Honor Magic Vs2 Hands-on Ultimate Thin and Light, Foldable and Flat Panel Prices Equalized

'Honor Magic Vs2 Ultimate Thin and Light, Foldable and Flat Panel with Equalized Prices'

【PhoneAuto Review】When Samsung and Huawei… started to enter the foldable screen market, it was already destined that foldable phones would become the darling of the market in the next few decades. Nowadays, after several years of development, foldable phones have continuously innovated in terms of form, with inward folding, outward folding, and vertical folding designs, and the price has also dropped from over ten thousand yuan, becoming affordable for ordinary users. Even in the years of stagnation in the smartphone market, foldable phones seemed to have taken a magic pill and continuously achieved record sales.

In 2023, Honor seems to have sniffed the direction of the smartphone market. After quickly occupying the extreme light and thin large foldable high ground with the release of Magic V2 in July, it quickly launched the V Purse, targeting the fashion field, and expanded the form of its foldable screen products to outward folding. On October 12th, Honor officially unveiled its third foldable screen phone of the year, the Magic Vs2. With a weight of 229g and a series of innovative technologies and materials such as the Luban titanium hinge, Honor’s self-developed shielded steel, and aerospace-grade rare earth magnesium alloy, it once again breaks the weight record of horizontally large inward folding screen smartphones. At the same time,

• OPPO A2x Review A practical and more durable textured machine
• Huawei Mate 60 RS Extraordinary Master Review Going Against the Tide, Daring to be Extraordinary
• Machine Q&A When will Xiaomi 14 be released? What is a good phone to give to elders for National Day?

Next, let’s take a look at the highlights of the Magic Vs2.

On the Magic V2, Honor has reduced the weight of the large foldable screen phone to 231g and the thickness to 9.9mm, marking a milestone for foldable phones. Especially compared to the machines before the iPhone 14 Pro Max, it even has a weight advantage. With the release of this year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple seems to have realized the weight issue and used titanium alloy materials to reduce weight. Despite this, the Honor Magic Vs2 can still compete with it.

Why is Honor confident in challenging traditional flat-screen phones in terms of weight with its folding screen? Because Honor has its own understanding of the structure of folding phones. Firstly, it has developed the self-researched Lu Ban titanium hinge, which is manufactured through mortise and tenon integrated molding technology, integrating the hinge shaft cover with the hinge body, reducing weight and improving strength. Secondly, it has developed the self-researched shield tunneling steel, which is used in the hinge body, greatly enhancing the degree of sturdiness and folding reliability. Finally, in terms of screen support structure, it uses the industry’s lightest rare earth magnesium alloy, reducing weight by 33% compared to commonly used aluminum alloy in the industry, ensuring good body strength while reducing weight.

Huawei led a wave in the market with the Mate X3, and then Honor launched a fierce attack with the Magic V2. Now, three months have passed, and Honor still maintains its leading position. In terms of thinness, it has formed its own unique product competitiveness. Even in the next two months, when competitors launch new products, it will be difficult for them to surpass Honor’s leading advantage.

What we have achieved is a sturdy and durable material, a lightweight and comfortable feel, and good user reputation, as well as more comprehensive configurations. In the Magic V2, we can even see configurations such as a 5000mAh large battery, dual screens with 3840Hz zero-risk dimming, and dual screens with 120Hz LTPO. For a foldable screen product that focuses on thinness, this is very valuable.

Of course, I didn’t focus much on introducing the screen quality of the Honor Magic Vs2 here, but it is unnecessary to say much. Honor has already created an excellent screen experience ecosystem and formed its own product strength. Zero risk dimming is currently unique to the Honor brand, coupled with features such as 120Hz LTPO, natural light eye protection, and sleep assistance display. It not only protects the eyes but also takes into account battery life experience, which is very detailed and sincere for a large foldable screen product.

In terms of appearance design, the Honor Magic Vs2 does not have any obvious differences from the Magic V2. This consistent design is highly recognizable. If there must be a difference, it is the introduction of two new colors: Glacier Blue and Coral Purple. The former features a feather-like texture that feels cool and comfortable, without leaving fingerprints. The latter is made of suede material with a warm touch. In my opinion, the Magic Vs2 is more like an upgraded version of the Magic Vs. When comparing the two, the extent of the upgrade can be seen. Although both have Snapdragon 8+ processors and two system optimization technologies, GPU Turbo X and OS Turbo X, there are significant improvements in terms of body material, weight, thickness, and screen quality. The time span happens to be one year, so this understanding is reasonable. In addition, from a purchasing perspective, if the Magic Vs2 is considered as an upgrade version of the V2, then releasing an upgrade version within three months seems too fast and may affect the V2 itself.

At the system level, the use of MagicOS 7.2 makes the Magic Vs2 more user-friendly.

Split screens, both vertically and horizontally, floating windows, mini floating windows, and side quick bars fully utilize the advantages of foldable screens. They provide a one-handed operation and higher efficiency, making it impossible to go back once you’ve experienced it. Especially for users of non-foldable devices, although most phones also support split screens and floating windows, the experience is not very good due to the limitations of the screen size, and the utilization of these features is not high.

Take the hover function, for example. The Magic Vs2 further expands the scenarios for using hover, bringing the hover standby function. When the screen is locked, folding the phone into a stand, calendar, or tent shape, the Magic Vs2 can become a calendar to accompany us. When not in use, it can be placed on the desk as a new decoration.

In addition to optimizing the experience for large screens, what I am more interested in is the new breath wake-up function brought by the Magic Vs2. In addition to directly waking up the voice assistant, it also cooperates with the Baidu Input Method Honor Edition to achieve the ability to wake up the input method and convert voice to text directly. This makes it more convenient to reply to messages or record instant inspiration. Of course, the breath wake-up voice-to-text function needs to keep the input method in the foreground, which saves us the step of long-pressing “0” to input, and can be considered as an upgrade that liberates the thumb.

Unlike the traditional strategy of one flagship and three cups for non-foldable devices, Honor has adopted a strategy of launching three products in one go on foldable screens, including the Magic V2, V Purse, and Magic Vs2. It hopes to quickly occupy the foldable screen market with a large quantity, which is a good strategy. Judging from the user reputation and sales of the previous two products, the product strength of Honor’s foldable screens is beyond doubt, but it may lag behind in supply. Now, with the rich variety of products, consumers have more choices that are more suitable for the tastes of the majority of users.

After the launch of foldable smartphones, manufacturers are all exploring lower prices, but different products have different tasks. Some are naturally aimed at the market below 10,000 yuan, while others bear the responsibility of continuously exploring lower prices. The release of three foldable smartphones by Honor has also further lowered the price, which is meaningful for the market and users. Judging by Honor’s current product pace and appetite, perhaps we can also see the figure of a large foldable phone below 5,000 yuan in the near future, and the leading brand will be Honor.

We will continue to update Phone&Auto; if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us!