Honor Watch Magic 2 review - A smartwatch just in name (Pre-order now!) - Android
Update: December 17, 2019 at 11:55 a.m. ET: The Honor Watch Magic 2 is now available for pre-order from eBay in the UK for £139.99. The price will go back up to its original price of £159.99 soon, so you may want to pre-order sooner rather than later if you want to save £20. It’s also available in the Netherlands from HiHonor.com for €189.
The watch officially goes on sale on December 20, which is presumably when these devices will ship if you pre-order today. Honor says other European markets will get the Honor Watch Magic 2 starting in January 2020.
While the Apple Watch turned out to be a resounding success as far as wearables go, things have been lackluster on the Android side of things. Wear OS watches have been rather hit or miss, and the Tizen-powered Galaxy Watch series is one of the few good alternatives. Meanwhile, Huawei and Honor’s offerings have positioned themselves as interesting options that strike a delicate balance of just enough utility with none of the fluff. Indeed, wearables are shaping up to be a key growth area for the company.
Now in its second generation, did the Honor Watch Magic 2 take meaningful steps to improve the user experience? Or is it yet another missed opportunity to deliver a powerful companion to the Android-toting crowd? We find out in the Android Authority Honor Watch Magic 2 review.
The Honor Watch Magic 2 is the company’s second attempt to merge a fitness wearable with a smart companion. As such, it improves the design with a more elegant look that would be at home in an office environment, as well as when you are out and about. Honor didn’t improve its capabilities drastically compared to the previous generation, but the Honor Watch Magic 2 makes strides in all the right places. From the design to the battery life, there are meaningful enhancements that should make it appealing to existing users, as well as anyone looking for a reasonably priced wearable that covers the essentials.
However, it competes against formidable wearables such as the now discounted Apple Watch Series 3, Garmin Venu, as well as the Fossil Gen 5. Is the limited skill set of the Honor Watch Magic 2 enough to beat the competition?
Honor has built a reputation for its focus on pushing design with its smartphones, and it is easy to see the same focus here. The Honor Watch Magic 2 is a fantastic looking wearable that perfectly marries appealing aesthetics with excellent build quality. We reviewed the 46mm variant, which is inspired by chronograph-style watches. The smaller 42mm variant eschews the outer bezel of the larger version for a simpler design.
The Honor Watch Magic 2 perfectly marries appealing aesthetics with excellent build quality.
On the 46mm variant, the display’s bezel has a bevel both inwards and out. The glass on top, however, levels it out. Time notations are marked out on the outer bezel which makes the wearable appear even more watch-like, and even more so with the always-on display switched on. The two-button layout is easily accessible during workouts. The top button pulls up a list of apps and settings, while the bottom one can be customized to launch a fitness routine or any of the other pre-installed apps.
Construction is plastic and metal. While you can get a variant with a leather strap, ours shipped with a standard silicon sports band.
All said and done, the Honor Watch Magic 2 is a great looking wearable that channels analog watches discreetly without being over-the-top.
The Honor Watch Magic 2 ships with a veritable arm full of sensors that should make it a great fitness wearable. While more serious athletes should still opt for a GPS fitness watch, there is enough here to excite some on a fitness journey. The fifteen tracking modes built-in are comprehensive enough to cover a wide range of potential workouts. These include the standard indoor and outdoor running routines, cycling, swimming, trail running, and hiking, as well as some rather unique ones like a specific mode for running a triathlon. From the common heart rate measurement to VO2 max calculations, it was the speed and accuracy of GPS tracking that really stood out for me.
See also: The best Garmin watches you can buy
I’ve used a Fitbit Ionic for the last two years. While it’s been a reliable companion, the GPS performance has been rather hit or miss. From a cold start, the Fitbit Ionic took a patience-testing five minutes to get a fix. Meanwhile, the Honor Watch Magic 2 was able to latch on to GPS signals with a full-strength bar in less than 30 seconds. Impressive.
As for step tracking, the two wearables were within a hundred steps of each other when I took them out for a short run. Moreover, the GPS tracked distance to within a few meters of the known length of the track. The watch displays granular data, such as heart-rate zones during the workout, and can also help you maintain a pace. I found this to be incredibly helpful while training for a marathon. The watch includes a workout assistant that blares out milestones and advice during the workout. I found this to be jarring and I’d recommend you switch it off.
Heart rate sensors on fitness trackers can be iffy, so if you want the best possible reading you’ll want to rely on a chest-mounted sensor. While running a comfortable pace, the watch often measured my heart rate to be at near-peak levels, which was definitely not the case. If accurate heart rate tracking during workouts is a key criterion for you, the Honor Watch Magic 2 might not be the best option. Compared to my Fitbit Ionic, my heart rate seemed to spike a few times during workouts. I’m reasonably sure that I was running nowhere close to peak capacity and this is likely an anomaly in how the watch tracks heart rate.
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