Samsung is pretty much the only smartphone maker that offers its foldable phones internationally. Within China, the Korean company has a lot of competition from the likes of Oppo, Vivo, and Honor, but none of these manufacturers have launched their foldables outside their domestic market. That is going to finally change with Honor’s latest foldable that it announced today, the Honor Magic Vs.
China-only for now, but debuting overseas soon
The awkwardly named Honor Magic Vs launches in China this year, and it can be pre-ordered there right now already. Honor CEO George Zhao made clear during the launch that the Vs “will be our very first foldable flagship to debut in overseas markets,” as the company already promised during IFA 2022. During the trade show, it was announced that a foldable phone would make its way to Europe in early 2023, and this phone turns out to be the Magic Vs.
The Magic Vs is the successor to Honor’s first foldable, the Magic V. Just like it, it offers a book-style folding mechanism with an exterior phone-like screen on the outside and a bigger, tablet-like display on the inside. All this technology fits within an impossibly thin body, measuring 12.9mm when folded and weighing 261g. This undercuts almost any other foldable on the market, and especially when you look beyond China.
Honor Magic Vs
- SoC
- Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1
- Display
- Interior: 7.9-inch 90Hz 2272x1984 OLED; Exterior: 6.45-inch 120Hz 2560x1080 OLED
- RAM
- 8/12GB
- Storage
- 256/512GB
- Battery
- 5,000mAh
- Ports
- USB Type-C 3.1 Gen 1
- Operating System
- Magic OS 7.0 (Android 12)
- Front camera
- 2x 16MP f/2.45
- Connectivity
- Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi, dual SIM, 5G
- Others
- Stylus support
- Dimensions
- Unfolded: 160.3 x 141.5 x 6.1mm; Folded: 160.3 x 72.6 x 12.9mm
- Colors
- Cyan, Black, Orange, Gold
- Weight
- 261g
- IP Rating
- No
- Micro SD card support
- No
Despite the thinness, Honor managed to fit some of the latest tech into the Magic Vs. It comes with the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 rather than the regular 8 its predecessor had, and its battery size has increased to a comfortable 5,000mAh. It can be charged at up to 66W with an included power brick. The foldable is available in configurations with 8GB of Ram and 256GB of storage, 12GB + 256GB, and 12GB + 512GB.
Taking the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 head-on
In contrast to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, the Magic Vs’s outer screen is much more usable. The 6.45-inch display offers a more conventional 21:9 aspect ratio, while the Samsung phone is routinely criticized for its way too narrow screen on the outside. As for specifications, the Magic Vs’s outer screen comes with a resolution of 2560 x 1080 pixels, a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, and can get up to 1200 nits bright. The inner display is 7.9 inches, but only offers a refresh rate of up to 90Hz and a brightness of up to 800 nits. Its pixel density is also slightly lower at 2272 x 1984 pixels.
The Magic Vs also comes with a reworked hinge that uses only four components to make the folding action work rather than 92 in its predecessor. This is supposed to make the folding mechanism less prone to breakage. Even then, Honor’s foldable supposedly doesn’t have a crease to speak of (which we will still have to verify for ourselves) and closes shut, without a gap. The Magic Vs is also rated for 400,000 folds during its lifetime, which is equivalent to 100 folding movements a day for 10 years.
To better compete with the Z Fold 4, the Honor foldable also offers support for a stylus, which makes it a more complete tablet replacement. Just like Samsung, Honor also decided not to include a storage slot for the pen, so when you want to use the stylus, you’ll need to carry it in a different spot.
Like any flagship, the Magic Vs also sports impressive cameras on paper. On the rear, a 54MP IMX800 primary is joined by a 50MP ultra-wide and an 8MP 3x optical zoom camera. Both the interior and exterior screen feature the same 16MP punch-hole selfie camera.
Software could remain Honor’s weak spot
On the software side, the Magic Vs launches with the brand-new MagicOS 7.0, a rebranding compared to its Magic UI 6.2 and earlier. The Chinese version is still based on Android 12, but it’s possible that the international version will use Android 13. As for new features, MagicOS 7.0 offers a new split-screen keyboard for the foldable, along with a new “Magic Text” option that’s similar to Google Lens and its text recognition feature for images.
Software has historically been the weak spot for Honor, and the company has so far not managed to emancipate itself completely from its former parent company Huawei in that regard. We can only hope that MagicOS 7.0 fixes some of the underlying issues we’ve had with the software. So far, we also haven’t heard of any update commitments, though this could still follow for the European launch of the device.
Availability, pricing, and the Honor 80 series
During the event, Honor also announced the Honor 80 and 80 Pro with an obscenely large 160MP main camera that’s supposed to take photography and videography to the next level. The series comes with the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, 4,800mAh batteries, and the new MagicOS 7.0.
The Honor Magic Vs starts at RMB 7,499 in China, which is roughly $1,050. As always, don’t take these conversions at face value. Taxes, import formalities, and market research are sure to lead to vastly different prices across markets. If this price tag is any indicator, though, the Magic Vs could drastically undercut the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, which would be an aggressive and very welcome addition to the market.