[HONOR Content Crew] Review – HONOR Magic Watch 2: A circular fitness band

HONOR first announced its first wearable last year – and that was called the Watch Magic. A year later, HONOR announced the successor to that smartphone – and it’s called MagicWatch 2. Yes – that’s the official stylization of the name, but we’ll be calling it as the HONOR Magic Watch 2 throughout this review. I find that space between the words “Magic” and “Watch” to be unnecessary. Even HONOR themselves can’t agree if it should be stylized as “MagicWatch 2” or “Magic Watch2”.

It comes in two sizes – 42mm and 46mm. The version that we have here is the 46mm size version with the new Flax Brown strap. For the price of RM749, let’s take a look at what’s interesting with this “smartwatch”.

We’ll be comparing the HONOR Magic Watch 2 with the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active (review) since they are around the same price.

Design

This watch is 46mm in diameter and has a pretty nice-looking design overall. It has a graduated rim around the screen… which seems to be just for decoration as the numbers written on it is just all over the place.

There are also two buttons on the watch itself – one located at the 2 o’clock position back to the home screen, and another programmable button located at the 4 o’clock position.

There isn’t much to see at the back of the watch other than the photodiodes and two gold contact pins for charging. Yes, the HONOR Magic Watch 2 uses a proprietary charger that has two golden pins. No, it does not support wireless charging.

The particular variant of the HONOR Magic Watch 2 that I have for this review is the Flax Brown variant. While I have no idea what “flax” means, the watch comes with a genuine leather strap. I just love this leather strap, to be honest.

Its “smartwatch” features

The reason why I avoid calling the HONOR Magic Watch 2 as a “smartwatch” is because of its general lack of features. For this section, I’ll be comparing the HONOR Magic Watch 2 with the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active (review) since it’s at around the same price.

I highly suggest you watch the video version of this review where we show you what features are available on this watch.

The watch does come with internal storage so you can load up your music and listen on your Bluetooth earphones/headphones. It doesn’t have any external app support, so your only option is to load your own MP3. There’s no FLAC support.

It also has a speaker, but it is underutilized. Since you can’t install any third-party apps, you’re stuck with whatever is available on the watch itself. That sucks.

Speaking of which, the only features available on the watch are… pretty basic. Here’s the list of all available “apps” on the HONOR Magic Watch 2 which I think are noteworthy:

• Workout


• Heart rate


• Activity record


• Sleep


• Stress


• Breathing exercises


• Music


• Contacts


• Weather


• Torch (it just turns the screen to white)

Moreover, the amount of watch faces available are very limited. Since it doesn’t’ have any third-party support to sideload any external repository, you’re stuck with these watch faces:

Then, the HONOR Magic Watch 2 handles notifications rather poorly. I can read messages on the watch but cannot view emojis. I can’t even reply to messages by typing or by using voice, or send an emoji back.

Battery life

The battery life on the HONOR Magic Watch 2 is its true redeeming point. This watch can last for 2 weeks on a single charge! Well, that’s mostly because of the lack of smartwatch features in the watch compared to the Galaxy Watch Active.

Essentially, HONOR is trading features for battery life on the Magic Watch 2.

Wrapping up the HONOR Magic Watch 2 review

In summary, the best way to describe the HONOR Magic Watch 2 is this – it’s a fitness band with a circular screen, and some extra half-baked features built-in. The watch does offer supremely long battery life since it doesn’t have that many features or versatility like the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active.

However, for the price of RM749, it’s quite a hefty price to pay, especially for that genuine leather strap. If you opt for the silicone strap, then it is only at RM699. However, the original Samsung Galaxy Watch Active actually available in the market at about RM699.

But then again, you still don’t have the features as a full-fledged smartwatch like Samsung’s, but the battery life is just too good on the HONOR Magic Watch 2.

Between the HONOR Magic Watch 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active, it truly depends on what type of features you want or need.

Source from NLT