Honor’s new Magic V2 makes the next-gen Galaxy Z Fold 5 look last-gen

July 13, 2023
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Foldable phones have improved by leaps and bounds in the last few years. But there are still some issues with them. Unlike flagship Android phones, book-style foldables are big, bulky, and thick, making them difficult to carry around in your pocket. Honor, the company that was forced to split from its parent company Huawei, has tried fixing this problem with its latest foldable: the Honor Magic V2.

Honor claims to use a titanium hinge and proprietary steel on the Magic V2's folding components. This has allowed the company to reduce the phone's waistline to 9.9mm when folded and restrict its weight to 231g. This makes it even lighter than the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, which weighs 234 grams. And just for comparison, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 weighs 263g. The hinge is durable as well, with the Honor Magic V2 boasting of a durability certification from SGS. This certifies the hinge to withstand more than 400,000 folds for up to 10 years.

Source: Honor

Thanks to a "three-in-one" display driver component, Honor claims it was able to free up additional internal space inside the phone, allowing it to fit a 5,000mAh dual Silicon-carbon battery. While common on premium smartphones, hardly any foldables have shipped with such a big cell. And with 66W fast charging support, topping up the phone should not take a long time as well.

The FHD+ 120Hz LTPO-based inner folding screen of the Honor Magic V2 measures 7.92 inches with a claimed brightness of 1,600 nits. As for the 120Hz cover display with 2376 x 1060 resolution, it measures 6.43 inches and can reach a claimed peak brightness of 2,500 nits. And since the display has a 20:9 aspect ratio, it does not feel as cramped as the Galaxy Z Fold 4's outer screen.

Honor says the two displays support 3840Hz PWM dimming, so it should reduce eye strain, especially if you are sensitive to the flickering of OLED panels. These specs already make the Honor Magic V2 superior to the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, which is shaping up to be a minor upgrade over its predecessor.

Ticking inside the Honor Magic V2 is Qualcomm's latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, with a higher 3.36GHz clock speed. Paired with an Adreno 740 GPU running at 719Mhz, 16GB RAM, and up to 1TB storage, the foldable packs enough grunt to easily run multiple heavy apps and games at once.

For the rear camera setup, Honor uses a 50MP f/1.9 primary shooter with OIS, a 50MP f/2.0 ultra-wide, and a 20MP f/2.4 telephoto with OIS. One 16MP f/2.2 selfie snapper resides in a punch-hole on the inner screen, while another is on the cover display.

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Other specs of the Honor Magic V2 are equally impressive and include Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, USB Type- C with DisplayPort support, and dual-SIM connectivity. The foldable runs on Android 13-based MagicOS 7.2 but misses out on Google Play access since it will be sold in China. It will launch in Silk Black, Silk Purple, Gold, and Black colors, with preorders already going live for 8,999 RMB.

There's no word from Huawei on when the Magic V2 will make its European debut. Given that the company is again expanding its international presence, this should happen sooner than later.

Source: Android Police