Through my freelance writing engagement with NXT, I had an opportunity to review the Honor Magic V2 for a few weeks, and has grown to enjoy using it. Even though I don’t really use the inner display that often, the phone does not weigh me down. The biggest advantages of Honor Magic V2 against the other foldable smartphone models are its size and weight. It remains as the world’s thinnest and lightest inward-folding smartphone, at only 9.9mm thickness when folded and 4.7mm unfolded. With a weight of 231 grams, it is lighter than the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra or iPhone 14 Pro Max.
I compared closely with my Google Pixel 7 Pro, and the size is closely matched. The Honor Magic V2 is smaller in surface area when folded, thinner when unfolded, and just slightly thicker when folded. It also weighs a few grams heavier. Overall, the Magic V2 bears no additional size or weight when I carry it as my daily phone.
In the fold mode, using the Magic V2 with the external display feels like a normal smartphone, but better, with premium Honor display technology like 120Hz LTPO, 3840Hz PWM dimming, 2500 nit peak brightness. The 20:9 aspect ratio at 2376×1060 pixels ensures the best viewing experience. The use of second-generation nanocrystal glass provides 10 times more drop-resistant. The Honor Magic OS supports split windows and floating windows with the external display, but that’s not the reason to get the Magic V2.
In the unfold mode, you can immediately experience a productivity increase. I can simply perform multiple tasks simultaneously, either side-by-side view or with floating windows. For my use case, I can play Monopoly Go with auto-dice roll while reading my emails. Another great use case is to run a video stream on a floating window while browsing a primary app on the full screen. Not all apps support split-screen and floating windows mode, but for those who do, there is a short bar at the top of the app and by tapping it, a row of icons will appear to let you choose either full-screen, split-screen, or floating window mode. To push my multi-tasking to the extreme, I can browse four active apps on the screen at the same time, but if you have more than two floating windows, a dock icon appears at the side which lets you switch to the other windows.
Thumb typing would be a challenge over the wide inner screen but with the built-in Swiftkey keyboard app which supports thumb typing mode, I can split the keyboard and adjust the distance that I am comfortable with.
The rear camera system consists of a 50MP Wide Camera (f/1.9, OIS), 50MP Ultra Wide Camera (f/2.0), and 20MP telephoto Camera (f/2.4, OIS), while the front-facing cameras for both interior and exterior screens is 16MP f/2.2. The image-enhancing algorithm will boost the images to look outstanding in contrast and in vibrancy. For casual photography, I do not see any issue.
I appreciate the ultra-wide angle of view that lets me capture more.
The telephoto images are no slouch, and easily usable even at 10x hybrid zoom.
Night scenes are also balanced between the dark and the bright areas.
There are only a few issues I have with the phone. The first is that it takes an effort to unfold the phone. As the sides of the phone are glossy-smooth without a grip, I had to pry my fingernails to split open the phone. The other issue which also happens to other Honor phones running on Magic OS is that the notification for some apps sometimes do not appear due to its aggressive power-saving feature. Another minor pain point is that I cannot access the app info from the home screen icons, something that many other Android OSes allow.
Verdict
The Honor Magic V2 lets me achieve the mobile productivity that I always enjoy on a computer or a tablet, but in a pocketable device. I love the ability to run multiple apps with multiple windows, which improves my productivity many fold. It is so slim, its weight is similar to other flagship models, and it runs fast thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor. This model should be a top choice for the busy executives to perform multiple tasks with ease and confidence. Visit the official product page for more details.
