an extent we'd call overdone - the level of saturation is quite pleasing, we'd say. Dynamic range is great as well.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x)

Here's a handful of people shots to show you how the phone deals with skin tones, and the corresponding scenes captured in Portrait mode.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x), Photo mode

Daylight samples, main camera (1x), Portrait mode

The 2x zoom level in Portrait mode produces pretty decent results too.

Daylight samples, main camera (2x), Portrait mode

The full-res mode doesn't make a world of difference in terms of resolved detail, so it's not all too useful.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 50MP

Telephoto camera (2.5x)

The telephoto camera's results don't excite us very much. While they are sharp and nicely detailed on a per-pixel level, there's simply not a lot of pixels - 5MP is quite a low resolution in our book. Colors and dynamic range are on point though, no complaints there.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (2.5x)

The full-resolution mode does produce 20MP shots which tend to look better in terms of detail than the 5MP ones, depending on the subject matter. Essentially everything has potential to be captured with added definition, though greenery can look a little sketchy. Overall, we'd probably prefer to shoot in 20MP on the telephoto, but that requires switching modes when you want to switch zoom levels, which is a clunky solution.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (2.5x), 20MP

The Magic maintains good color reproduction with human subjects too, whether in Photo mode or in Portrait mode.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (2.5x), Photo mode

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (2.5x), Portrait mode

Ultrawide camera (18mm)

the ultrawide brings us back into praise territory. It captures superb photos with excellent detail and sharpness almost all the way out to the extreme corners. The close focusing also means you can capture nearby objects for exaggerated perspectives. Once again, you're being treated to lovely colors and wide dynamic range.

Daylight samples, ultrawide camera

The 50MP mode doesn't include distortion correction, so you'll be seeing some waviness of lines towards the periphery. Contrast also drops and there's not much to be gained in detail.

Daylight samples, ultrawide camera, 50MP

Selfies

Selfies on the Magic V2, as with any large foldable, are best captured with the rear cameras, with the cover screen viewfinder enabled. If you can't be bothered to make the extra effort, the 16MP selfie camera in the cover screen will do an okay job. The internal selfie camera is the same, but taking photos on it with the V2 in tablet mode is quite the finger exercise, so we're seeing that as more of a video call camera.

Selfie samples, cover camera

Still, for the best possible results, the rear camera is the real selfie camera, offering nicer colors, wider dynamic range and improved performance in dimmer conditions.

Selfie samples, main camera

You can also opt for the ultrawide, though beware that if you just stretch your arm out and place your face in the center of the frame, there will be a lot of arm in the photo. To avoid slenderman results, put in some effort into more interesting compositions.

Selfie samples, main camera

Low-light photo quality

Main camera

In low light the Magic V2 is a very capable performer, giving you great results without much fuss - no need to go into Night mode and no need to wait for it to do its magic. We got vibrant colors with dependable auto white balance. Dynamic range is excellent, giving us relatively bright shadows (which we tend to like) and good highlight preservation with only some haloing around bright colorful lights. We're generally liking the detail too, even if the phone's noise reduction practices may be smoothening out some textures.

Low-light samples, main camera (1x)

Telephoto camera

The telephoto continues along a similar path with the global properties. We have little reason to complain about exposure and dynamic range with perhaps the highlight recovery being a bit too aggressive on occasion resulting in some false color around light sources (the warm floodlights in the first sample). Colors are generally accurate and have a nice level of pop too.

Then comes the matter of detail. Even if the 5MP default resolution doesn't sound like much, the images maintain great sharpness even in the dark, and they do let you see more in the distance than what can be resolved on the main camera. Still, we'd have been happier with something along the lines of 8MP, at least.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (2.5x)

The 20MP full resolution mode doesn't seem to be helping much.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (2.5x), 20MP

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide's photos in the dark are good, but not spectacular. They are on the soft side, when examined up close, but they do have great exposure and dynamic range. The color reproduction is hard to fault too.

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera

Video recording

The Magic V2 records video up to 4K60 on its main camera and the ultrawide. The telephoto itself is capped at 1080p60, but if you have the resolution set to 4K and tap on the 2.5x button, you'll get a zoomed in view from the main camera (the results of which you'll likely not appreciate).

The default codec is h.264, but you can opt for h.265 by flipping a toggle in settings. Stabilization is available in all modes and is always on. HDR10+ recording is also on the menu.

Video quality out of the Magic V2 is in the okay category. White balance is on point and colors have a pleasing level of saturation. Contrast is high, with a touch too harsh rolloff at the extremes, but nothing too bothersome.

Things get sketchier when discussing detail, though. The main camera is good overall, but sharpening is pretty aggressive. The ultrawide is a bit too soft for our liking. Finally, while the main-camera-sourced 4K30 2.5x zoom footage is plain bad, the otherwise solid 1080p from the telephoto camera is just 1080p.

What we can't complain about is stabilization, which is thoroughly excellent from the main and the ultrawide cameras and pretty good on the telephoto as well.

In the dark, things are pretty noisy on both the main camera and the ultrawide. The main camera's footage still maintains a decent level of detail, though the noise is a bit annoying, while the ultrawide's footage is quite soft. The telephoto's 1080p results aren't nearly as noisy, they're just soft and relatively dark.

Video sample playlist

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.

Competition

The Magic V2 may not be exactly hot off the press, but it's about as current as the Honor lineup has to offer and it's plenty competitive against others of its kind. You can have one for about €1600 and while that's hardly pocket change, big-screen foldables haven't been known for their affordability.

That said, opting for the Galaxy Z Fold5 does stand to save you some money - anywhere between €200 and €300 if you go for a base 12GB/256GB spec, though depending on market and moment, you could save as much and get the half terabyte. The Fold's biggest downside is its small and tall cover screen - you could try and rationalize around it, but you'll very likely end up wanting to spend more time with your large foldable folded that you've initially thought and the Galaxy is suboptimal in this state. The Honor, on the other hand, shines in one-handed folded use thanks to a sensibly proportioned display (unlike the Galaxy's) and nicely slim body. The Honor isn't water-resistant though, and the Z Fold5 does carry an IPX8 badge.

The Galaxy will likely serve you a lot better as a video camera and possibly as a camera altogether, though if you're leaning more into ultrawide photography, then go Magic. You can expect slightly better battery life on the Samsung, and noticeably faster charging on the Honor, though if wireless charging is a must, then you'd have to pick the Galaxy. Samsung's software is more polished, but the Honor does offer nice multi-window operation and has stylus support, so it's not really trailing too much. Overall, we'd say the Galaxy is the better value here.

The value proposition of the OnePlus Open is more debatable, with the numbers we're seeing being roughly €100 to €200 higher than the Honor's. It's only sort of water-resistant (IPX4), but it's something, and it lasts a little longer, while also being about as fast as the Honor to charge. The OnePlus also has a useful cover display and a competent multitasking solution, so things are mostly neck-and-neck. Where the Open has the biggest chance of justifying its premium is the camera - we can hardly think of a way in which the Honor is better in that regard.

Smallish, but chunky and heavy, the PIxel Fold is a differently proportioned alternative to the Magic V2, at €1500 to €1700 depending on who you ask. While we haven't actually tested the Pixel Fold, we can offer reasonably well educated speculation that it won't last as long as the Honor and will be significantly slower to charge. It does have an IPX8 rating, but somewhat questionable reliability to go with it. The Fold will likely have a rosier update future and probably slightly better camera system, though once again the Honor's ultrawide has the upper hand.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 • OnePlus Open • Google Pixel Fold

Verdict

The Honor Magic V2's has got a great display on the cover and a large bendy one inside, and makes proper good use of both. Its cameras aren't exactly cutting-edge, but where they fall short, they don't do so in a dealbreaking manner. And we were actually quite pleased by the main and the ultrawide units on the back, for stills in particular.

Battery life is bested by some key competitors, and there's no wireless charging capability, but the charging speed sort of makes up for that. The lack of an IP rating isn't great, we'll admit, and the lack of Android 14 upgrade doesn't bode well for the Magic's long-term software future.

Overall, the Honor Magic V2 is probably not the best value in its class. But its main claim to fame is its slim waistline, and if you want the benefits of a large foldable in as close as possible to a bar form factor, this one is shaping up as a top choice.

Pros

• Remarkably compact and lightweight for what it is.
• Excellent displays all around, with stylus support too.
• Speedy wired charging.
• Intuitive and functional multi-window implementation.
• Generally great photo quality from the main camera and the ultrawide in all conditions.

Cons

• No ingress protection rating.
• Battery life when unfolded is below average.
• No wireless charging.
• Still on Android 13, MagicOS has some limitations.
• No 4K video capture from the telephoto, video quality not great altogether.