Honor Magic V Flip 2 Review: A sparkle from the Far East
Today we have a sparkly treat for you. It's the new Honor Magic V Flip 2 Jimmy Choo edition. This clamshell foldable is here to steal the Galaxy Z Flip 7's sparkle with a combination of powerful hardware, one of the best camera systems in a flip phone, and a glittery design.
The Magic V Flip 2 is the second iteration of Honor's clamshell design, and it comes with a lot of bells and whistles. It has a powerful Qualcomm chipset (albeit not the latest one), a huge battery for a flip phone, a minimal crease, and a super-bright main screen.
In the grand scheme of things, Honor aims to take rivals such as the aforementioned Galaxy Z Flip 7 and also the Motorola Razr Ultra (2025), but the big issue is that the phone is China-only at the moment with no firm date for a global launch yet. So, the battle is set to take place on Chinese ground, at least for now, but it will be interesting to see what this new flip phone brings to the table nonetheless.
The Magic V Flip 2 is the second iteration of Honor's clamshell design, and it comes with a lot of bells and whistles. It has a powerful Qualcomm chipset (albeit not the latest one), a huge battery for a flip phone, a minimal crease, and a super-bright main screen.
Table of Contents:
Honor Magic V Flip 2 Specs
[SUBHEADING]
Let's start with an overview of the Honor Magic V Flip 2 specs:
| Honor Magic V Flip 2 | Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 |
|---|---|
| Size and Weight Unfolded: 167.1 x 75.6 x 6.9 mm Folded: 86.2 x 75.6 x 15.5 mm 204 grams | Size and Weight Unfolded: 166.7 x 75.2 x 6.5 mm Folded: 85.5 x 75.2 x 13.7 mm 188 grams |
| Display Main: 6.82 inches, OLED, 120Hz LTPO 5000 nits peak brightness Resolution: 2868 x 1232 pixels (458 PPI) Cover: 4.0 inches, OLED, 120 Hz LTPO 3600 nits peak brightness Resolution: 1200 x 1092 pixels (405 PPI) | Display Main: 6.9 inches, OLED, 120Hz 2600 nits peak brightness Resolution: 1080 x 2520 pixels (397 PPI) Cover: 4.1 inches, OLED, 120 Hz 2600 nits peak brightness Resolution: 948 x 1048 pixels |
| Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4nm) | Processor Exynos 2500 (3 nm) |
| Software MagicOS 9.0.1 (Powered by Android 15) | Software Android 16, up to 7 major Android upgrades, One UI 8 |
| Cameras Main: 200MP Ultra-clear AI Main Camera (f/1.9, 1/1.4'', OIS+EIS) Ultrawide: 50MP (f/2.0, 120° FOV) Selfie: 50MP (f/2.0) | Cameras Main: 50 MP, f/1.8, 23mm, 1/1.57", 1.0µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS Ultrawide: 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 123˚, 1/3.2", 1.12µm Selfie: 10 MP, f/2.2, 23mm, 1/3.0", 1.22µm |
| Battery Size 5,500 mAh (silicon-carbon battery) | Battery Size 4300 mAh |
| Charging Speeds 80W Wired HONOR SuperCharge 50W Wireless HONOR SuperCharge 7.5W Wireless Reverse Charging | Charging Speeds 25W wired, QC2.0, 50% in 30 min 15W wireless 4.5W reverse wireless |
| Prices ¥5,499 (~$770–$800) | Prices $1,099 |
Honor Magic V Flip 2 Design and Display
Crushed stardust scattered across a deep blue sea
The Honor Magic V Flip 2 Jimmy Choo edition is all about the sparkle. It is designed by Professor Jimmy Choo and inspired by the subtle shimmer of crystals. The back of the phone features a gradient silver-to-blue design. It has hundreds of tiny prisms that shine with all the colors of the rainbow under direct sunlight or, as Honor describes it, "crushed stardust scattered across a deep blue sea, unfolding a sparkling dream." Very poetic.
The frame is light blue, and the hinge has a nice geometric pattern with Prof. Jimmy Choo Yeang Keat OBE written on it. The rings around the two main cameras are also very detailed with a serrated pattern and some additional sparkle. Size-wise the Honor Magic V Flip 2 is very comparable to the Galaxy Z Flip 7, but a tad bigger and also heavier.
The frame is light blue, and the hinge has a nice geometric pattern with Prof. Jimmy Choo Yeang Keat OBE written on it. The rings around the two main cameras are also very detailed with a serrated pattern and some additional sparkle. Size-wise the Honor Magic V Flip 2 is very comparable to the Galaxy Z Flip 7, but a tad bigger and also heavier.
The thickness of the folded phone comes in at 15.5 mm, around 2 mm more than the Z Flip 7, and the weight of 204 grams is also around 20 grams more than what Samsung has achieved with the Z Flip 7.
That being said, in the hand there's not much of a difference between these two phones. Actually, there's one thing you will absolutely feel holding the unfolded Magic V Flip 2, and it's the cover screen. It sticks out a millimeter or so compared to the back of the phone, and you can feel the edge of the screen. Not a pleasant tactile feel, to be honest.
The retail box is as lavish as they come. You get not one but two back covers in the package: a transparent two-part back with some sparkly gradient and a solid color one that mimics the actual design of the phone. The latter also features two strap mounting points so you can wear the phone fashionably over your shoulder like a bag or a purse. There's also an 80W charger included and a USB-C cable.
The Honor Magic V Flip 2 comes with one 6.82-inch main screen and a 4-inch cover screen that wraps around the cameras and stretches side-to-side. Both displays use LTPO tech and support dynamic refresh rates up to 120 Hz. What's impressive is the cited peak brightness of the main screen. According to Honor, this panel can go up to 5000 nits, and we're going to test this right now.
In terms of resolution, both screens do a great job with pixel densities of 458 PPI for the main display and 405 PPI for the cover screen. The bezels around both displays are nicely thin, and the crease in the main display is very subtle.
Even though our 20% APL brightness test didn't return 5000 nits (Honor probably measures this at a lower APL level, with a smaller part of the display lit), the Honor Magic V Flip 2 absolutely topped the flip phone brightness chart. The phone output almost 2500 nits at 20% APL and around 2000 nits at 100% APL (the whole display lit). Impressive.
The minimum brightness, white balance, and color accuracy figures are also pretty decent, on par with what the competition has in store. Overall, both displays of the Magic V Flip 2 are bright, vibrant, and smooth. No complaints here.
In terms of biometrics, the Magic V Flip 2 relies on a side-mounted capacitive fingerprint scanner, embedded in the power button, which is quite normal for this type of flip foldable. It is fast and accurate and gets the job done without fanfare. There's also facial recognition, but it uses only the front-facing camera without any fancy radar or ToF tech, so it's not as secure as FaceID, for example.
Honor Magic V Flip 2 Camera
200MP on a flip phone
The composite camera score of 132 is pretty good, up there with the competition, even though we expected more from the powerful system on board the Magic V Flip 2. The Motorola Razr Ultra (2025) managed 134, and the Galaxy Z Flip 7 came on top of both with 139, but overall, these three are pretty comparable when it comes to camera prowess.
Honor boasts the best megapixel count for the main camera in the segment with the Magic V Flip 2 and its 200MP main sensor. However, megapixel count, as impressive as it might be, doesn't tell the full story. In today's day and age algorithms do some heavy lifting in mobile photography, so we need to see how real-life photos look before passing our final judgement.
Further down the specs sheet we find a 50MP ultrawide camera, and the front-facing snapper also uses a 50MP sensor. Time for some samples.
Photos look quite good, especially from the main camera. You can see a lot of detail, good dynamic range, and also popping colors. Actually, the color palette might not be everyone's cup of tea, as it can be too vibrant and saturated, more so on a bright and sunny day. But overall, the quality is pretty good.
The ultrawide samples are pretty good too; the color tone remains consistent with the main camera, and the level of detail is also good. Portrait mode does a decent job of blurring the background without looking superficial, and selfies are also good, even though they have a certain softness to them.
Video Quality
Honor Magic V Flip 2 Performance & Benchmarks
Snapgragon 8 Gen 3 still faster than Exynos 2500
There's a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 inside the Honor Magic V Flip 2, and even though we're a bit disappointed due to the lack of Elite silicon on board, it's still a powerful chipset. Especially when you compare it to the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and the Exynos 2500 that's inside Samsung's top-of-the-line flip phone.
We have 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, but this memory configuration is specific to the Jimmy Choo edition. The regular Magic V Flip 2 comes with 12GB of RAM and starts at 256GB of onboard memory, going to 512GB and all the way up to 1TB.
We have 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, but this memory configuration is specific to the Jimmy Choo edition. The regular Magic V Flip 2 comes with 12GB of RAM and starts at 256GB of onboard memory, going to 512GB and all the way up to 1TB.
In raw single-core performance the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 beats the Exynos 2500 inside the Galaxy Z Flip 7, while in the multi-core benchmark the Exynos fares better. The Razr Ultra (2025) obliterates both with its Snapdragon 8 Elite on board, so if you want the best possible synthetic performance scores, you should look Motorola's way.
GPU Performance
The GPU scores are not in favor of the Exynos 2500, here the Honor Magic V Flip 2 has a decent advantage over its Samsung rival, but then again, the Razr leaves both in the dust.
Honor Magic V Flip 2 Software
The software situation is interesting, as the Magic V Flip 2 was launched in China only and currently doesn't have an international version. The phone uses Honor's MagicOS 9 on top of Androi 15, but you can enable Google Play Services from the settings menu, sign in and download your favorite apps.
Most of them work just fine, and we're sure the global version (when or if it launches) will have the same native support for international apps, as the cited 99% supported Chinese apps. The cover screen has widgets but it also has an app screen and you can easily add and remove apps without opening the phone.
In terms of AI, there are some features we already know from the global version of the Magic V5, such as scaling and cropping objects in pictures to a video editor that allows you to make collages and full-fledged social media movies.
There's AI image-to-video, but it requires a subscription; there's a deepfake AI detection system and voice call translation, AI writing assists, and Honor's Magic Portal that contextually selects images and texts and sends them to an app or service of your choice. Some AI features, such as the YOYO assistant, are China-only, and we couldn't test them, so there's also that.
Last but not least, Honor officially announced at MWC this year that its flagship phones will be supported for seven years (matching Samsung and Google in that regard), and even though we don't have information about the Chinese version of the Magic V Flip 2, we can extrapolate the same seven years of support that the Magic V5 brings to the table.
Honor Magic V Flip 2 Battery
Silicon carbon for the win
Another bragging point for Honor is the battery capacity of the Magic V Flip 2. The phone features a massive 5,500 silicon-carbon battery, which is one of the biggest capacities in a flip phone. This has been made possible by the silicon imbued into the graphene anode of the battery, increasing the capacity per volume (check out our dedicated explainer article for more details).
PhoneArena Battery Test Results:
Unsurprisingly, the Honor Magic V Flip 2 performs astonishingly well in our battery benchmark. The overall score of 8h 19m ranks it 16th overall, beating conventional phones such as the Galaxy S25 Ultra and all foldables we've tested so far, clamshell and book-type.
The charging is another win for the Magic V Flip 2, the 80W charger fills the hefty battery in under an hour. Granted, the Motorola Razr Ultra (2025) charges faster, but it also features a smaller battery.
Honor Magic V Flip 2 Audio Quality and Haptics
When it comes to smartphone audio, Honor has had some great hits, especially with the Magic Pro series. We're happy to report that this audio expertise has found its way into the Magic V Flip 2. The stereo system produces loud and clear audio, with almost no distortion even at max volume.
Flip phones can suffer from space restraints and form factor limitations when it comes to audio, but the Magic V Flip 2 is an exception to the rule. The haptic feedback also pleasantly surprised us; it's strong, and you can feel it and hear it buzzing even when the phone is in your pocket or inside a bag.
Flip phones can suffer from space restraints and form factor limitations when it comes to audio, but the Magic V Flip 2 is an exception to the rule. The haptic feedback also pleasantly surprised us; it's strong, and you can feel it and hear it buzzing even when the phone is in your pocket or inside a bag.
Should you buy it?
The better question here is actually "Could you buy it?" at least at this point. No information on global release and no global pricing. If the Honor Magic V Flip 2 launches globally and if it's priced competitively (let's say around the price of the Chinese version after direct conversion), then the answer will definitely be "yes."
The phone comes with great screens (the brightest in the flip segment and with minimal crease), a powerful chipset, decent cameras, and the best battery life in the segment, coupled with very fast charging. If you don't fancy the sparkly Jimmy Choo edition, the regular version is much more understated.
A global version of the Magic V Flip 2 could endanger Samsung's flip phone hegemony, so fingers crossed Honor decides to launch the phone internationally.
A global version of the Magic V Flip 2 could endanger Samsung's flip phone hegemony, so fingers crossed Honor decides to launch the phone internationally.
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