Introduction
HONOR Malaysia launched the MagicWatch 2 last year, which is actually part of the company’s 1+8+N IoT strategy. We finally got the 46mm version here to test. Without further ado, this is the HONOR MagicWatch 2 review!
Unboxing
The watch comes in a big cube box, inside the box, you’ll find the watch itself, the USB-C cable, magnetic charger, quick start guide, and warranty paper.
Design
The unit we got is the 46mm version, which I highly recommend you to get over the 42mm. It has a round screen and there are numbers all over, possibly for decorative purposes. There are two buttons located at the 2 o’clock position and the 4 o’clock position. One is actually the home button; another one is a programmable button.
The back of the watch has the optical sensor to measure your heart rate by projecting the light through the skin. There are also two gold contact pins for charging, there’s no wireless charging, sadly.
Our unit is the Charcoal Black variant, which has a rubber watch strap. If you prefer leather, go for the Flax Brown variant. You can change the watch strap, though, just like other smartwatches.
I do want to point out about the durability of this watch since the glass on the watch isn’t sapphire glass like the Apple Watch, it’s normal to see scars and scratches after using for some time. I did accidentally scratch the watch during my review period and there are a few marks left on the glass.
Display
The 46mm MagicWatch 2 has a 1.39-inch AMOLED display with the always-on feature. It comes with personalized watch faces, more on that later. The screen is sharp enough to show you the text and bright enough to see it outdoor.
Software & Features
Before we move on, let me be clear for one thing — this isn’t really a smartwatch. To pair the watch with either your Android phone or iPhone, you’ll need to install the Huawei Health app. If you are using an iPhone, features like music controls and changing watch faces in the app are not available.
It does have internal storage for you to store your soundtracks and play it via your Bluetooth earphones or headphones.
The features that available are all quite basic, it comes with a bunch of apps as below:
- Workout
- Heart rate
- Activity records
- Sleep
- Stress
- Breathing exercises
- Contacts
- Music
- Air pressure
- Compass
- Weather
- Stopwatch
- Timer
- Alarm
- Flashlight
- Find my phone
*HONOR states that the SpO2 monitoring feature will be available in March via a software update.
When your phone rings, the watch will vibrate and you can choose to accept or decline the call, but you can’t speak through the watch like other smartwatches.
Moreover, the watch also shows your notifications, I can read the text messages but not the emojis. I can’t even reply to messages using it as well, not even an emoji.
Battery Life
In terms of battery life, HONOR claims that the MagicWatch 2 has up to 14 days of battery life on a single charge. Based on my test, I was able to get around 12 days of battery life before the battery level hits below 10%, which is really good. However, do keep in mind that it doesn’t have those smartwatch features we normally find, it’s safe to say HONOR is trading features for battery life.
Final Words
Retailing at RM699 for the Charcoal Black variant and RM749 for the Flex Brown variant, the 46mm HONOR MagicWatch 2 is basically a fitness band with a circular screen. For this price, you can get a full-fledged smartwatch like the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active, but you won’t be getting great battery life like this. In the end, it all depends on what features you really need.