What you need to know
- The Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR adds new design changes to an already-great foldable, but Honor wants to enhance the phone's gaming performance.
- Honor is partnering with Gameloft, the studio behind Asphalt 9: Legends, to optimize the game's performance on the Magic V2 RSR.
- Notably, the optimization will also apply to the existing Honor Magic V2 foldable.
Foldable phones should be some of the best mobile gaming devices around, thanks to their expansive screens that compare to small tablets. However, this isn't always the case. That's in part due to a lack of games that are optimized for the strange size and aspect ratio of folding phones. This is precisely the predicament that Honor is trying to fix alongside the release of the Porsche Design Honor Magic V2 RSR.
Honor is partnering with Gameloft, the studio behind the Asphalt series of racing games, to optimize Asphalt 9: Legends on the Magic V2 RSR. The new version of the game will be exclusive to the standard Magic V2 and the Magic V2 RSR, and will include a few notable performance benefits.
For starters, both folding phones will get to play Asphalt 9: Legends at 120 frames-per-second. This is the first time a foldable smartphone has been able to use 120 FPS for Asphalt 9: Legends, but plenty of traditional slab phones have taken advantage of high refresh rates previously. In an action-packed racing game like Asphalt 9, the greater responsiveness will likely be noticeable.
More importantly, Honor and Gameloft have improved performance with deep optimization. The companies described their efforts in a press release, which include "reconstructing the mobile game rendering process, using shader replacement technology, reimagining physical textures with GPU-based edge reconstruction technology and integrating the graphics rendering capabilities of foldable devices with AI."
Honor and Gameloft say that these changes will result in a superior gameplay experience, with "fluid, high-fidelity visuals and ultra-fast response times" that are optimized for a foldable display. However, we'll have to wait and see what Asphalt 9: Legends is actually like on the Magic V2 RSR. The custom version of the game isn't available yet, and will launch later this month on the Google Play Store.
Based on this timeline, it's likely that the optimized Asphalt 9: Legends game will debut at MWC Barcelona, which spans Feb. 26-29. This might also be when Honor shares global pricing and availability for the Magic V2 RSR. While the Magic V2 is already available globally, we are still waiting for details on the Magic V2 RSR.
