Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Honor Magic V2 Porsche Design Review: Skin Deep”.
Sponsored by anchor behold the newest car phone is here now I don’t mean that car phone I’m talking about the product of the same collaborations, that gave us the BMW Motorola time Port of the 1990s, the pin andina Nexel i833 of the mids and the Porsche Design Blackberry and Huawei phones of much later honor, though that’s another story entirely. A company that’s been trying to make a splash since 2016, but which has been held back by circumstances both within and Beyond its control. So, as honor begins, offering its groundbreaking super slim foldable to European buyers teaming up with a German design, Legend is exactly the kind of move that makes sense. It’S just a shame that all its design wins are only skin deep. The full name of this phone is the Porsche Design, honor magic V2 rsr that last bit standing for rport renagen, which translates literally to racing sport racing car non literally.
Of course, it’s the suffix reserved for competition versions of the Porsche 911 that aren’t street legal. So, basically, the ultimate badass of a car or phone for a brand that can often go either too far or too muted with its collabs, I think Porsche Design Line. Did this one perfectly. You can see the obvious inspiration of the fly line on this hood-like back cover whose fiberglass, material and agot gray colorway each evoke the Porsche 911, which inspired this design. The fly line is a tactile pleasure as well lending a slight handhold to a back plate. That would otherwise be too slippery and the titanium barded camera module with its curved glass and asymmetric planform brings just the right amount of ostentation to complete the design. The base model magic V2 that served as the starting point was notable mainly for its thinness, which this model shares. But beyond that nothing made, it truly stand out to me.
The Porsche Design treatment solves that problem with the plum, while preserving the magnesium alloy frame and titanium hinge mechanism that made the V2 possible in the first place at 234 G. It’S even lighter than the OnePlus open that took the phone World by storm late last year, and the 9.9 mm thickness means that when it’s closed, it feels more like a standard slab than any other large format. Foldable honor also deserves praise for packing in the value here. Unboxing, the pdsr produces not just one but two 66 W wall chargers for both European and UK Outlets, a possible tip of the cap to the kind of multiple passport holding Globe Trotters able to afford such a purchase also included a stitched leather phone case. That is one of the finest I’ve ever encountered in the box or otherwise, and one that, thanks to the inherent slimness of the phone itself, barely adds any bulk at all to the overall package. There’S also believe it or not a case for the active stylus, which is also included and well.
That’S, probably because the stylus has nowhere to live the phone itself. Credit to honor for Designing its pen to work with both inner and outer screens, which is pretty cool. But the pen tip itself is a big fat, nubbed number, probably to prevent accidental scratching of the inner screen and with no discernable pressure, sensitivity and inconsistent inking. I found I was content to leave the pen inside its pretty case and never think about it again. But if one of the only two disappointments you can call out is based on an accessory hey, your Hardware is doing pretty well compounding the phone’s. Winds are 120 HZ displays both inside and out and both bright enough to use in any lighting condition a fairly subtle crease compared to the likes of Google and Samsung a voice call Performance, that’s remarkably loud crisp and clear, and a silicon carbon LiPo battery with a Typical capacity of 5,000 milliamp hours, that means it does what you expect it to, which is last all day long, even though it doesn’t do what someone like me expects it to which is charge wirelessly, which is a true shame, because just look at what its owners Are going to miss out on this video is sponsored by ankor Mago, a collection of wireless chargers for the latest, smartphones and wearables.
You all know. I love my foldables and the hinges on anker’s 3in1 wireless charging station show you why, when you’re not using it, it collapses to the size of a Magic Mouse while weighing about the same as an iPhone 15 plus the aesthetic blends perfectly with your Apple products, and If you’ve got an Apple Watch, it’ll take it from dead to 47 % in about 30 minutes when you’re outstaying mobile, there’s Anchor’s Mago power bank, a 10,000 mAh battery with a folding kickstand and a handy smart display on the side. That tells you how much power you’ve got left for your phone or how long it’ll take to recharge the power bank itself and my personal favorite, the Mago magnetic charging station a little death star of a dock with two USBC ports: two usba ports, three AC outlets And a magnetic charging pad. That means you can charge multiple devices at once, while keeping your desk clutter-free Mago is a 15 watt standard, which means it charges at Double the rate of more typical 7.5 W Chargers.
It’S fully compatible with Apple’s mag, safe and it’ll support. Ch2 enabled Android phones as they hit the market, hit the link in the description to learn more and thanks to ankor for sponsoring this video. By now, you can probably call it with all those winds and Hardware. The software can’t possibly measure up right.
Well, right. Look to be fair to honor. The magic V2 is in a much better place than it was last fall when it didn’t even have an option for an app drawer.
This version of Android 13 called Magic. Os 7.2 is serviceable, and it’s also fast Honor made a big deal about optimizing Asphalt, 9 to run at 120, FPS which it does, but I’ve never used a phone that doesn’t run an asphalt title. Well, so is this a win? I don’t know anyway, my objection to Magic OS is that it’s the polar opposite of what honor achieved on the hardware. To be blunt, it’s uninspired and it’s old there. So much of this just feels like it was copied wholesale from what honors former parent Huawei was shipping like 5 years ago to it, you can’t swipe down on the home screen to to deploy the notification shape if you’re going one-handed.
Your only option is to wriggle your thumb all the way to the top, not just the top, the top left and hope you don’t drop it. Nor can you double click. The power button to launch the camera, whose viewfinder annoyingly buries the timer down in the setting section by the way and at one point the world travel clock popped up to give me two different time zones. Despite the fact that I only traveled a few miles down the road from Red Hook to Williamsburg on a phone as designed forward as this, the aesthetic shortcomings matter, just as much as the functional ones do. This interface is ugly all caps, shouting battles, standard text, weight.
All throughout the OS, sometimes with odd translation errors, often accompanied by inconsistent margins or padding text flows from one line to another, with no thought given to where it splits screens hot. Indeed, the whole interface is a mish mash of influences from Samsung and Apple, underpinned by a system Watchdog that that bothers you many times a day, with alerts about apps using too much battery, which they’re not or reminding you that some apps May behave differently. If you use them across inner and outer screens and there’s no way to keep those alerts from resurfacing every day, just like there’s no easy way to change the font on this thing, you end up in this theme, store with an endless parade of s: serif nightmares Fever dream fonts called keep your cute and chocolate sweetheart and well, I kind of like cheese dut and if you do decide to try out fragrant lemon or whatever you need an honor ID to download it.
No thanks I’d love to dismiss all this as sauce for the goose. You know the kind of thing you expect when you import a phone built for a very different Market from your own, but as the wall warts in the Box remind us, this phone is supposedly made for Europe and, if that’s the case, honor needs to do a Lot better than this I wish honor would find itself a software partner that could add as much value as Porsche Design has to the hardware, and you know I have the same wish for the camera. Just doesn’t feel like there’s any cohesive Vision to what Honor’s doing here. I’Ve been spoiled by foldables like the pixel fold and OnePlus open that offer 5x and 6X Zoom performance albe it not always purely optically.
So I kept punching in with the magic V2s camera and expecting sharper photos than its 2.5x telephoto could manage on the brighter side. Photos from the main camera are plenty workable. I’Ve carried the magic V2 on a weeks, long Odyssey of personal rediscovery from the bucolic placidity of my childhood home to the bustling brunch venues and electric theatricality of Philadelphia to the somber winpe of North and South Brooklyn, and the phone is kicked out, quick and competent. If slightly oversaturated, it captures the whole way.
I still prefer the OnePlus open, though, which is unsurprising but also unfortunate, given the honors price, which officially remains unannounced in Europe until such time as honor wants to reveal it. But extrapolating from current pricing in China gives us a phone that commands a significant premium over its non Porsche counterpart, even factoring in its terabyte of storage. Of course, a heavy price tag is what you expect when you buy a product co-branded by a luxury label and honestly from a hardware standpoint. I think this phone earns it, oh with the big exception of lacking a water or dust resistance rating.
Another significant sacrifice that I’m glad I remembered to flag at the 11th hour, but the phone is gorgeously designed meticulously engineered and it comes in a box that respects the customer by delivering more value than most. It’S just a shame that that value takes such a big hit when you power it on and suddenly wonder why it feels like you’re using a Huawei phone from 2018. This video was produced following several weeks with the magic V2 pdsr review sample provided by Honor, but, as always, the manufacturer was given zero input concerning this video’s content, nor did it receive copy approval rights or even an early preview.
The loone sponsor of this video is anger. Please subscribe if you’d like to see more videos like this on YouTube until next time from Michael Fischer Captain tones on threads thanks for watching and stay mobile. My friends .