The Honor Magic V2 has arrived. You can check out our early hands-on Honor Magic V2 review here, as the phone has officially launched globally at this year’s IFA 2023 conference.
We’re deep in foldable phone season, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 having recently landed, and the OnePlus Open on the way. But there’s now another contender for our best foldable phones list, as the Honor Magic V2 has arrived. It was already out in China, but now it’s had a global unveiling and we’ve had hands-on time with the new foldable.
Below, you’ll find full details about the Honor Magic V2, including key specs and features of the phone.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The next foldable flagship from Honor
- When is it out? Launched globally on September 1
- How much will it cost? Uncertain but certainly a lot
Honor Magic V2: release date and price
- Launched globally on September 1
- Likely to cost at least $1,250 / £980 / AU$1,920
The Honor Magic V2 was first unveiled on July 12, but that was just for China. Now its foldable flagship was unveiled at IFA 2023 on September 1.
The Honor Magic V2 will be available in the UK and Europe soon, although no exact timeline has been given. It is unlikely to be available in the US or Australia, as with most Honor devices.
Embrace the best of both worlds—all in one! #UnfoldTomorrow at #IFA23 Berlin on Sep 1, 10:00 CEST, and observe the future of design—a superposition of two worlds meticulously engineered. #HONORIFA2023 #honormagicv2 Learn more: https://t.co/jYt44LkrAH pic.twitter.com/rfQqEm6pFwAugust 7, 2023
As for what the phone will cost, we’re unsure of that, too, but in China it has a starting price of 8,999 yuan, which converts to around $1,250 / £980 / AU$1,920.
Honor Magic V2: design
- Very slim at just 4.7mm thick when unfolded
- Light at 231g
- No IP rating
The Honor Magic V2 is a large, book-style foldable with a design similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Google Pixel Fold.
However, it stands out through being thinner than either of them, at just 4.7mm thick when unfolded, and 9.9mm thick when folded shut. It’s also lighter than those rivals at just 231g. This is achieved at least in part through the use of ‘proprietary steel’ and a titanium hinge.
The full dimensions of the Honor Magic V2 are 156.7 x 145.4 x 4.7mm when unfolded and 156.7 x 74.1 x 9.9mm when folded, not including the camera bump, which adds a negligible amount to the thickness.
In China, the phone comes in a choice of Silk Black, Black, Silk Purple, and Gold shades, with some having a glass back and others being eco leather, though whether the same selection of colors will be offered globally remains to be seen.
One point against the phone is that there’s no official IP rating, so don’t count on it being water resistant, which its most prominent international rivals are.
Honor Magic V2: display
- A 7.92-inch foldable OLED display
- A 6.43-inch secondary outer screen
The Honor Magic V2 has a 7.92-inch, 2156 x 2344-pixel foldable OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support, and a peak brightness of 1,600 nits.
It also has a 6.43-inch, 120Hz OLED cover display with a 1060 x 2376 resolution, which uses drop-resistant nanocrystal glass, and both screens have around 402 pixels per inch.
These are competitive specs that, in the case of both screens, are largely in line with what you’ll get from key rivals. The Honor Magic V2 also has smaller bezels around its foldable display than the Pixel Fold has, but slightly bigger ones than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5.
Honor Magic V2: cameras and battery
- 50MP + 50MP + 20MP rear cameras
- Two 16MP selfie cameras
- A 5,000mAh battery with 66W charging
The Honor Magic V2 has three cameras on the back, specifically a 50MP f/1.9 main camera, a 50MP f/2.0 ultra-wide, and a 20MP f/2.4 telephoto, offering 2.5x optical zoom. The main and telephoto cameras also have optical image stabilization (OIS).
There’s also a 16MP front camera on each screen in a punch-hole cut-out. Though, of course, the foldable design means you can use the rear cameras with the cover screen anyway. When it comes to video, you can shoot in up to 4K quality at up to 60fps.
The battery in the Honor Magic V2 is a 5,000mAh cell, which means it’s larger than the batteries in most foldable phones. It also charges faster than most, at 66W. Honor claims that this wattage allows you to fully charge the phone in around 45 minutes, which, if true, is impressive.
Honor Magic V2: specs and features
- Powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset
- 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage
The Honor Magic V2 is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, just like most of the best Android phones of 2023, including models in the Samsung Galaxy S23 line and the OnePlus 11. It also comes with 16GB of RAM and a choice of 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage – though we might not see all of those options offered globally.
Other specs and features include a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, 5G support, stereo speakers, and Android 13 software, overlaid with the company’s MagicOS 7.2 UI.
The Honor Magic V2 supports a stylus on both of its screens, too, and this stylus is included with the phone – at least in the case of the Chinese model.
And finally, ahead of the phone’s global unveiling at IFA, Honor shared a video promoting the Honor Magic V2’s Parallel Space functionality, which lets you use apps from the device’s ‘Main Space’ and ‘Parallel Space’ on one screen at the same time.
Honor says that these two virtual spaces can run apps independently without affecting each other – the aforementioned video shows a YouTuber playing two versions of the same game on a single Magic V2 device – so we’re excited to see what possibilities this feature affords the everyday user.
