Honor MagicPad 2 Review: A Winning Combination

With the Android tablet segment seemingly on the rise, Honor has brought its powerhouse MagicPad 2 to Western markets. With flagship power, a vibrant display, and a competitive price, can Honor's MagicPad 2 stand up to the likes of the OnePlus Pad 2 and Pixel Tablet?

Join us after the break to find out.

Design

Unlike the OnePlus Pad 2 (review here), the Honor MagicPad 2 has a flat edge around its 12.2-inch display. It's a more modern design, just 5.8mm thick, but I found it a little less comfortable to hold. On the other hand, it is almost 30g lighter than its rival, although I don't think it's enough of a difference to notice. The bezels are slim, and everything feels sturdy and well-made.

The volume rocker is on the right-hand edge, and the power is just around the corner on top. A pair of speaker chambers are also on the top and bottom edges. Pretty much everything is where you'd expect to find it.

The MagicPad 2's rear panel features a neat aluminum finish. Its camera housing is oval-ish and placed in the usual position in the top left corner with a single sensor and an LED flash.

Overall, it's a solid design from Honor, which is something we've come to expect from the ever-improving brand.

Hardware

Read: Galaxy Tab S10 Plus V OnePlus Pad 2: What's The Difference?

Performance

It packs a vibrant 12.3-inch display with a 144Hz refresh rate. Unlike the OnePlus Pad 2, it is OLED, which means deeper, inky blacks in imagery. It really is a joy to use for gaming and viewing content, with good viewing angles to boot. Brightness levels are excellent with 1600nits on hand to make light of any occasion.

Keeping with Honor's recent trend, the MagicPad 2 sports a host of features to make the viewing experience eye-friendly, such as Dynamic Dimming, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), and Circadian Night Display. Honor has even leveraged AI to help minimize eye strain with the new AI Defocus Display, which aims to reduce eye strain and lessen transient myopia, or nearsightedness, as it is most commonly known. Currently supporting popular apps such as YouTube and Amazon Kindle, Honor says that the AI Defocus feature will work with other apps in the future.

Sound is also something to behold, thanks to the eight speakers on the top and bottom edges of the MagicPad 2. There's a good level of bass, and there are options such as spatial audio and stereo sound available.

The performance of the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset is pretty good, but you'll need to really push it to put it under strain. The gaming experience is excellent, and thanks to the OLED display, you'll also love the visual aspect.

As usual, we've run the Magicpad 2 through a couple of benchmarking apps with rather predictable results.

Battery

With a big 10,050mAh battery, the MagicPad 2 goes on and on. You won't be caught short on a long-haul flight, and when it does, you can juice it back up to 100% in under two hours using a 66W SuperCharge adaptor.

Software

The MagicPad 2 software experience is pretty good. It runs on MagicOS 8.0, which is based on Android 14. Honor has done a great job of making the MagicPad 2 a great option for both entertainment and productivity purposes.

As you might expect, Honor has included AI features such as the Magic Portal, which helps extract images and text to share with just about any app on the tablet. There's also Magic Ring, which links up with other Honor devices, and Magic Capsule, which takes after Apple's Dynamic Island function.

The App Extender function in Settings enables third-party apps to be displayed in dual windows for multitasking, although you'll need to toggle some apps individually.

As with every Android tablet, there's a lack of apps optimized for the larger screen. That's not Honor's fault; developers don't seem to consider the Android tablet market worthy of the extra effort, leaving us with the experience of stretched phone apps on the big screen.

Read: OnePlus Pad v Pixel Tablet: What’s The difference?

Camera

The best camera is the one you have with you, so if you only have the MagicPad 2 to hand, you'll be happy to learn that it has a reliable if unexciting, 13MP rear camera and a 9MP selfie camera onboard.

As you can see from the shots below, the cameras will get the job done to a very acceptable level (for a tablet). Honor has included a flash module on the rear, but we've mostly used it as a torch.

Conclusion

With great battery life, helpful AI features, software that helps you be productive, and an absolutely gorgeous bright OLED display, there's little to nitpick with the MagicPad other than it's not available for purchase in the US.

After the OnePlus Pad 2 re-ignited my passion for Android tablets, I looked forward to reviewing Honor's MagicPad 2. While I prefer the Pad 2's round edges, the MagicPad 2's OLED display certainly sets it apart. At just half the price of Samsung's Galaxy Tab S10 Plus, the MagicPad 2 earns the title of being the best-value Android tablet in 2024.