These days, smartphones rarely surprise me anymore. We’ve long entered an era of iterative improvements, with many handsets just slowly getting thinner, faster, and generally better over the years. The Honor Magic V2 may also be one of these iterations — the latest in Honor’s foldable V series — but it’s the biggest upgrade I’ve seen in a while. Holding it in my hand for the first time, I couldn’t get over just how thin it is, all while barely weighing more than most of thebest smartphones out there.
Honor’s whole pitch for the Magic V2 is about exceptional thinness that doesn’t compromise on features. The company touts that its hardware weighs just 231g, with a thickness of 9.9mm folded and 4.7mm when unfolded. That makes it almost as thin as many Android phones out there, and just a tad lighter than the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max at 240g. When handling the phone, this is all immediately noticeable.
I have tested many foldables and phones, but the Magic V2 is one of only a few devices that genuinely made me pause in surprise when first picking it up. If you didn’t see the hinge and the dual frames on the other side, it would be almost impossible to tell that it folds. It’s quitemagical(I’m sorry) that it can fold open to reveal a bigger screen on the inside.
One factor that makes me appreciate the thinness of this foldable even more could be that I’m testing theFairphone 5right now. It’s incredible how far the company has come over its last five generations of phones, but it’s still slightly bigger than a regular smartphone that isn’t user-repairable. When held next to each other, it makes the Magic V2 feel even more impossibly thin — though it’s probably not quite fair to compare these two devices.
Honor Magic V2
Despite this thin form factor, Honor still manages to put the latest and greatest silicon in it. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 serves as the centerpiece, combined with up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The two displays both offer 120Hz refresh rates and high resolutions — even if the outer screen can get significantly brighter than the inner one. That’s paired with a competitive camera setup that includes a telephoto lens. As if all this weren’t crazy enough, there’s also a 5,000mAh battery that has no right fitting into a phone this small.
To achieve this feat, Honor re-engineered the hinge mechanism with titanium that’s supposed to provide enough rigidness for the phone to not snap. It’s rated for up to 400,000 folds in its lifetime, which Honor says translates to about 100 folds every day for 10 years. The battery employs a novel silicon-carbon chemistry that allows it to pack more energy in less space, which certainly also helps.
The fact that the Magic V2 is so thin that it feels like a regular smartphone actually raises another question: What’s the point of adding a bigger screen on the inside? After all, if the phone feels like a regular phone, and most Android apps are optimized for that form factor, why would you ever open it?
Honor wants it to be a matter of choice. Rather than making the user open the foldable in order to do anything really useful on it (as is the case with flip phones or the Z Fold 5 with its cramped outer screen), you can comfortably use this one as a regular smartphone for your day-to-day needs, Then you still have the big screen available when you watch a film or other video, dig through documents and maps, or want to see desktop-class websites.
Personally, I can get on board with that. Testing theGoogle Pixel Fold, I found myself using the comfortably-sized outer screen more often than the bigger one, if only for the fact that I don’t want to drop it while checking my route or when I’m using it while doing something else with my other hand. The bigger screen still came in handy a lot of the time — it’s just quite nice to have a pocketable tablet at your disposal, and might even eliminate the need for an extra device for many people in the future.
While Honor has announced that the Magic V2 will come to international markets, the company hasn’t shared when — nor at what price. The phone has been on sale in China since July, where it costs 8,999 RMB, which is roughly $1,250. Prices rarely translate 1:1 across markets, though, and we expect the phone to be more closely positioned to the Google Pixel Fold and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 when it comes to the West.
The Honor Magic V2 is the newest iteration in Honor’s foldable lineup, and it’s impossibly thin, undercutting some regular smartphones in thickness even when folded. Despite this, it packs competitive specs, including a big battery, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and great displays outside and inside.
