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A foldable phone that feels like your regular smartphone, when folded.
The HONOR Magic V2 was originally announced in July, but it made its first global appearance at IFA 2023 in Berlin. We’ve decided to give HONOR one of our IFA 2023 awards for the Magic V2, as it truly is an intriguing smartphone, based on my hands-on time with the device. Foldables have been getting thinner and thinner, lighter and lighter, and HONOR really managed to push both those areas to the limit.
It feels like a regular smartphone, but it’s not
From the hardware standpoint, the HONOR Magic V2 is truly intriguing. It really does feel like you’re holding a regular smartphone when it’s closed. It’s also a lot lighter than I thought it would be. The in-hand feel is premium, and so on. Why am I raving on about how thin and light it is? Well, because those are two areas it really has the edge on compared to the competition.
The HONOR Magic V2 is 9.9mm thick, and it weighs 231 grams. That goes for the eco-leather model, the glass model is slightly thicker and heavier. Some of its closest competitors are over 3mm thicker, which is a big deal when you’re talking about foldable smartphones. Also, the HONOR Magic V2 is considerably lighter than most of its competitors, some of them weigh over 20 grams more.
The company used titanium for the hinge, and two Silicon-Carbon batteries
HONOR had to think outside of the box in order to achieve this, though. First and foremost, the company redesigned the hinge entirely. On top of that, it’s now made out of titanium. The redesign helped with the thickness, and titanium with the weight, and, of course, the quality of the hinge itself. On top of that, HONOR is using two Silicon-Carbon batteries here, to achieve a combined rating of 5,000mAh. Those batteries are immensely thin, at 2.72mm of average thickness.
The phone is also really well-equipped in terms of specs. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is here, Qualcomm’s most powerful chip to date. HONOR also included LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 flash storage. Two 50-megapixel cameras sit on the back, in addition to a 20-megapixel one. Some of you will also be glad to hear that 3,840Hz PWM Dimming tech is also included, and much more. On top of all that, the HONOR Ultra-thin Bionic VC Cooling System is also implemented here. Ultra-thin vapor chamber (VC) is used, and the same goes for ultra-high thermal conductivity graphite, thermal conductivity gel, copper foil, and more. HONOR wanted to ensure that the phone remained cool despite the fact it had very limited space in there.