[Update: Available now] Honor Magic 2 with 3D Face Unlock is coming soon

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Update 1 (3/7/19 @ 1:18 PM ET): The Honor Magic 2 with 3D facial recognition and graphene cooling is now available in China. More details below. The original article follows.

The Honor Magic 2 was launched in China in late October 2018, featuring several features that allowed it to stand out of the crowd. The device featured a sliding mechanism in order to strike a balance between an all-screen front while still keeping in a triple front camera setup, and it also featured other high-end specifications such as the top-of-the-line HiSilicon Kirin 980 SoC.

Honor is now planning to release a new “3D” edition for the device (via GSMArena), as was announced during the original launch as well (though we are well past the December 2018 timeline that was initially promised).

Honor Magic 2 XDA Video Review

The Honor Magic 2 3D will add in a “structured light” 3D scanner to the front of the device, which already had a 16MP main camera and two 2MP depth sensors. This 3D scanner will track 10,000 points and will work even in the dark, unlike the depth sensors. This will add a layer of security to the face unlock functionality on the device, and thus making it viable to be used to lock apps like AliPay (Alibaba’s mobile payment platform in China).

The Honor Magic 2 3D will also come equipped with a graphene cooling pad, which will help the Kirin 980 SoC inside to stay cooler and maintain its peak performance for a longer period of time.

Honor Magic 2 XDA Forums

Honor will also bump up the storage and RAM spec of the device, making it available in only an 8GB RAM and 512GB variant. This makes it the topmost variant of the Honor Magic 2. As consequently expected, the Honor Magic 2 3D will not be cheap, coming in at CNY 5,799 (~$870).

This is a device with flagship specifications, and seeing how other flagships have been regularly breaching even higher price points, the pricing does not sound as insane, though the question still remains if you need to spend this much on a phone.

Update 1: Available in China

Honor has announced that the special Magic 2 variant with 3D Face Unlock sensors and graphene cooling is now available in China for 5799 Yuan. That’s about $864 or 770 Euros.