[Review] HONOR MagicWatch 2 Review - The Ultimate Companion

Honor Magic Watch 2 Review - The Ultimate Companion

I was lucky to be invited to the Honor’s Annual Fan Fest in Shenzhen last year. Not only I get to witness the launching of the Sunrise Orange Honor V30 and the Honor Magicbook, I also get to meet George Zhao in person! You can read more about my trip here.

The team from Honor Global Fans Club were exceptionally generous as they surprised all 5 of us (Honor Global Fans) with an Honor Magic Watch 2! Not a review unit but an actual gift that we can bring back home! 

After spending about two months with the Honor Magic Watch 2, here are the things that I want to say about this device.

Builds and Design

The sleek design of the 46mm Honor Magic Watch 2 is what every man ever dream of. On the surface, it was a full glass panel covering a 1.39-inch AMOLED display making everything look vividly clear. It’s auto brightness control makes the screen perfectly visible under bright sunlight.

It comes with two dial buttons at the side where the top button gets you into the function while the second one is a customizable one. The red line on the top button makes the whole watch feel sporty while maintaining it’s stylishness. 

What makes this watch even more stylish is it’s customizable watch faces. By using the Huawei Health App on your phone, there are so much more varied selection of faces which you can install whenever you like. As a friend of mine said, it feels like a new watch every time he changed the watch face. 

Underneath the screen is a 361L industry grade stainless steel enclosure that offers high strength to weight ratio and less susceptibility to nics and scratches from everyday activities. The Honor Magic Watch 2 can withstand 5ATM water pressure, measures vertical altitude, Air pressure and it has a built-in GPS and GLONASS tracking system  which makes it an all-condition wear. 

Fitness + Health Monitoring

I brought the Honor Magic Watch 2 for jogs and swims once in a while and tried out the fitness monitoring. It comes with 15 goal-based fitness modes and 13 different running courses.During training,  you can activate a setting which allows you to receive motivational voice commands while training, which should definitely keep you going. Speaking of motivation, the Magic Watch 2 is able to detect when you’re in sitting position for an hour, and will encourage you to stand up.

I personally love the TruSleep function where the watch actually tracked my sleeps while suggesting ways to improve my sleeps in the future. 

The continuous heart rate monitoring not only traces your heart rate, it can even warn you when your heart rate exceeds the limit. You’ll know when you need help before it’s too late. 

A Watch + A Phone + An Alarm

With the Honor Magic Watch 2 in hand, I can always check the time and date with a flip of my wrist. I can make calls and receive calls easily, especially when I’m driving. I can play my favourite songs (up to 500 songs in the 2GB built-in storage) without the need of a phone nor a bluetooth speaker. The speaker is loud enough while not compromising the audio quality. It also acts as my alarm since I need to go to work early in the morning. The alarm goes off softly while it vibrates on your wrist, thus waking you up without making too much noise. 

Extreme battery life

When I was told that the Honor Magic Watch 2 can last for a whooping 14 days, I didn’t believe it at all. Having friends using android and apple watches, their watch can only last for about a day. Those watches require charging as much as their phones. However, after the first charge (100%) of Honor Magic Watch 2,  the battery is still in 86% state after 3 days of full usage (TrueSleep + Continuous Heart Rate Monitor)

So what’s the secret behind Honor Magic Watch 2’s longevity? Honor Magic Watch 2 comes with a Kirin A1 chip, which powers its wearable operating system, LiteOS. The processing chip works so well with the LiteOS making it super efficient. A normal user like me can use it for at least 12 days before the battery goes down to the 10% critical level. To be honest, I can’t really remember when I last charged the watch unless I look back to the records.   

Verdict

The Honor Magic Watch 2 is an excellent watch with very impressive battery life. It has everything you need on a watch, and most importantly, it’s stylish and sporty at the same time. I enjoyed using it and it never leaves my wrist even when I sleep. However, there are still spaces for improvements. 

Improvements suggestions:

• I find that it wasn’t able to work as a remote shutter. Most android and apple watches have that function and it’s super convenient when you’re using a phone without a headphone jack. 




• When receiving notifications, it can only show the text but not the photos. 




• It doesn’t wake the screen when you twist your wrist while laying down. So I still need to press on the button to see the screen unless I sit up. 

Anyway, with just RM699, it’s really hard to say NO to Honor Magic Watch 2. 

Here's our short interview on the Honor Magic Watch 2.