We have been running tests on the Honor Magic V2 and the battery endurance cycle is complete. The foldable flagship features a new type of battery, silicon-carbon, with 5,000mAh capacity. That’s an impressive amount, given that it fits inside the thinnest book-type foldable in the world (9.9mm) and one of the lightest ones too at 231g.
That’s the power supply side, let’s look at the power consumption side next. The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 – it’s a mid-2023 design and this is perhaps where that is most visible. Also, there is a pair of LTPO OLED displays – 6.43” (1,060 x 2,376px) cover display and 7.92” (2,156 x 2,344px) folding display.
Let’s focus on the large folding display as that is where most of the action is. The Magic V2 beats its foldable opponents on capacity, however, efficiency leaves a lot to be desired. Gaming is the one area where the phone stands out and it even then it only matches the Galaxy Z Fold.
In the other categories the V2 loses and by a fairly large margin too. As a result, the Magic V2 achieves an uninspiring Active use score that is an hour to hour and a half short of its main opposition.
Moving over to the cover display, the talk time is the same, of course, as we do the test with the screen off. The web and video scores go up by 36% and 37%, respectively, the gaming time adds 19%.
In this scenario the Magic V2 places between the Galaxy Z Fold5 and the OnePlus Open, which is a win considering it has by far the largest external screen of the three. Still, the Active Use score of 13:29 and falls a bit short of traditional bar phones.
In Europe, the Honor Magic V2 is available in a single configuration, 16/512GB, which sells for €2,000/£1,700. There is also the Honor Magic V2 RSR, which is a partnership with Porsche Design. We have one at the office ahead of the official European launch at the MWC later this month. This one has the same battery and the other key components are the same, so we expect to see an identical battery life out of the RSR.