Whatever the material is, it feels very nice to the touch, and it looks a lot like mother of pearl. It feels papery and has a greenish tint at certain angles. As a bonus, it completely fends off fingerprints.
The power button is on the left side (holding the tablet in landscape), and the volume rocker is right on top. There’s nothing on the bottom frame, and the four big speaker grills are on the left and right sides, respectively.
There’s a 66W fast charger in the retail box (Image by PhoneArena)
The retail box of the Honor MagicPad 2 is not the most lavish one, but it’s also not the worst. We have the tablet itself, a 66W fast charging brick, and a USB-A to USB-C cable. This guy comes with a pretty hefty 10,050 mAh battery, so the fast charging is almost a must.
There’s a brand new MagicPad 2 Smart Bluetooth keyboard, and the tablet supports the Magic Pencil, but you have to buy those separately (hint, both are quite good, but more on this later).
Honor MagicPad 2 Display
Shine like a diamond
12.3 inches of pure OLED joy (Image by PhoneArena)
There are also some Honor-specific display features onboard, namely the AI Defocus Display, Pusle Width Modulation (PWM) technology, Circadian Night Display, and Dynamic Dimming. The first one helps with nearsightedness through some clever defocus tech.
The PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) dimming normally produces flicker; instead of controlling the current to dim the organic diodes, PWM just switches them on and off really fast. The higher the frequency, the less perceptible the flicker is, and we have 4320 Hz, one of the highest in the industry. Honor (and the TÜV Rheinland certification body) says it’s basically flicker-free.
The Circadian Night Display filters blue light according to the time of the day, potentially helping you release the proper levels of melatonin and fall asleep easily.
Let’s see how this panel handles our display tests.
Display Measurements:
In terms of minimum brightness, white balance, and color accuracy, the Honor MagicPad 2 is up there with the rest of the bunch.
Honor MagicPad 2 Camera
There is one! (Image by PhoneArena)
So, let’s talk about the camera. Most people don’t buy a tablet to take pictures with. But a good camera can still be handy for things like video calls, scanning documents, or snapping a quick recipe.
The Honor Pad 9 has a decent 13MP back camera and a 9MP front camera. They’re not going to win any awards, but they should get the job done. Just check out the sample photos to see if they’re good enough for you.
Honor MagicPad 2 Performance & Benchmarks
Performance Benchmarks:
In terms of RAM and storage, the Honor MagicPad 2 comes in three flavors: 12/256GB, 12/512GB, and 12/1TB.
Honor MagicPad 2 Accessories
It’s a nice accessory with big keys and a full number row, although it lacks a trackpad (something the OnePlus Pad has), and it’s somewhat hard to get to the menu and add languages or tinker with the settings.
The keyboard doubles as a cover/stand, and one minor gripe we have with this setup is that you can’t use it detached from the tablet. Well, you can, but then you lose the stand. OnePlus made theirs from separate parts, so you can still place the tablet on the stand a couple of feet away from the keyboard and use it this way. Or place it in your lap. With the Honor setup, these two are inseparable, and this limits the ergonomics a bit.
The Magic Pencil 3 (99,90 €) is another accessory you can get for your Honor MagicPad 2. It has 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity and an ultra-low latency of just 2 ms. There’s a magnetic spot on the frame of the tablet to latch the pencil on and charge it, as well.
There’s some pretty cool integration inside MagicOS regarding using this stylus. You have the option to write everywhere you see a text field (Global Handwriting), and AI algorithms will recognize and transform it to text. You can use the stylus as a laser pointer, and, of course, paint and draw with it if you have the talent.
Honor MagicPad 2 Software version
Magic OS is looking more and more polished with each iteration. We have the usual AI Suggestions on the home screen, which are basically your most frequently used apps. You can split the screen and use two apps next to each other vertically or horizontally, and also use an app in floating mode. There’s a desktop-like toolbar at the bottom with your recent apps, and also a couple of AI-infused features.
Magic Portal is a quick and easy way to extract text and images from basically anywhere and send them to an email, a Facebook post, or in a note. It’s simple and works really well. You can also polish your drafts, formalize the style or write from scratch, and these all look suspiciously Gemini-powered but there’s no official word on it. There’s also a voice-to-text transcription in Notes, which is supposed to be AI-powered, although it has its kinks.
Honor MagicPad 2 Battery
Solid
A pretty big battery in a slim body (Image by PhoneArena)
The 10,050 mAh battery inside the Honor MagicPad 2 sounds impressive, especially considering the thin and lightweight body of the tablet. Coupled with the efficient Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset and the OLED screen (which doesn’t need a backlight), this combo should result in decent battery life.
And for the most part, the battery life is solid. Nothing to write home about, and it won’t break our battery score rating, but it is on par with the competition. The Honor MagicPad 2 managed a little over 7 hours of video streaming and 8 and a half hours of browsing and gaming. You can see how these results stack against other devices below.PhoneArena Battery Test Results:
In all fairness though, the Honor MagicPad 2 managed to charge faster than the Galaxy Tab S9 family and the iPad competitors, so it’s a win at the end of the day.
PhoneArena Charging Test Results:
Honor MagicPad 2 Audio Quality
The 8-speaker audio system is exceptional! (Image by PhoneArena)
Honor also has its own Spatial Audio feature that simulates Surround Sound and does it pretty well. It’s almost too loud at times, and we ofter found ourselves turning the volume down when watching Netflix. But even at max volume, there’s little to no harmonic distortion anywhere on the frequency range. Good job.
Honor MagicPad 2 Competitors
Obvisouly, the Honor MagicPad 2 is gunning for a top spot on the tablet sky. With its 12.3-inch OLED screen, the main competitors are the likes of the Galaxy Tab S9+, and the iPad Pro 13 (2024).
Both cost more, and while we can make a case for getting the iPad Pro 13 for the sheer power and the brighter screen, we’re not sure the $1000 price tag is justifiable.
The Galaxy Tab S9 series offers an alternative, but we’re close to the official Tab S10 debut, so we suggest you wait and see what Samsung has been cooking in the past couple of months.
Honor’s own Pad 9 series offers a very similar form factor, and if you want to save money (it’s almost half the price), you can get similar experience with the sacrifice of the OLED panel and the flagship chipset.
Honor MagicPad 2 Summary and Final Verdict
Thake it home? (Image by PhoneArena)
The battery life is solid, and the price is competitive as well. If you buy the smart keyboard accessory or the stylus (or both), you can end up with a nice backup device for the times when your laptop is not around or just too heavy to carry around.
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