The Honor Magic 2 is an intelligent heavyweight, and delivers a knockout punch

This is a partnered post.  Honor Magic 2 combines the first-of-its-kind hardware with extensive AI capabilities, to truly live up to its name. From AI-powered cameras, NPU chipset, all-new AI assistant and nearly 100% screen-to-body ratio, the Magic 2 is an astonishing technological marvel.  Powered by the all-new Kirin 980 Providing the heartbeat for the phone is the HiSilicon Kirin 980 chipset, Huawei’s most powerful chipset, making its much-awaited debut. It is the world’s first 7 nm mobile chipset, housing 6.5 billion transistors, and claims to improve power efficiency by 40% and overall speed by 20%. But what is more impressive is the arrangement of the processor, focusing on AI capabilities with the introduction of dual neural-network processing units to make the smartphone, smarter. The architecture of the processor is such that is provides better performance (75%), and more power efficiency (58%) than its predecessor. It also boasts of the world’s first Mali-G76 GPU which will allow you to play the top-end games lag-free, while also improving battery performance. You’ll be able to play PUBG, Asphalt and even Injustice for hours on end. The Kirin 980 also enables the Magic 2 to have the world’s fastest Wi-Fi speed on a smartphone with downloads reaching speeds of 1.7 Gbps. Artificial intelligence, more than just a gimmick AI is everywhere, and more recently they have been getting into smartphones as well. A useful (and much-needed) application of AI is during weak network coverage. It is programmed to activate certain modes when it detects weak network coverage, especially when riding the subway, or high-speed rail. It studies the surrounding network data and optimizes the network, so you can continue to access the internet, talk on the phone, or play games. Notch-less, edge-to-edge Magic FullView Display From underneath the hood, to the hood itself, Honor as upped the game by removing the much-talked-about notch altogether. The Magic 2 has a beautiful 6.39-inch bezel-less AMOLED screen with a near 100% screen-to-body ratio. It achieves this by moving the speaker to the edge and removing the notch for the front camera altogether. The physical fingerprint scanner is also missing, rendering the entire frontal real estate for the screen. What you get instead is the on-screen fingerprint scanner, placed a little higher on the screen than other flagships, making it much easier to unlock. The triple front camera pops up with a slider mechanism from under the screen, yes, the slider seems to be coming back in spectacular fashion. The back of the phone features the trademark gradient design which Honor and Huawei had pioneered. While it is a fingerprint magnet, it is still beautiful to look at and delivers great, premium hand feel. AI-powered triple camera setup Honor, and its parent company Huawei were the first to introduce AI in their smartphone cameras, with the rest of the industry catching up. In the Honor Magic 2, the pioneering AI-powered triple camera setup, both rear and front, works well in recognizing objects and scenes in images and videos, creating the ideal shot. With a dedicated NPU in the chipset, latency is reduced, so the computational photography happens in real time. The rear triple camera setup has an RGB 16MP lens, a monochrome 24MP lens, and an ultra-wide angle 16MP lens. Under normal lighting conditions, the photos are vibrant, sharp and detailed. The portrait mode is particularly effective, due to the AI component. You can also click wide angle-photos with ease, with little to no geometric distortion. The Magic 2 closes the gap to the premium flagships in the camera department with the introduction of Artificial Image Stabilization technology, which helps in clicking stunning handheld shots even in low-light conditions. Meet YOLO – the new, smarter virtual assistant The Magic 2 introduces Honor’s entrant to the virtual assistant world – YOLO. Honor has clearly realized that AI is the next big thing in smartphones and YOLO is its answer to Google Assistant, Alexa, Siri, and Bixby. With natural language processing, machine learning capabilities, as well as decision and scenario-based recommendation systems, it is one of the smartest assistants out there. The biggest hurdle that virtual assistants have to cross is understanding unstructured human input, with mispronunciations, colloquialism, etc., but with the help of the NPU, YOLO understands and communicates effectively. It is also able to control extensive software functions, and execute in-app directions, making it an integral part of Magic UI 2.0 (based on Android Pie) More bang for your buck Apart from having one of the most powerful mobile processors, and advanced AI capabilities, the Honor Magic 2 also comes with fast-charging, allowing you to charge up to 85% of the 3,500 mAh battery in 30 minutes. With 6 GB RAM, the experience is stutter-free and allows seamless switching between apps. It ditches the audio jack in favour of a Type-C USB port and provides 128 GB of internal storage space which is sufficient, given how data nowadays is mostly stored in the cloud. The best from Huawei’s sub-brands stables, the Magic 2 is a heavyweight in terms of the specifications and launches Honor into the premium flagship segment. The next generation of AI-powered smartphones has well and truly, arrived.