Honor Magic watch 2 Review

I recently managed to get hold of the Honor Magicwatch 2 and I’ve been using it for 2 months already. Here’s my review of it.

When the Honor Magicwatch first came out in the 2018, I recalled I was ogling at it from afar. And then Honor Magicwatch 2 came out in late 2019. I told myself, I need to have it. Surely enough, this time around in 2020, I managed to snatch the golden opportunity of owning it. A great value for a smartwatch of this range.

Let's get straight to the unboxing experience. The smartwatch comes in a simple black box with a holographic name of the product imprinted at the top left of the box.

Opening the box, you’ll find the smartwatch, usb-type C, a charging dock, warranty card and also a booklet.

The Magicwatch 2 comes in two different sizes; 42mm and 46mm. The functionalities are all the same but the 46mm comes with a mic and a speaker which means you could answer call directly from the smartwatch itself. Pretty cool in my opinion. Except there’s no sense of privacy if you answer the call out in the public. The speaker isn’t tinny too so if you’re a private person, I would recommend answering the call in a closed area. =P On the contrary, with the speaker built in, I could enjoy music on my wrist. An approximate of 500 songs could be stored in this smartwatch. However, do bear in mind that this would affect the battery life as it would drain the battery accordingly.

As I prefer the 46 mm than the 42 mm, it doesn’t feel bulky at all on my small wrist. I’ve always preferred bigger watch but I couldn’t wear it as the straps are all made based on a man’s wrist. I’m pretty lucky because it’s a different story with this Magicwatch 2. There are 18 holes on the strap so anyone with an extra-large, large, medium or small wrist could wear it perfectly on their wrist without being too loose or too tight. That’s the versatility that I’m looking for. The 46 mm variants come in two colours; Charcoal Black and Flax Brown. Flax Brown is the one with the brown leather straps and a silver metallic finish on it. As I dislike a leather straps, Charcoal Black is what I opted for and it’s cheaper by RM50. Besides, it’s easy to change the straps too. Just pull, hold and take it out. It’s really that simple. =)

The Magicwatch 2 comes in 1.39-inch AMOLED screen. It’s vibrant and beautiful with 454 X 454 resolution; 326 pixels per inch. There’s absolutely no problem trying to view it under the bright sunlight. Meanwhile, the watch is approximately 41g without the strap and it feels rather light in my opinion.

The surface area of the Honor Magicwatch 2 is flat which gives it a clean look. I would suggest getting a screen protector because there’s no way to replace the screen if it does crack by any accidental means. As I mentioned earlier, the straps are removable and this made the entire ordeal of changing the straps a blissful experience.

Navigating through the watch menu is pretty simple to tell the truth.

1.     Swipe from the top gives you an overview;

2.     Swipe up for notifications;

3.     Swipe left/right continuously will give you activity, heart rate, stress, weather and music,

4.     The top button with the red ascends is the power and also the function button. Long presses on the button would turn on/off the Magicwatch 2; short presses and double clicks would lead to different functionalities. You could also personalize the lower button to your likings. Swipe from the top at the home screen and click on settings. From there you could choose your personalized option.

5.     To change the watch face; touch the watch face for a few seconds and it’ll direct you to different types of watch faces that you could download via the Huawei Health app.

On the Huawei Health app, there are options on Watch Faces. Choose to your heart content but bear in mind you could only install a maximum of 32 watch faces. If none of the watch faces suits your need, don’t worry as there’s always an option for you to create your own personalized watch face too though it’s more on the limited side.

Here are few examples of the watch faces provided:-

Besides all these, you could choose to add contacts so that it’s easily assessable to call on your smartwatch. Adding music onto the smartwatch is also done easily via the app.

Swimmers alert! This smartwatch is waterproof! Yes, it offers 5ATM water-resistance so for those water sports lovers, you could most definitely bring this out to play in the water. ?

This sweetie pie comes in a 455mAh battery that could last up to 14 days with sleep monitor, heart rate monitoring and message notification activated as claimed by Honor. As I had been using it for the past weeks, a single charge could last me 10 days. Not bad right. I do not wish to deplete the battery even further so I always charge it when it’s around 19-20%. As long as I charge it once a week, it’s a great deal for me. Charging this smartwatch is easy too. It took me an approximate one hour to charge it from 20% to 100% 

Connect the USB-type C connector on the white dock (comes together in the box) as shown below.

On the picture below, the red arrow indicates the place where it'll match automatically. You just place the white-coloured-dock and it snaps magnetically onto the smartwatch itself. Works like magic every time. =D 

The only downside of this smartwatch is it doesn’t support third party apps but I don’t really mind it at all. There’s only one app that you could use and that’s Huawei Health. In my opinion, this app is sufficient to fulfil my needs because it’s simple, effective and efficient in doing what it does.

With further software update, you could now choose widely from 85 new workout modes and 194 types of data tracking. The newly added 85 workout modes cover 6 different categories of sports which are extreme, leisure, fitness, aquatics, ball games and winter sports. These are the examples of things covered: cross fit, taekwondo, boxing, fencing, belly dance, jazz dance, latin dance, ballet, street dance, tai chi, hula hoop, frisbee, darts, archery, horse riding, kite flying, badminton, fishing, tennis, pool, and even water sport.

p/s: I’m really intrigue to try out the tai chi…always wonder how it actually works…think I’m gonna watch some youtube videos to learn tai chi and try the option out myself. =D

Additionally, the Cycle Calendar is now available for ladies who wish to keep track with their period cycle. It will give you a nudge on your wrist few days before your period cycle is approaching. Pretty neat because sometimes ladies tend to forget due to work/hectic life. A gentle reminder of what’s coming up.  

I didn’t get to try the GPS yet because of what’s happening outside with the Covid-19 raging indefinitely. Sigh. I hope ‘normal’ days can come sooner. #StaySafe #StayIndoors 

The smartwatch also offers breathing exercises. Once you click on it, it’ll eventually tells you to inhale/exhale in accordance to the setting that you’ve pre-set earlier on. For eg. A minute or so. Such exercise is going to keep you calm and regulate your breathing. It’s a nice addition for those who might experience anxiety attack. Well, it’s not something I would use regularly but it’s good that it’s there if you need it.

I’m glad that this smartwatch comes with the SpO2 which is known as the blood oxygen saturation levels. SpO2 is the percentage of hemoglobin in our blood that contains oxygen. It is a useful indicator to predict a person’s respiratory system. Generally speaking, SpO2 of a healthy person is between 94% - 100%. Anything that falls below 90% for a long period of time could mean something is wrong and it’s time to seek doctors’ advice. It’s great that I could monitor my pulse rate along with the SpO2 because these are predictors of health problems. Abnormal readings such as low or high pulse rate for example can indicate heart problems. In short, prevention is better than to cure. Last but not least, the smartwatch really provides a good experience for me. I could easily wear it to sleep as the straps are not that uncomfortable to wear at all. Initially I intended to get Honor Band 5 but because I prefer rounded face watch, I went for this Magicwatch 2. Never regret owning it. Cheers!