Honor Magic 2: unboxing and hands-on first look

Phone

Silicone Case

40-watt SuperCharger (0 to 50% in under 20 minutes)

USB-C to standard USB cable

Dongle (3.5mm headphone jack to USB-C)

SIM tool

User manuals

We’ve already set up the phone and it’s worth mentioning that it ships with the latest Android 9 Pie on board, but on top of that you have Huawei’s custom EMUI interface. However, right after starting the phone, you will receive an update that changes the interfoace to Honor’s own Magic UI 2.0, which looks different and has a focus on AI. We guess Honor was in a rush to release the phone and that's why it shipped it with Huawei's EMUI at the start. Also worth noting is that this phone is currently sold in China only and our unit came with local apps only (this is to say there were no Google apps, not even the Google Play Store!).

Up front, you have a 6.4” AMOLED screen that looks gorgeous. The resolution is 1080 x 2340 pixels, or Full HD+, but it still looks plenty sharp to us. It’s amazing that this phone has practically no bezel, no chin and it just feels like you are holding one giant screen in your hand. Truly magical.

The other magical part is the slider of course. Every slide is accompanied with a sound that you can turn on or off, and it does feel reliable and very, very addictive. We love that this phone has 3D face recognition similar to what you have on the Mate 20 Pro. Face recognition is very fast and very secure, with a depth scan of your face, infrared and the whole Face ID story that we know from the iPhone X. However, here you have to first slide the phone down to reveal the cameras and that slows down the process a bit.

You also have an in-screen fingerprint scanner, which is not as fast as a traditional fingerprint, and we actually find it often fails to recognize fingerprint scans from the first attempt, but it’s here.

Specs and Performance

What’s impressive is under the hood: the Kirin 980 chip powers the show here. Currently, this is Android’s fastest chip, beating the Snapdragon 845. Of course, you also have Honor’s signature GPU Turbo mode enabled, making this a great phone for gaming as it runs even the most demanding games without dropping frames or getting too hot.

Here is a quick look at the...

Specs Highlights:
6.4” AMOLED screen, 1080 x 2340 px Full HD+ resolution
In-screen fingerprint scanner + Face recognition, similar to what we have on the Mate 20 Pro
Android 9.0 Pie, with Honor’s own Magic UI 2.0 interface
Kirin 980 processor, first 7nm chip on Android, fastest on the platform
GPU Turbo for faster gaming performance
Triple rear camera:
16MP f/1.8 main camera
16MP, f/2.2 ultra-wide secondary camera
24MP, f/1.8 monochrome (B&W) sensor
Pop-up front cameras
128GB / 256GB versions with microSD card support
3,500mAh battery with 40-watt fast charging

Cameras

On the back, you have a triple rear camera, a 16-megapixel main one, an ultra-wide angle sensor and a monochrome sensor. They come with AI digital stabilization and there is no optical image stabilization on board.

In addition to all the standard photo and video modes, there is a cool new AR Lens mode that allows you to add characters to still photos or video, and this is one fun gimmick.