Honor Magic 2 3D. Chinese smartphone review

In the vastness of the domestic market, the ordinary user knows few models of the company Honor. The most common smartphones of this company are considered pure "eight", "nine" and, recently released, "ten". However, there is another line, which in a short period of its existence has gained considerable popularity within the company's home market. The name of this line is Honor Magic. The Honor Magic 2 3D smartphone will be discussed below.

Brief information

The Magic series began its existence several years ago when the first version of the model was released. At that moment (in fact, the same as now), the Chinese line was not widely known in the vastness of the domestic market, but it was very popular within the country of the manufacturer. Recently, it became known about the release of a new version of the smartphone, which is even more powerful and productive.

At its core, this Honor branch is considered to be very expensive and productive. First of all, Magic devices were developed in small batches and arrived on store shelves to familiarize more advanced users. The calculation was made to include in the smartphone system as many innovations as possible with powerful hardware and wide functionality. Naturally, the cost of these devices is not low, but it is worth considering the fact that magic 2 3D is considered a toy for demanding users.

Recently, modern smartphones have begun to acquire a not quite standard body shape, and we are talking about the slider design. Honor decided to use this innovation in favor of a new creation and implemented it in Magic 2 3D. It is a pity that the official sale of this device is not planned again on the territory of the Russian Federation, but it is worth due attention.

Specifications

Device design

The device has acquired a very original appearance, similar models have not yet been released. The body of the phone is slightly thickened, and the design itself is two connected parts of the slider. The back side has a convex surface that merges with the rounded ends. From the side, the smartphone looks like a child's toy - an ambiguous shape shimmering with bright color.

The front part of the panel has glass, under which there is a mirror insert. It really serves as a handy mirror. Thanks to this glass coating, the device acquires an overly shiny surface, which would not be prevented by a small percentage of haze.However, it is worth considering the fact that the Magic 2 3D model was developed specifically for the Chinese user, so there can be no talk of any haze.

As mentioned earlier, the structure consists of two parts, which, in fact, must move apart relative to each other. Only in the case of this model, everything is not so simple. Previously, the face of the slider had to move up, but in this case, the opposite is true. Now the front surface slides down, which makes the control not very convenient.

While moving down, the front side of the slider reveals after itself all the necessary elements of the smartphone: camera, speaker, sensor, etc. Unfortunately, the device is limited to a front-facing flash, but instead, the developers have installed a triple main camera module. To be more precise, the main camera comes alone, and with it - two additional ones, which serve as a depth of field adjuster.

The main advantage of the design is the almost bezel-less display. Compared to most smartphones with bangs, this one has a very thin bezel surrounding the screen.

Otherwise, the device is too inconvenient to use.

The gadget is equipped with an unlock function using a face scanner, but to use it, you will have to slide the front of the case down, find the camera, and then scan. There is also a finger scanning sensor and is located at the bottom of the display. At first, this may seem like a very convenient location, but in fact, both sensors are too slow.

On the right side of the case are the system power key and volume control. Against the background of the outlines of the design, the buttons do not stand out much. The bulge of the rear camera looks very ugly. Thanks to this, the device is not quite stable on the surface.

As for the slots for SIM cards, things are poor. The device has two slots for cards; unfortunately, there are no three slots. Also, you cannot install a flash drive.

In terms of colors, the smartphone boasts pink, blue and silver colors. Each option is equipped with a gradient glass insert under the glass. The disadvantage is that the smartphone is not equipped with protection against moisture and dust.

Display options

The phone is equipped with a 6.39 inch Amoled screen with a resolution of 2340x1080 pixels and a 2.5D protective glass. The dimensions of the display are impressive - 148x68 mm. The total screen area is almost 92 percent and the aspect ratio is 19.5: 9. In general, this indicator is quite good, taking into account that the density of points borders within 405 ppi. The dimensions of the surrounding frame are very small - 3x5x4 mm.

The front of the display is made of a thin glass plate that has a shiny mirror-like surface. The main advantage of this screen is complete resistance to various scratches.

In addition, the display surface is treated with a special oleophobic coating, thanks to which fingerprints remain much less often than on other screens.

When setting a white background for the entire perimeter of the display, as well as manually adjusting the brightness, its value showed 420 nits - this is taking into account normal lighting. Under strong sunlight, the value changes to 530 nits, which ultimately indicates a good level of brightness. The minimum brightness level is 2 nits, which makes it comfortable to use the screen even in total darkness.

As mentioned earlier, the device has an Amoled matrix, an active coating that functions on OLEDs. Like many other smartphones, the image is created using three subpixels of green, blue and red colors. In the case of this screen, the level of red and blue colors is an order of magnitude lower than that of green, which indicates the RGBG type.

The advantages of the screen include excellent viewing angles. However, as far as white tones are concerned, deviation even at minimal angles plays a cruel joke with them.In this case, the screen starts to sparkle with pink, blue and green tones, but there is no distortion with a black background.

Cameras

The front camera of the smartphone is equipped with a sensor with a resolution of 16 MP and an aperture of f / 2.0. At the front of the device are two additional 2MP f / 2.4 aperture modules that serve as a depth control and maintain the sharpness effect. The device captures wonderful, detailed shots, which are obtained even in terrible indoor lighting.

During background blur, some problems periodically arise, which are expressed in inadequate selection of the main object from the picture against a certain background. Sometimes the background in the frame can be perfectly blurred around the face or hair, however, various distortions arise regarding the contours of the clothes.

The front camera has a function to support 3D face scanning to identify the owner of the smartphone. Unfortunately, the camera lacks optical zoom. Approximation options can be selected by yourself, by switching modes on the display.

The 24 megapixel module works in a very strange way, because you cannot switch to it automatically, and this is done by choosing the resolution in the camera menu. At this time, there is a loss of zooming capability and artificial intelligence support. When choosing a resolution of 4224x5632, the camera produces good pictures, but as soon as the artificial intelligence is launched, the system switches to the 16 MP module. Because of this, it is completely unclear why the device has a 24 MP module.

While using the AI, the device can easily recognize backgrounds and objects in real time, the camera recognizes more than 2000 scenarios and 50 types of shooting. The arsenal of functions includes a manual mode, portrait, monochrome, night modes, as well as the ability to save photos in RAW format (using exclusively manual mode).

The situation with the main camera is not so smooth, the quality of the images is poor, the details are poor, and there are more areas of blur than you might expect. A camera of this level can hardly be attributed to the flagship category.

In addition to the pluses, the camera has a night mode, through the operation of which many frames are glued into one. This move was made specifically to increase illumination and filter out various noises. But if you look at all this as a whole, the camera in night mode cannot produce good photos.

Video filming in a smartphone is made in 4K format at 30 frames per second, and in Full HD format at 60 fps. Clips are encoded in H. 264 and H.265, at choice. In terms of the quality of the footage, everything does not look very good. The level of detail and sharpness is mediocre, and at night the camera shoots horribly. The sound is recorded perfectly, there is volume in it, no noise is observed.

Iron

The Honor Magic 2 3D smartphone operates thanks to the Huawei Kirin 980 single-chip chipset, which is based on 7 nanometer technological processes. The chipset includes three solid processors, namely:

• Dual-core Cortex A76 with a clock speed of 2.6 GHz;
• Dual-core Cortex A76 @ 1.9 GHz
• Quad-core Cortex A55 clocked at 1.8 GHz. The graphics processor GPU Mali G76 MP10 copes with the visual component remarkably.

The RAM board ranges from 6 to 8 gigabytes, depending on the configuration of the device.

The internal memory is either 128 or 256 GB. Unfortunately, the board did not include a connector for a flash drive, however, it is possible to connect the device to various memory storages using USB Type-c.

As for the chipset itself, it should be said that the Kirin 980 is a powerful 7nm board. Thanks to Magic 2 3D and this chipset, the Cortex A76 processor with GPU Mali G76 graphics accelerator was tested for the first time. Also in this combination is a dual-core NPU.

The big picture and some benchmarks show decent power and performance of this platform, it can easily compete with the Snapdragon 845 chipset.

Such a system can clearly be attributed to the advantages of a smartphone, since the hardware can easily cope with all heavy games, applications and graphic editors. Everyday use and surfing the Internet do not cause any trouble, the system quickly performs all the tasks.

The functioning of games in this smartphone is worthy of the highest praise. Taking PUBG, Mortal Kombat X, Shadow fight 3 as an example, you can make sure that these strongest representatives of the android's gaming sphere work without the slightest brakes or glitches, and this is taking into account the ultra settings. And if you remember that the device has a large screen, then playing on it is generally a pleasure.

Battery capacity

There are no problems with the battery in the phone. The Magic 2 3D case has a built-in 3500 mAh lithium battery, which shows impressive performance during tests. In standby mode, the device can function for 3-4 days, and with full application download, maximum brightness, Wi-Fi and Full HD video on, the whole day. The battery charging time takes one and a half hours, which will also impress any user. However, this requires a dedicated Super Charge.

Testing the device showed that there is a power saving mode in the arsenal of possibilities, which can even increase the autonomy of work.

Device software

The gadget works under the leadership of the Android 9.1 operating system, which is equipped with a shell of its own production. The only difference from the rest of the shells is a special wash down for a specific model, and its name is MagicUI.

If you look at it from the visual side, then there are practically no changes. The main difference is noticeable in the very process of running applications, which is accompanied by an innovative artificial assistant called Yoyo. As they say, this is the main distinguishing feature and the main problem of the operating system. The fact is that most of the applications that run under the control of this assistant are in Chinese. Most of the functions will be inconvenient or impossible to use. Do not forget that this model was intended for the Chinese market from the very beginning.

The capabilities of the Yoyo virtual assistant can be attributed to the recognition of various objects, the search for the necessary information on the network. It is very interesting to observe how the device can detect various skin diseases, and then give advice on treatment. The virtual assistant can observe the user's daily behavior, determine the algorithm for launching certain applications, calculate and advise how to save energy and time.

Probably the most useful function of the assistant is the simultaneous translation of the conversation of the interlocutor with whom the user is communicating. During a conversation, Yoyo remembers the speech, translates it and brings it to the main screen in a text or voice message. Watching all this, it becomes clear that this is a very convenient and useful feature, and also worthy of attention of many other smartphone manufacturers.

Sound accompaniment

Considering the price category and sound quality, we can safely say that the speaker is worth its money. The sound cannot be called perfect, but in general it does not hurt your ears. The system has the ability to select different sound profiles - this is done specifically for an additional headset. This function is called Histen.

Both speakers and headphones can boast of excellent sound - in general, the sound is surround, clear, loud and rich. The disadvantage is that the smartphone lacks a standard 3.5 mm jack and FM radio. But the system has a high-quality voice recorder that can record sound without noise and interference. The microphone is quite sensitive, there is no distortion during conversation, and the voice is transmitted clearly.

Advantages and disadvantages

• Bigger and brighter display
• High quality speaker and sensitive microphone;
• Powerful hardware and high system performance;
• Yoyo virtual assistant;
• Relatively capacious battery.

• Poorly detailed photos;
• Rear chamber bulge;
• The design of the device is too catchy.

Output

First of all, it is worth noting the powerful system of the device, which has a Kirin 980 chipset, 6-8 GB of RAM, 128-256 GB of internal memory and a Mali G76 graphics processor. All this equipment ensures stable operation of the system during daily tasks and running demanding applications. Good performance goes hand in hand with high-quality visuals that come from a larger, brighter display. You can also emphasize these advantages with a capacious battery, thanks to which you can enjoy games and other applications for 24 hours.

The initial configuration of the device has a cost of 500 dollars, while the premium version will cost as much as 900. Yes, in general, this does not inspire confidence and it is believed that the price of the smartphone is overpriced. One has only to take into account a weak camera, a strange, bulky design and minor flaws in the form of a lack of a flash drive and a standard audio jack. However, all these shortcomings pale against the background of decent system parameters, this is what plays an important role in a serious smartphone.