The newest Honor Magic V3 is the best-designed foldable phone I’ve examined up to now. At simply 9.2mm thick when folded, it builds on the success of the Magic V2 and extends its lead over the Galaxy Z Fold 6. Having used each Samsung and Honor foldables, I can confidently say the Honor is much forward relating to {hardware}.
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For reference, the Honor Magic V3 measures 9.2mm when closed and 4.4mm when unfolded. Compared, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is 12.1mm folded and 5.6mm open, whereas Google’s new Pixel 9 Pro Fold is 10.5mm and 5.1mm. Each Samsung and Google have diminished the load of their foldables to 239g and 257g, respectively, however Honor went even additional, bringing the Magic V3 to only 226g — lighter than the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
After per week with the Honor Magic V3, it is the closest foldable I’ve examined that has come to really feel like a daily slab telephone. It helps that the telephone is extra comfy to carry as a result of the corners are rounded, in contrast to the sharper edges of the Galaxy Z Fold 6. At no level did it really feel like I used to be utilizing a telephone folded in half. Honor additionally examined the Magic V3 for IPX8 water resistance, that means it may possibly deal with splashes, although it lacks mud resistance. Samsung stays the one model providing a foldable with an IP ranking for each requirements.
The Honor Magic V3 contains a 6.43-inch cowl display with a 20:9 facet ratio, which is sort of similar to conventional slab telephones. Because of this, apps like Google Chrome and YouTube do not require any particular scaling, and you do not get undesirable black bars on each the highest and backside of the display.
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When unfolded, you get a 7.92-inch inside display with a 9.78:9 facet ratio that is near having two slab telephones stacked aspect by aspect. Each shows provide a 120Hz refresh fee and are sharp, brilliant, and vivid. As somebody who likes to learn on foldables, I particularly love what Honor has carried out with its telephones due to the higher PWM fee (for lesser eye pressure) and the book mode, which turns it right into a black-and-white show.
Nonetheless, whereas the hinge on the Honor Magic V3 is powerful and feels sturdy, I favor Samsung’s tackle it. The Galaxy Z Fold 6’s hinge is extra sturdy and looks like it may be folded a whole bunch, if not 1000’s, of occasions. It may possibly additionally unfold to an extent after 120 levels, whereas the Honor Magic V3 cannot. It expands routinely, regardless of how little you open it, which may be a difficulty when utilizing the telephone at an angle.
So far as cameras go, the Honor Magic V3 sports activities a triple rear setup with a 50MP main lens, a 50MP periscope lens with 3.5X optical zoom and as much as 100X digital zoom, and a 40MP ultrawide-angle sensor. From my first impressions, the principle lens is nice for portrait photographs, whereas the ultrawide, with its lack of element and shade, may be underwhelming. On the entrance, you get a 20MP selfie shooter below each shows.
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Honor’s new telephone runs MagicOS 8 on high of Android 14. That is one other space the place Honor can enhance due to the old-looking aesthetics. In some methods, the expertise mimics that of different Chinese language launchers like Xiaomi and Oppo. That is to not say that each one the options on the telephone are unattractive.
First, Magic Portal turns into a floating file administration system, so you’ll be able to simply drag content material from one app to a different. You may, for instance, choose a paragraph of textual content or a screenshot and drag and drop it into one other app, like Docs. Secondly, I’ve loved the power to create expanded folders like those you’ll be able to see within the above picture. It makes my dwelling display look extra organized.
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With the Magic V3, Honor has managed to pack a 5,150mAh battery inside the skinny and light-weight physique, which is far more than Samsung’s (4,400mAh) and Google’s (4,650mAh) folding telephones. The Honor additionally fees quicker at 66W wired and 50W wi-fi. As for the remainder of the specs, the telephone fields a flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor paired with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.
That is all to say: the Honor Magic V3 is an excellent piece of {hardware} that is mainly spoiled each different foldable telephone for me. It is extra polished than ever earlier than, although I want the corporate refined its software program expertise extra. Whereas the system is probably not available within the U.S., if ever, it provides us a glimpse on the potential future by which the foldable market may be headed. From simply my preliminary hands-on time with the system, I would say the longer term seems brilliant.
