Honor Magic 2 with Kirin 980 and Sliding Display Debuts at IFA 2018
The magic hasn’t gone from your phone! Huawei’s sub-brand Honor just presented the first Kirin 980 powered device dubbed the Honor Magic 2 and it features a SLIDING DISPLAY. Let me share whay I found out about Honor Magic 2 and what’s good/bad about it, but first, let’s go back in time and visit the Honor Magic 1.
Nearly two years ago, before concept phones were cool, Huawei introduced the Honor Magic out of the blue and it blew people away. It was the first phone to feature facial recognition and AI functions integrated in the software. This was truly a revolution back then. Huawei took their first steps in Face ID and AI which later proved very benefitial and we see them in EMUI 8 today and especially in Kirin 970 with its own NPU chip. Now, back to the present Honor Magic 2 and is it as revolutionary as the first one?
The battle for most screen-to-body ratio has always been able to sell more phones and help developers introduce new tech. We removed the fingerprint scanner from the back and placed it under the display, but we still can’t get rid off the front camera we need so much, but we’ve found a loophole, or Oppo did.
A month or so ago, Oppo Find X entered the smartphone scene and people really loved it With Find X the mechanical mechanism works automatically and a soon as you open the camera app the slider will open. Huawei decided this was not ideal and people want control over the slider.
With Honor Magic 2, you decide when you want to pop-out that camera as the slider is built in the body, just like the Nokia Banana phones used to have. Behind the slider there is a 3D Facial Recognition camera which will also allow you to use it as a paying method. As for the Rear cameras, nothing was revealed, but they were sitting on the back, so you still have those. Well, if you aren’t into sliding phones and the newest chipsets, Magic 2 offers the fastest and safest SuperCharging technology.
Honor Magic 2 uses a 40W Huawei Supercharging charger. This is nearly twice as fast as Qualcomm’s QC 4.0 (24W). We didn’t get charging numbers, but should be 30-40 minutes to a full charge on a 3500mAh battery and who wouldn’t want that!
Honor Magic 2 really looks interesting, but I have to say, definetely not revolutionary. Unless Huawei come up with another gimmick they’ve been hiding in this presentation I have to dub the Honor Magic 2 a Oppo Find X copycat and a commercial phone, rather than a concept one. I expect the Honor Magic 2 to launch shortly after the Mate 20 (probably late October) and will be pricey for sure.
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