Honor Magic V2 hands-on: How does the thinnest foldable phone in the world feel?

Note: This feature was first published on 3 February 2024.

If you haven’t already heard, the world’s thinnest folding phone is now in Singapore. I know, you’re probably skeptically thinking: “how thin can a folding phone be?”. To my surprise too, the Honor Magic V2 is actually almost as thin as a normal phone! Check out the following images.

Side by side with an iPhone 15 Pro Max, the Honor Magic V2 is just a hair thicker at 9.9mm compared to 8.25mm. What’s 1.7mm between friends, right? Weight-wise, it’s about the same too at 231g for the Magic V2 versus the iPhone 15 Pro Max.  So it's not any  bulkier than an equivalent high-end bar-type phone.

Next to the Oppo Find N3, you’ll immediately notice that the Magic V2 is quite a bit thinner. 9.9mm versus 11.7mm, to be precise. All that just to say that if you’re already used to a bigger, bulkier phone or a folding phone, the Magic V2 doesn’t stick out at all.

But let’s talk about how it’s like to use. After just under a week with the phone, it’s actually really great. Being used to heavier and thicker folding phones, the phone feels fantastic in the hand without being too bulky. Furthermore, there really was no need for me to adapt to using the Magic V2 because the external screen's aspect ratio is relatively normal like any other traditional phone. So that's yet another plus point if you compare against the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 and its narrower outer screen.

Being able to open up the internal screen for videos and multitasking with different apps is a real pleasure, as the internal screen can go up to 1,600 nits of peak brightness while supporting HDR10+. I thoroughly enjoyed playing games like Honkai Star Rail and watching shows on Disney+ on the phone.

Getting work done was also a breeze, thanks to the ability to have my emails showing side by side with Google Docs, and I could even pull up a small floating window for the Notes app to double check against what I had jotted down beforehand. 

The photo-capabilities of the phone are also not lacking, thanks to the 50MP wide main camera (f/1.9 aperture, OIS), 50MP ultra-wide camera (f/2.0 aperture) and 20MP telephoto camera (f/2.4 aperture, OIS) on the rear. Have a look at the following images for sample photos shot on the phone.

Taking close up images of food were generally decent, with accurate colour representation, while night shots were surprisingly good with little noise or grain. You do get motion blur with moving subjects due to the slower shutter speed though, as seen by the fan blades in the photo above, but this is present across most phones using night mode. I’ll definitely be looking to test the cameras in greater detail over the coming days for the full review. 

The phone performed fine as well for day to day usage with no slowdowns or stutters, thanks to the high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip inside. The synthetic benchmarks will be available in the full review, but we don’t expect the numbers to be disappointing at all.

Pricing and availability

The Honor Magic V2 comes in Black, Purple and a Black PU vegan leather option. Retailing at S$1,999, there is only a single 16GB + 512GB configuration available for Singapore. The phone can be purchased at StarHub, Best Denki, Challenger, Courts, Gain City, Shopee and authorised Honor retailers, with every purchase entitled to a complimentary Honor Watch GS3 (worth S$299). 

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For more details on the phone, check out our initial news piece and don't forget to watch the video above!

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