Jalen Sigh Tech

Verdict

Look past its maker’s lacklustre software commitment and the Honor MagicPad 2 proves to be a stunning and capable slate, with premium audiovisual abilities for a fraction of the cost of its biggest rivals.

Introduction

For the longest time, the Android tablet space felt bland and baron. Save for the odd worthwhile offering from Samsung, few rivals were up to stepping into the ring against the likes of the Galaxy Tab range and, in the wider tablet space, the ever-present iPad.

Thankfully, there’s been in shift over the last year or so and now we have fresh competition from the likes of the OnePlus Pad 2 and now, the latest Honor MagicPad 2.

Unveiled for international audiences in early September this year, the MagicPad 2 sets its sights on the biggest best tablets around, with the intent of meeting or beating them on a spec-for-spec basis, while also promoting Honor’s latest efforts in AI integration across its product range.

Design

• 555g, 5.8mm thick
• Moonlight White or black
• Optional Bluetooth keyboard cover & stylus

As tablets go, the MagicPad 2 is a thing of beauty. In place of the predominantly metal form of the latest Galaxy Tab, iPad or OnePlus Pad, Honor has dressed the back of its newest slate with what it claims is an “aerospace-grade” fibre material that’s 45% lighter and 25% stronger than its previous iteration.

In the hand, it serves up a little additional grip compared to the full-metal jackets of key rivals and doesn’t get as hot or cold to the touch either.

Aesthetically, the Moonlight White model seen in this review is great to look at. The back has a pattern to it that catches the light beautifully, as if hewn from iridescent nacre (like you’d find on the inside of certain shells), and actually resembles the Rococo Pearl Huawei P60 Pro in that regard.

It’s complemented by a sandblasted metal frame and polished metal accent work around the camera for a pleasing contrast. While the straight-sided appearance may remind you of an iPad, Honor has done plenty to help its latest slate stand apart, stylistically.

This construction also means that, compared to similarly-sized rivals – like the 12.4-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ (571 grams), and the 13-inch iPad Pro (579 grams) – it’s lighter and thus easier to use for extended periods.

Accessories

Both at launch and on its site, Honor is also heavily pushing the Honor MagicPad 2 Smart Bluetooth Keyboard (£75.99 in the UK) and Honor Magic-Pencil 3 (£85.99 in the UK); optional accessories that unlock the full potential of the MagicPad 2.

The added convenience of a physical keyboard is undeniable, with 1.6mm of travel within the accessory’s keys, while an assortment of shortcuts let you quickly access favourite apps, as well as UI elements like the notifications pane, and even voice commands, all without having to touch the screen.

When you consider Apple’s and Samsung’s keyboards for their equivalent tablets come in at £349 and £229.99 respectively, the idea of coughing up a little extra for the benefits it offers seems like a no-brainer.

That said, the MagicPad 2’s keyboard cover’s lower asking price is justified by some obvious compromises. The single 60-degree angle is ideal for productivity, but doesn’t offer any flexibility should you want to tilt the screen for a better view when enjoying media or gaming, the keys aren’t backlit and there’s no trackpad.

Despite what appears to be an internal battery, the keyboard can’t maintain its Bluetooth connection when the tablet isn’t connected, meaning you can’t place the MagicPad 2 and the keyboard cover in separate places on your desk and keep typing like with the OnePlus Pad 2’s keyboard cover.

While these aren’t deal-breaking shortcomings, just be sure that you’re picking this accessory up for the right reasons, namely productivity and protection.

Then there’s the Magic Pencil 3. Impressive 2ms latency, 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity, tilt functionality (in select apps, with select tools), replaceable nibs and good support for stylus input across the MagicPad 2’s user experience make this a handy extra if you prefer to write by hand and doodle, in place of tapping, typing and swiping.

The stylus also attaches to the longer edge of the MagicPad 2 magnetically and charges wirelessly (Honor promises a full charge in 45 minutes and up to 10 hours of use at a time), but note that it seems to attach at a number of different points along the tab’s edge and only one actually charges with Magic Pencil 3.

A neat stylus trick I’ve not really seen elsewhere is that the touch-sensitive area near the nib of the Magic-Pencil 3 supports tapping and swiping gestures, and paired with the MagicPad 2’s Spotlight feature, lets you turn the stylus into a pseudo-laser pointer with the ability to swipe between pages or slides and highlight things at a distance. That’s something I could absolutely see students making use of during their next class presentation.

Screen

• 12.3-inch 144Hz OLED display w/ Honor Eye Comfort
• Eight speakers + improved spatial audio support
• IMAX Enhanced support on select apps

As for the screen, the use of a 12.3-inch panel with its 1920 x 3000 resolution actually gives you a sharper picture than similarly-sized alternatives, set within impressively thin bezels. Honor’s opted for OLED tech here, ensuring superb contrast with true blacks, vibrant colours and strong visibility in a range of environments, thanks to solid viewing angles and up to a 1600-nit peak brightness; made all the more impressive, considering the MagicPad 2’s asking price.

If it’s gaming, or HFR (high frame rate) content you’re interested in, the panel’s peak 144Hz refresh rate isn’t to be sniffed at either. Even in ‘Dynamic’ mode, the slate seems to favour 120Hz visuals (where supported), so things should appear buttery smooth practically all the time.

Honor has also packed in a heap of tech to ensure the MagicPad 2’s viewing experience is as easy on the eyes as possible: AI Defocus is there to help you avoid eye strain when reading or watching for extended periods, and it’s supported in apps like YouTube, Netflix and Kindle.

4320Hz high-frequency PWM dimming eliminates fluctuations in screen brightness, minimising flickering to what Honor calls an ‘imperceptible’ level, plus the screen will also shift to a warmer hue at night.

While the average premium slate packs in four speakers working in stereo pairs, the MagicPad 2 packs in eight. The resultant sound is richer and warmer, when comparing it side by side with the pricier Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra I had to hand. It offers up a wider sound stage, providing better stereo separation (up to 100 degrees, according to Honor) too.

The lack of a physical 3.5mm headphone jack is a little frustrating considering there’s definitely room for one, but instead, Honor has at least improved the spatial audio support available when using compatible wireless earbuds, with a reported 25% wider sound field than on its previous slate.

Collectively, the audiovisual chops of the MagicPad 2 also make the cut for IMAX Enhanced certification, meaning you can enjoy compatible content on the likes of Disney+ with the standard’s unique 1.9:1 aspect ratio (in select scenes) and DTS-approved audio. It’s a smart inclusion, if only to reinforce the MagicPad 2’s already-obvious viewing and audio abilities.

Camera

• 13MP rear camera (auto-focus) w/ LED flash
• 9MP front-facing camera (fixed-focus)
• Up to 4K/30fps video recording

As is customary on the majority of tablets, cameras don’t appear to be high on the list of priorities, where specs and features are concerned. The MagicPad 2 comes with a duo of sensors: a 13MP main and a 9MP front-facer.

The main sensor is fine for document scanning (there’s a dedicated mode within the camera UI), while the selfie camera can cover you for video calls.

Interestingly, the smaller, lower-resolution selfie snapper takes what I consider the nicer shots, especially where selfies are concerned. The results lack detail and are softer compared to the MagicPad 2’s main camera but skin tones are more appealing and that’s even with portrait mode beauty enhancements disabled.

It would have, perhaps, been more meaningful for Honor to employ the same reversible magnetic, detachable camera idea seen on the Honor MagicBook Art 14, which launched alongside the MagicPad 2. This would have allowed Honor to employ a higher quality sensor to cover both front and rear shooting experience, without the need for a sensor to always be on display.

Performance

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset
• 12GB RAM + 256GB storage
• Additional 8GB Honor RAM Turbo

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 that powers the MagicPad 2 has already proven itself to be capable silicon in the likes of the Poco F6, Motorola Razr 50 Ultra and the company’s own Honor 200 Pro. It’s by no means head-of-the-pack, and perhaps one of the weaker aspects of the slate’s makeup, but it’s more than up to the task of providing a consistent and enjoyable user experience, considering the kinds of tasks you’ll likely put the MagicPad 2 up to.

Benchmarking places the MagicPad 2 on par with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-toting OnePlus Pad 2 in CPU performance, but fractionally behind it in GPU tests.

We’re yet to come onto the software experience but to jump ahead for a moment, Android on tablets still feels a little half-baked, and as such, there’s little to really tax decently high-end chipsets like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 series.

As much as companies like Samsung might claim otherwise – with their exclusively optimised Android app partnerships – the iPad remains the power user’s go-to tablet; partly because of the iPadOS-tailored app experiences, and partly due to the class-leading silicon they possess (that’s the M4 chip inside the current iPad Pro at the time of writing).

This is all to say, unless you plan on buying an Android tablet for high-end gaming or intense video editing, there’s little reason to doubt the hardware performance offered by the Honor MagicPad 2.

For context, while in Honor’s homeland of China you can find its latest tab with up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, internationally, you’ll only have to deal with one variant, packing 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage.

Honor also includes its RAM Turbo feature, which allocates some storage as additional memory for multitasking and reduced app load times, but I question its usefulness, with seemingly no issue running three apps simultaneously on the MagicPad during testing.

Honor also doesn’t let you alter the allocation of storage contributing to RAM Turbo, nor does it give you the option to disable it; this is a small annoyance, but only in so much as equivalent technology on rival devices does allow for some customisation of the experience.

Software

• Honor MagicOS 8.0 atop Android 14 at launch
• MagicRing, Magic Portal, Favourite Space and more
• 1 year of OS updates, 3 years of security updates

Perhaps the most notable fly in the MagicPad 2’s ointment is its software commitment. While new Honor phones, like the recent Honor Magic V3 are slated to receive a respectable four years of OS updates and five years of security patches, the company’s latest and greatest slate only looks set to receive a measly one of the former and three of the latter, in its lifetime.

Even though I don’t think tablet users clamour for features and software enhancements the way smartphone users tend to, Honor’s decision here sits well behind the curve and hurts the MagicPad 2’s otherwise compelling value proposition.

With the OnePlus Pad 2 expecting 3 years and 4 years, respectively, and Samsung’s latest slates set to receive 7 generations of OS and security updates altogether, the MagicPad 2 simply doesn’t compete in this regard.

As ever, Honor’s Android-based software experience is a mixed bag. The company has put more time and transparency into offering frequent updates and useful features that keep users’ needs at the fore, but you should still expect some rough edges and a degree of needless bloat.

Power management preventing timely notifications has been a longstanding bugbear of MagicOS but on the flip side, features like Honor MagicRing make device inter-connectivity a doddle. Want to not only transfer files but actually mirror your Honor smartphone on the MagicPad 2? No problem, with MagicRing – one of the most seamless ecosystem features in the company’s repertoire.

Magic Portal is a little more hit-and-miss but lets you easily share any relevant content you can drag and drop on-screen, while Favourite Space and Parallel Space work as a digital scrapbook and secure secondary user experience respectively.

There are smaller elements of MagicOS that I enjoy – like enlarged home screen folders and painless split-screen multitasking, and some that I dislike – a long-press for the Google Assistant, but an even longer press to access the tablet’s power menu. Why, Honor?

Magic Capsule is a great way to keep tabs on timers or quickly access music playback, but the timing of its appearance within MagicOS is unabashedly contrived, relative to the debut of the iPhone’s Dynamic Island.

Nowadays we can’t talk about software without mentioning AI. The term has, in fact, been part of Honor’s launch and marketing material for some time now, and while some existing features have undergone a rebrand for the sake of relevance, there are some meaningful additions which leverage AI worth highlighting on the MagicPad 2.

Honor’s Notes app offers some of the most tangible benefits, with smaller additions, such as handwriting beautification, which had no problem discerning by terrible scrawl and turning into discernible text; with options to edit the degree of modification, as well as select from a few different fonts.

The ability to record audio with real-time transcription and translation has serious utility too, even if formatting the speech-to-text of multiple languages didn’t result in the cleanest copy by default. You also have the option to format handwritten formulas more clearly, however, unlike Apple’s Notes app, Honor’s AI leaves solving said equations up to you for the time being.

Battery Life

• 10050mAh battery
• 66W fast charging (wired)

Despite chastising Honor’s overzealous power management earlier, the silver lining is that it results in great battery life.

Breaking the 10000mAh barrier in a 12-inch tablet isn’t uncommon but the MagicPad gets a little more out of the power pack on hand, beating out the (admittedly larger-screened) Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra in our 30-minute light gaming battery test, where the Galaxy Tab dropped by 8% to the MagicPad 2’s 5% drop. Equally, an hour of Netflix at 50% brightness taxed the battery about the same, losing 5% of its charge in that time.

As for charging, the model I tested came with a 66W power adapter in-box, letting me test the MagicPad 2’s best available recharging speeds, however, UK buyers aren’t likely to receive this all-important accessory. Luckily, at the time of writing, Honor is throwing in its 100W wired fast charger as a free gift with the purchase of a MagicPad 2 in the region.

The 66W charger got the MagicPad 2 to 35% in 30 minutes, 50% in just under 40 and fully charged after being plugged in for just shy of 1.75 hours. Not blistering by any means, but seemingly correct for the charging speeds and battery capacity at play here.

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