Honor has had a busy 2023, launching a slew of impressive smartphones and foldables. The company started the year with the international launch of its first foldable, theHonor Magic Vs, which impressed us in some areas but fell short in others. A few months later, thecompany announced the Magic V2, one of the slimmest foldables around. With folding phones a growing category in the smartphone segment, Honor wants a bigger pie of the market and has announced its third foldable of the year: the Magic Vs2. It packs the best features of Honor’s previous foldable with some compromises to reach a lower price point.
Despite packing a big 7.92-inch folding screen and a 6.43-inch cover display, the Honor Magic Vs2 is only 229 grams heavy. For comparison, theSamsung Galaxy S23 Ultraweighs 233 grams, while theZ Fold 5tips the scale at 253 grams. This also makes the Magic Vs2 lighter than the Magic V2, which weighs 231 grams. Honor claims to have kept its foldable weight in check by using rare earth magnesium alloy. It is also impressively thin at 10.7mm, though the Magic V2 is slimmer.
As for the two displays, they both feature a 120Hz refresh rate and 3840Hz ultra-high frequency PWM dimming. Ticking internally is a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip, not Gen 2. While a downgrade from the Magic V2, the 8+ Gen 1 is still a powerful and efficient chip, so there’s nothing to worry about. Honor is offering the phone in two configurations: 12GB RAM with 256GB storage and 16GB with 512GB of storage.
For the rear camera setup, Honor uses a 50MP f/1.9 primary shooter, a 20MP f/2.4 telephoto with OIS, and a 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide. The main and telephoto cameras are the same as the Magic V2, but the ultrawide is downgraded. A 16MP f/2.2 camera is available on the cover screen for taking selfies. Like its previous foldable, Honor has managed to fit a 5,000mAh battery inside the Magic Vs2, which should provide enough juice for a day of use. And when in a hurry, a few minutes on the charger should provide a few additional hours of runtime thanks to 66W wired fast charging.
Honor Magic Vs2
Honor’s third foldable builds on the strength of the Magic V2 with a slim and lightweight design. It uses some older components to achieve a lower price point, which includes using a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC, up to 16GB RAM, and a 5,000mAh battery.
Other notable specs include dua-SIM 5G connectivity, USB-C with support for USB 3.1 Gen 1 and DP 1.2, stereo speakers, IR blaster, Bluetooth 5.2, and Wi-Fi 6. The Honor foldable runs on MagicOS 7.2 based onAndroid 13. Since the device is launching in China for now, it lacks support for Google’s suite of apps and services.
The entry-level Honor Magic Vs2 costs RMB 6,999 ($958), making it RMB 2,000 cheaper than the Magic V2. The high-end model will retail for RMB 8,999 ($1,230).
With theHonor Magic V2 not going on sale in Europe before early Q1 2024, it is unlikely that we will see its cheaper sibling make its debut outside China anytime soon. While these quick foldable launches will help Honor capture China’s foldable market, it needs to reduce the international launch gap to compete against Samsung and others in the foldable space globally.
