Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR Review – Luxurious foldable with sleek Porsche aesthetics tested

Launched alongside the Honor Magic V2 foldable, the Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR is a classier, more premium variant created in collaboration with Porsche that has a different design with improved storage and a slew of extra accessories thrown in for good measure.

Honor Malaysia graciously loaned us a sample for review and after taking it for a whirl around the block, here’s our Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR review where we share if it’s worth its substantial RM10,999 price tag.

Much like the Porsche Design Honor Magic6 RSR that we previously reviewed, our Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR review sample comes in a premium looking matte black box that holds a veritable cornucopia of extra kit. You get not one but two fast chargers with one using an European style plug and the other a 3-pin UK style plug along with their accompanying USB cables, a protective case for the backplate that has an integrated kickstand, a SIM eject pin and a stylus with its accompanying carrying case.

The stylus itself has an exceptionally premium looking matte grey finish with a chrome pocket clip. It also ships with an accompanying case. Closer inspection of the stylus reveals a USB-C charging port accessed by popping the top of the pen open to reveal a USB-C port.

Unlike competing designs, the stylus is able to interact with both the front and main folding display. It’s also compatible with the base Honor Magic V2 foldable though it was omitted from the base variants on account of cost concerns. Oddly enough, the stylus is not available for purchase separately and remains an accessory exclusive only to the Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR.

Befitting the theme of the phone, the bundled polycarbonate casing has a faux leather texture that adds an extra measure of tactility and offers an even more luxurious look when attached to the phone. Even the accompanying cables are suitably top-shelf and are braided for additional durability.

Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR review – Build and design

The Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR has a radically different look from the base Honor Magic V2 though all the important bits are where they are supposed to be including the 6.43-inch front-facing LTPO OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and the main 7.92-inch foldable LTPO OLED display that also has a 120Hz refresh rate. Both the front, rear and inner cameras are identical to the one used in the Magic V2.

Our Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR review sample manages to elevate the already premium design of the base model to new heights with a sleeker, more aggressive looking angular backplate done up in a dark metallic grey.

The camera housing features an exaggerated edge that is said to mimic the headlights of the Porsche 911 melding into the raised racing line bisecting the backplate. This lends it a striking, distinctive look that makes it as immediately recognisable as something from Cupertino though it is even harder to acquire as the phone can only be purchased by invitation only.

The ridge on the rear and the matte grey finish slightly improves the ergonomics of the base design, offering better tactility when held. Unfortunately, the Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR also lacks dust or water resistance like the base design. That quibble aside, the foldable is a beautiful example of engineering and  even when folded down, is no thicker than a conventional candy bar-shaped phone.

Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR Review – Performance

Functionally speaking, our Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR review sample has the same specifications as the base Honor Magic V2 foldable with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor running Android 13 and MagicOS 7.2 under the hood paired with 16GB RAM and 7GB of RAM Turbo virtual RAM though it gets double the storage at 1TB as opposed to the 512GB of the base model.

There are also some cosmetic differences in terms of the icons and wallpaper used in MagicOS that fit in with the Porsche theme of the phone but its functionality is otherwise similar.

According to Honor Malaysia, the Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR will get 4 years of OS updates and 5 years of security updates which puts it on par with the competition.

The doubled storage doesn’t radically alter performance and our Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR review unit performed in a similar fashion to the base Magic V2 we tested awhile back. You can check our prior review for the benchmarks.

Where it differs slightly is that the provision of its bundled stylus lends additional functionality to the design, allowing users to annotate, sketch and doodle in a fashion akin to the S Pen stylus seen in the Galaxy S24 Ultra though the larger dimensions of Honor’s stylus means that it is easier to grip and wield with the added advantage that it is also compatible with the front display.

The cameras of our Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR review sample are identical to the standard Honor Magic V2 and delivered similarly sterling performance. The phone also uses the same efficient silicon-carbide batteries as the Magic V2 and was able to offer similar endurance at about 16 plus hours in PCMark’s battery life test and about a day and a half of use. Here’s a recap of its specifications:

Should you buy the Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR ?

The Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR elevates the exceptional design of the Magic V2 to new heights while retaining its slim dimensions and superb performance with the inclusion of a more premium backplate, a slew of accessories as well as a useful stylus. While it does not come cheap, it’s nonetheless a luxuriously sophisticated status item for a discerning clientele.

Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR review sample courtesy of Honor Malaysia. For more details, check out https://www.honor.com/my/phones/honor-magic-v2-rsr-porsche-design/