At a time when so many companies began to introduce notch on their devices, Honor (as well as Xiaomi) decides to reverse the route and find alternative solutions to provide the public with an innovative smartphone and a real full view display. Indeed, a few weeks ago it was officially presented in China the new Honor Magic 2, which has made a lot of talk about itself thanks to the re-insertion of a sliding mechanism that has brought us back to the old times. Let's analyze it better in our review!
Review Honor Magic 2
Unboxing
The sales package is made of blue hardcover and inside it we find the following equipment:
- Honor Magic 2;
- hard plastic cover;
- wall-mounted power supply with Chinese plug and support for Huawei SuperCharge from 40 Watt;
- USB data transfer cable - USB Type-C;
- USB Type-C adapter - mini-jack;
- pin for the SIM slot;
- instruction manual.
Design and construction
In this case there is so much to say that I do not even know where to start, but I would like to proceed perhaps with the most interesting thing about the device, or the slip mechanism. In fact, as also reported in the teardown a few weeks ago, the movement winds up 5 total points, or 4 side slides and a top on which the front of the device is hooked. The movement that is to be carried out is very fluid and resistant to the right. In fact, it will almost never happen that you are able to slip your smartphone involuntarily, indeed, when you have excessively dry hands it will also be difficult to carry out the movement with one hand.
In addition, you will also need to take a bit of the habit as you initially hold it up like a classic phone, that is holding the little finger on the bottom edge to support the device. In doing so, however, you can not make the slide and it will be necessary to change the handle. However, after a couple of days you get used to and slide your smartphone will be very easy, as well as very pleasant.
L'Honor Magic 2 it has rather dimensions generousin fact we are talking about 157.3 x 75.1 x 8.3 millimeters for a weight of 206 grams. So as you can imagine it will not be easy to use the smartphone with one hand, although the optimization of space is excellent. Just think that in all this the smartphone has a display from 6.40 inches of diagonal.
For the rest the design of the device recalls the Huawei P20 Pro in the back, but with one beautiful gradient coloring which goes from dark blue to silver. The yield is really elegant and premium. Also, seeing a true full view display on the front is definitely satisfying.
La construction è very solid and well made and the materials used are of high quality, although the glass back cover retains a little 'too many fingerprints. Cleaning it will be very easy even with a shirt, but the thing a little 'more annoying is that it will remain the dust between cameras and that will be difficult to eliminate.
Then we have three cameras accompanied by the LED flash, while on the front we have a small earpiece on the upper edge and the proximity and brightness sensor. Performing the slide we will notice another capsule and three other cameras, two of which are useful for bokeh and for facial recognition.
Below we find the system speaker, the USB Type-C input and the main microphone unlike the upper profile on which the infrared sensor resides and the microphone useful for the reduction of environmental noise. Finally, on the right side there are the power button and the volume rocker, while on the opposite side only the dual SIM slot (it is not possible to expand the internal memory).
Display
L'Honor Magic 2 has a display AMOLED da 6.39 inches diagonal with resolution Full HD + (2340 x 1080 pixels), density of PPI 403, format 19.5:9, Corning Gorilla Glass protection and 2.5D curved glass.
I BORDI are really very fine, the only one that is most noticeable is the lower one, but also in this case we are not talking about relevant measures, so much so that the smartphone has a percentage screen-to-body ratio very close to 100%. This is the perfect device for watching multimedia contents, as the large panel and the excellent colors will allow us to immerse ourselves totally in the scene.
The display can boast of ahigh chromatic fidelity and to the excellent viewing anglesI really have nothing to criticize for this unity, which has managed to give me great satisfaction. Blacks are very deep like all the others AMOLED and the oleophobic treatment is good.
If you are not satisfied with the colors you can calibrate them within the settings and, in addition, you will also find some customizations regarding the style and size of the text, as well as the mode "Eye protection".
Hardware and performance
Under the body of theHonor Magic 2 we have the current spearhead of the chipset produced in-house by the Chinese company, or theKirin HiSilicon 980, which is inclusive of an octa-core processor from 2x Cortex-A76 a 2.6 GHz + 2x Cortex-A76 a 1.92 GHz + 4x Cortex-A55 a 1.8 GHz and from a production process a 7 nm. To accompany it we find 6 GB di RAM LPDDR4X, 128 GB di internal memory not expandable via microSD and a GPU Mali-G76, as well as one Dual NPU for the management of machine learning processes and artificial intelligence.
The smartphone is definitely Quick e reactive in daily use, the switch between the different apps is very fluid and there are no slowdowns of any kind or bugs of various kinds. I have to say that it is really a pleasure to use this device although some parts of the software related toartificial intelligence are optimized mainly for theChinese user. Indeed, not being officially sold in Italy and Europe the voice assistant of Honor, or YoYo, it will only work in lingua chinese. At the moment we still do not know if in the future it will be marketed by us, but at the moment the situation is this.
So also other small functions related toAI they are perfectly compatible only in Chinese. I would like to clarify, however, that we refer to those little gems that we almost never use in everyday life such as the one that evaluates the quality of the skin.
La GPU He does his job very well and manages to play with details at most even the heaviest games such as Asphalt 8 o PUBG, although in that case a heat slightly on the top.
Camera
L'Honor Magic 2 It owns three rear cameras, the main sensor is RGB da 16 mega-pixels with opening f / 1.8 and optics equivalent to one 27 mm, the second sensor is monochrome da 24 mega-pixels with opening f / 2.2 and the last sensor is wide-angle lens da 16 mega-pixels with opening f / 2.2, which are accompanied byAIS (Artificial Image Stabilization) and from the single LED flash.
I must say that compared to others Honor, the quality of the camera has risen one step, not that the other top of the Chinese company's range were not up to par, but they have always positioned themselves between the better than the mid-range and early high-end. In this case the photographs are worthy of note, but anyway still missing a little something to get to the level of the sacred monsters in the industry.
In fact, by day the quality of the photos is really very good, which are characterized by an excellent level of detail and very good colors, as well as a natural level bokeh. With the application ofAI obviously we are going to improve even more the results thanks to the recognition of the scene and the adaptation of the related parameters.
Excellent feedback also with the 2X digital zoom, which shots are well detailed. Furthermore, I found it decidedly useful and of quality wide-angle camera, especially when the artificial intelligence intervenes, which increases even more the glance of the shot. In this situation we have some slight distortions on the sides of photography, but nothing compromising.
Obviously in night the quality is diminishing, but the photo I'm anyway worthy of note even if in situations with very little light we should have a steady hand otherwise we risk that these are micromosse. The colors are always charged and the night mode goes to help greatly. However, trying to take a photo in the desert with total absence of light (only the lunar one), the results were not satisfactory.
From the frontInstead, Honor Magic 2 presents a camera from 16 mega-pixels with opening f / 2.0, flanked by others two camera da 2 mega-pixels with opening f / 2.4 useful for making a best bokeh. Also in this case during the day and with good lighting the quality è definitely good thanks to a high detail and faithfully represented colors. In more difficult situations, such as a background strongly illuminated by the sun, then the sensor goes a bit 'in difficulty overexposing it partially. But for the rest I was completely satisfied. Another small flaw is the classic of Chinese smartphones, that is to forcefully apply a kind of beauty filter that can not be eliminated, which will lighten your skin slightly.
Di will be or with poor lighting the subject changes because it is here that we see the difference with the top of the range of the highest level, as often the quality tends to fall, kneading the colors slightly.
I video can be registered up to the maximum resolution of 4K is 30 fps in the format H.264 o H.265. In general the autofocus is very fast and the stabilization is overall good.
Audio
The audio output from the lower speaker of theHonor Magic 2 it is of good quality thanks to a good balance of frequencies and a vdiscrete olume. In headphones, listening improves considerably, while the audio in the ear capsule is crystal clear. Therefore, no problem during telephone conversations, not even on the part of the microphone.
Connectivity
Regarding connectivity, Honor Magic 2 è very complete, but does not have wireless charging, which would have guaranteed him more points in the final evaluation. Personally I do not use it, but many users consider it fundamental and therefore we have to evaluate the smartphone in all respects.
However, the smartphone supports the dual SIM 4G + with LTE Cat.21 but, unfortunately, can not boast of the presence of the 20 band and I must say that in some situations this lack has been felt, especially in the most remote areas. For the rest we find the Wi-Fi Dual Band, Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX HD, NFC, Dual Frequency GPS / A-GPS / GLONASS / BeiDou / Galileo e USB Type-C 2.0.
The real gem, however, is the ability to interface the smartphone to a monitor through the mode Wireless Desktop. So even if we do not have an entrance Type-C third generation we can take advantage of the desktop mode through a Wi-Fi connection.
Also, as you have noted previously, we do not find a back cover on the back cover release sensor because this is located below the display, which is joined by the facial recognition to guarantee greater security. The first is fast enough, but I have to say sometimes I had to press more than two or three times before the finger was read. So we can say that the unlock is successful about 8 times on 10. In general this is also quite accurate, the problem is when you do not center the correct portion of the display or when your hands are a little dirty or wet.
Il facial recognitionInstead, it works very well and this intervenes every time we slide the device. In the absence of brightness conditions if you have set a low brightness of the display then the unlock will be quite slow or even you have to proceed with the imprint, otherwise this will work very well.
Software
Before talking about the software we remind you that Honor Magic 2 it is not officially sold in Europe, but only in China, for this reason we will not find natively i Google services. However, we thank you TopResellerStore for sending us the sample with all the Google services already on board, which include the Play Store and the rest of the complete package.
On board, therefore, we find the interface created specifically for the series Magic, Or the Magic UI 2.0 based on Android 9.0 Pie. In reality this user interface is not so different from the classic EMUIindeed, we find only a few small differences.
Let's start immediately with one of the main aspects, namely the presence of the assistant YoYo, which however only works in Chinese. The task of the latter is to facilitate the daily operations of the user by responding to certain commands, just as we have seen with that of Google, Crab, Cortana o Bixby. Unfortunately, it is useless at the moment, but in the system the presence ofartificial intelligence it makes itself felt and we can also notice it by the possibility of instantly translate a telephone conversation with an interlocutor from another country.
I must say that this works discreetly, it is certainly not perfect, but a conversation that is spoken in a not too fast way can translate it with sufficient votes. Obviously we need to talk, give time to translate and only then can the interlocutor answer. This prevents the voices from overlapping.
There are also several others AI-based modes like the one that manages to calculate the calories of a food through the camera, or the one recognizes the framed object, directing us to the site to buy it, or the one that instantly translates a text, beyond that which identify the objects in general.
However, theirs operation is fluctuating, because sometimes they can easily recognize the various products, while other times they go totally out of the way, such as that of food that has failed to identify a pineapple, or has exchanged an orange for a pear. Instead I definitely find it interesting and intriguing the screen translation, which replaces almost instantly the text in the foreign language with that of our language. A function incredibly useful. Later I leave you an example:
For the rest we find a very fluid software, light and free from lag or various stoppages. During these weeks of use I've never had any problems, not even with notifications. The official ROM is multilingual and therefore can be set in Italian.
Autonomy
L'Honor Magic 2 owns one battery da 3500 mAh, which guarantees us one good autonomy. In fact, with use intense you can get an average of 4 hours and minutes 45 di active screen, the minimum touched was about 4 hours while the maximum was around 5 hours and minutes 30. So ultimately I found myself very well, because in recent days I have been using it for almost the whole day data network with hotspot e GPS active and from 6 in the morning I managed to get to 8 pm.
As mentioned previously, the supplied power supply supports the Huawei SuperCharge from 40W, which employs approximately 80 minutes to fully charge the smartphone.
Conclusions
In conclusion Honor Magic 2 it's a decidedly smart smartphone. The use ofAI in this case it is of great help, as they have been implemented functions of real importance, although they still need some improvements and although at the moment some are purposely optimized for Chinese users. In general I would feel to define it as the true top of the range di Honor up to now, in the sense that finally the Chinese brand has produced a complete, functional, powerful device that is no longer a step below the premium band.
- only faults that I would like to point out concerning some small aspects of the photo gallery, such as the front camera at night, or the lack of the 20 band (in my area it was a little 'feel), or again the fingerprint sensor below the display which is so precise enough, but which has slowed me down sometimes.
For the rest I can promote Honor e Honor Magic 2, who managed to give me great satisfaction. We thank once again TopResellerStore for sending us the sample with a lot of Google services pre-installed and we remind you that you can buy your smartphone on this one Italian store at the price of 595 € with shipment from Italy.
