Honor has a new foldable phone called Magic Vs, and unlike its previous or existing foldable phone from Chinese brands like Xiaomi or Oppo, it will launch “globally” in the first quarter of 2023. Honor hasn’t announced specific markets, but the list is It will very likely include countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Singapore, and Malaysia (and almost certainly, Not United State). Even if the market availability isn’t as wide as “global” usually implies, this is still a noteworthy launch as the Honor Magic Vs will finally give the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 some competition on a global scale.
I’ve been testing a pre-production Honor Magic Vs unit for the past few days, which runs an incomplete version of the phone’s international software. While I didn’t notice any bugs, Honor has asked reviewers to refrain from evaluating the software and camera aspects so far.
But even with my limited hands-on time and limitations on the things I can test, I’d say the Magic Vs are good enough that Samsung should pay attention (if it isn’t already). The Magic Vs are lighter, thinner, and don’t have the screen notch or foldable notch that have been considered compromises in Samsung’s foldable designs. It just looks better. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 still wins in a few areas, including its official IP water resistance rating and a fully articulated hinge. But the fact that within a few months, consumers in, say, London, Hong Kong, or Kuala Lumpur could walk into a store and have two large foldables to choose from is a huge step forward for the foldable industry.
About this hands-on: Honor provided me with pre-production Honor Magic Vs running international software. Honor had no contribution to this article.
honor magic vs
The Honor Magic Vs is a stylish and gorgeous foldable phone that will be launched in Europe and Asia in early 2023.
- Brand
- honor
- SoC
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1
- Show
- Interior: 7.9-inch 90Hz 2272 x 1984 OLED; Exterior: 6.45-inch 120Hz 2560 x 1080 OLED
- RAM
- 12 GB
- storage
- 512 GB
- battery
- 5000 mAh
- The operating system
- Operating system Magic OS 7.0 (Android 12)
- front camera
- 2x 16MP f/2.45
- back cameras
- 54MP IMX800 Main, 50MP Ultra Wide, 8MP 3x Zoom
- Dimensions
- Unfolded: 160.3 x 141.5 x 6.1mm; Folded: 160.3 x 72.6 x 12.9 mm
- Weight
- 261 grams
- Shipping
- 66W wired
Honor Magic Vs: Pricing and availability
Honor Magic Vs was announced on November 22 for the mainland China market and is now on sale in China. Prices start at 7,499 yuan ($1,067) for the 8GB RAM, 256GB storage base variant, and go up to 8,999 yuan ($1,260) for the highest 12GB RAM, 512GB storage model. Honor has confirmed that the device will be launched outside of China in the first quarter of 2023, but at the time of this writing, there is no information on the exact date or price.
Design and Hardware: Great, but only if you’re new to foldable devices
- The Honor Magic Vs have the largest battery in any foldable phone to date
- It’s also the lightest large foldable phone yet, at 261 grams
- The main screen is 7.9 inches, the external screen is 6.45 inches
Whether the Honor Magic Vs look stunningly impressive or are “pretty good, but nothing new” depends on how much exposure you had to fold. If you’re a casual smartphone observer and don’t live in China, chances are you’ve only seen or held a foldable Samsung device. If so, the Honor Magic Vs will immediately impress because it’s thinner and more elegant.
When folded, the Magic Vs look like a slightly thicker version of a regular phone, with a 6.45-inch, 120Hz, 21:9 aspect ratio OLED display that doesn’t look out of place when placed next to a “regular” phone. In comparison, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 has an elongated candy bar shape that clearly doesn’t look natural. Exacerbating matters is how Samsung’s foldable doesn’t fold flat, leaving a gap at the fold point, while the Magic Vs do, measuring just 12.9mm in folded form.
Unfolded, the Magic Vs offer a 7.9-inch 90Hz OLED display with a resolution of 1984 x 2272. The crease is only noticeable if you look at it from very far angles (compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which has a very noticeable crease if you’re off center Little). This is because the Magic Vs use a folding mechanism that leaves a small waterdrop notch where the screen flexes when folded.
The phone packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor with a 5,000mAh battery. The latter is impressive, given that the Magic Vs is thinner than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, which has a smaller battery. In fact, the 5,000mAh battery here is the largest in any foldable phone. Honor says it can do this because it has redesigned the hinge to include fewer moving parts.
However, while the hinge feels well-built and sturdy (Honor claims it’s been tested to withstand 400,000 folds), it can’t stay in place in the middle of a fold the way Samsung’s hinge can. There’s also a pair of excellent speakers, along with a clickable power button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner.
Like I said, if your only experience with foldable devices is Samsung’s offerings, the Magic Vs look more impressive at first glance. But if you’re familiar with the hotly contested foldable phone scene inside China, you know that other than a bigger battery, the Magic Vs don’t offer anything Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo, or Huawei haven’t already. Indeed, while the Honor Magic Vs are slightly lighter than Xiaomi’s Mix Fold 2, the latter is still noticeably thinner. Meanwhile, Oppo and Vivo’s foldable devices have a hinge that can stay locked at any angle.
Cameras: Results remain to be seen
- Five cameras total: three in the rear main system, plus two selfie cameras
- Image samples cannot be shared yet
Honor asked that we not share sample images due to incomplete software, but I was reasonably impressed with the Honor Magic V’s camera system considering the standards set by previous foldable phones. The main camera is a 1/1.5-inch IMX800 sensor paired with an f/1.9 aperture. It’s a good sensor, especially compared to other foldable smartphone camera sensors, but it lacks the jaw-dropping amount of light or bokeh finesse of the best camera sensors used by the Google Pixel 7 Pro or Xiaomi 12S Ultra.
The 50MP ultra-wide camera is also good, although there is a bit of image distortion. The 8MP 3x zoom lens is acceptable in a foldable phone, but falls far short of the Periscope cameras found in other phones, including Honor’s own Magic 4 Pro. There are a couple of selfie cameras on each screen – it’s rare to include a camera in the inner screen among Chinese foldable devices. The camera bump is quite large, so the phone wobbles when used lying down.
Software: MagicOS is still a bit like Huawei, but with Google apps!
- Magic Vs runs the Honor MagicOS skin on top of Android 12
- Overall, the user interface is still very similar to Huawei’s EMUI/HarmonyOS, but with support for Google Mobile Services.
The My Magic Vs unit runs Honor MagicOS 2.1 on Android 12. It’s the international version of MagicOS (the version released outside of China), so it comes with full support for Google Mobile Services, including access to the Google Assistant. Essentially, all of the issues with US sanctions that have plagued Huawei — and by extension, Honor — no longer apply here.
Honor has been adamant that this software here on my device is “not finished,” hence I can’t speak for certain features, but truth be told, I’ve been using the phone outside and don’t notice anything unusual about the software. Everything works. I particularly like MagicOS’s split multitasking system, which includes a sliding menu that you launch by swiping and swiping on either side. Yes, it’s the exact same setup that Huawei does for multitasking too. For now, MagicOS still looks a lot like Huawei’s EMUI, but I interviewed Honor’s head of consumer a few months ago and he assured me that this would change in the future, because “building software from scratch takes time.”
Early impressions: Ending one brand’s monopoly is always a good thing
As we mentioned at the beginning, the Honor Magic Vs has already been launched in China, and it’s selling for a very reasonable price of $1,067. For comparison, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 retails for $1,800. To be fair, the Magic Vs are almost certainly priced higher in European markets, but even if they go on sale for, say, 1,500 euros (that’s about $1,500), that still undercuts Samsung’s prices quite a bit.
I don’t think the Honor foldable will be any better than the Samsung Fold 4. The latter comes with an official water resistance rating, wireless charging, a fully articulated hinge, and stylus support. But how important these things are depends on you. Personally, I don’t care much about stylus support or wireless charging, and while water resistance is a “nice to have” feature, it may not be a necessity for some people. I can say in all my years of testing phones, I’ve never lost one to water damage. The one thing Samsung’s Fold does better that will obviously benefit most people is its ability to sit in an L-shaped laptop shape. On the other hand, I’m interested that the Magic Vs have a wider external screen, a sleeker and lighter design, and are Possibly the price will be lower.
Whatever the case, the fact that there is a discussion to be had is great news! One brand has a monopoly in an industry that isn’t perfect. When brands compete, consumers are the biggest winners. With credible rumors saying that other Chinese brands will also launch foldable devices outside of China in 2023, in addition to the Google Pixel Fold, 2023 appears to be the year when Samsung’s monopoly on the foldable scene ends.
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