Last Thursday, 12 October 2023, Honor held the Chinese launch for the Magic Vs2. The foldable smartphone team has been busy as this is the third foldable device from the company in the last four months.
It was first unveiled in September at IFA Berlin where it was dubbed the “world’s thinnest foldable smartphone” and follows the Magic V Purse which launched in China last month and the Magic V2 which launched in July.
As proud as Honor presumably is, a Chinese launch isn’t a big deal for South Africans (or anyone outside of China, for that matter). Especially if you consider the number of devices announced in China that don’t make it out of the country.
Well, according to a press release from Honor, the Magic Vs2 is bucking that trend with a South African launch planned for “the first half of 2024”. If you were hoping for the Honor V Purse instead, you’re out of luck.
Magic Vs2 bound for SA, along with friends
When it does eventually launch here, you’ll be able to laugh at those with fatter, heavier folding phones. With the Magic Vs2 weighing just 229g, that’s going to be a lot of people. Just don’t let them know your sleeker device houses a two-year-old chipset.
Instead of this year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the ‘+’ labelled improved version (if that ever happens), or next year’s 8 Gen 3 chipset, Honor has decided to stick last year’s SD 8+ Gen 1 inside the Magic Vs2, presumably to lower the cost. There’s nothing stopping it from playing with the other 5G-capable kids but even so, when the device lands in SA next year, it’ll be up against flagships presumably packing newer SD 8 Gen 3 chips. Unless it’s priced very well, it’ll be a hard sell.
As far as memory options go, the Magic Vs2 is available with 12GB and 256GB or 16GB and 512GB of RAM and ROM respectively. There’s no microSD card slot for expansion and no telling which model will land here, although we’d hazard a guess it’ll be the former.
Much of the other specs in the Magic Vs2 are pretty similar, if not identical, to its three-month-younger sibling. The Magic V2’s pair of 6.43in cover display and 7.92in inner LTPO OLED screen shows up again, as does the 50MP main and 20MP telephoto camera sensors.
Read More: Honor unveils two new entry-level smartphones – the X6a and X5 Plus
However, the 50MP ultrawide module in the Magic V2 has been downgraded to a 12MP sensor. There’s a 5,000mAh Li-Po battery providing the juice that you won’t have to wait around all day to charge up with 66W of wired charging. It’s a different story if you’re using 5W wireless charging though.
South Africa’s foldable smartphone market is still building steam which isn’t helped by the often costly barrier of entry. So far, only Samsung and Huawei have a noteworthy presence here. Honor joining the party may shake things up a bit, even if that just causes the other two to think twice about their asking price.
Stuff has also learned that Honor plans to bring more of its products like the Pad X9, its MagicBook series of laptops, and assorted IoT devices to the country to further flesh out its local ecosystem offering. More competition is almost always a good thing for the consumer.