Week 28 in review: Nothing Phone (2), Honor Magic V2 announced

16 July 2023

The Nothing Phone (2)'s official announcement is where we start this week's recap. It's a bit bigger, and slightly curvier than its predecessor, and packs a flagship chip in the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. Nothing Phone (2) comes in white and dark grey colors and starts at $599/£579/€679 for the 8/128GB trim. There’s a 12/256GB variant going for $699/£629/€729 while the top-of-the-line 12/512GB model is set at $799/£699/€849. Open sales are live from July 17.

We saw preliminary dummies of both the Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Z Fold5, which didn't exactly show the design evolution that was expected. There are still gaps when the foldable are shut and there is a substantial crease. Of course, these are dummy units and the final form will most likely differ slightly.

The OnePlus 12 was leaked through CAD-based renders, showing a familiar design with one significant change - a periscope zoom camera. All we can guess at this point is that it will be a 64MP OmniVision sensor.

A report from this week claims the Google Pixel 8 will be more expensive than the 7 - around $50 to $100. The Pixel 8 will bring some improvements like a brighter 120Hz display (though slightly smaller). Apparently, it will also feature an ultrasonic fingerprint reader instead of an optical one.

Honor held a big event in China, where it unveiled the Magic V2 alongside the MagicPad 13, and the Magic Watch 4. The Magic V2 is a real design marvel at just 9.9mm in its folded state (4.7mm unfolded) and it weighs just 231 grams. For reference, the thinnest foldable until this point was the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 which measures 11.2mm in its folded state and weighs 262 grams. Magic V2 boasts a 7.92-inch LTPO OLED primary screen with a 2,156 x 2,344 px resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. The cover screen comes in at 6.43 inches. It’s a 10-bit OLED panel with a 2,376 x 1,060px resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. Magic V2 is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset featuring an overclocked Cortex-X3 prime core at 3.36 GHz. Magic V2 arrives in Black, Silk Black, Silk Purple, and Gold colors. The baseline 12/256GB trim is priced at CNY 8,999. The 12/512GB version is CNY 9,999 while the Magic V2 Ultimate edition with 16GB RAM and 1TB storage will go for CNY 11,999.

The MagicPad 13 has a 13-inch 2880x1840px IPS LCD with a variable refresh rate that switches between 30Hz/48Hz/50Hz/60Hz/90Hz/120Hz and 144Hz. Superb multimedia is guaranteed by 8 speakers and 4 microphones. The tablet packs a Snapdragon 888 chipset, a 10,050mAh battery with 66W charging, and a stylus called the Magic Pencil 3. The Honor MagicPad 13 is on pre-order starting today and will go on general sale on July 20. The tablet starts from CNY 2,999 (€376, INR 34,300, converted) for the 8/256GB model.

The Magic Watch 4 supports eSIM connectivity so you can leave your phone behind. The watch also has dual stand-by for longer running time (up to 10 days). The Honor Magic Watch 4 is on sale for CNY 999 (€125, INR 11,400, converted) but there's a special CNY 50 early bird discount. You can pick between Black, Gold, and Blue.

That's it for this week. Stay tuned for the next one!