At a presentation in China, Honor presented its latest foldable smartphones. The flagship model Honor Magic V3 has become the thinnest foldable smartphone in the world. At the same time, the device offers rich equipment, powerful hardware and a very capacious battery. At the same time, a more affordable folding smartphone Magic Vs3 was announced.
Honor CEO George Zhao emphasized that the Magic V3 has surpassed the company’s previous achievements in minimizing the thickness of foldable devices. Last year’s Magic V2 was 9.9mm thick when folded, which already made it the thinnest foldable smartphone in the world. The new Magic V3 is 9.2mm thick. Of course, in both cases it does not take into account the protruding island of the rear cameras.
When unfolded, the thickness of the smartphone is only 4.35 mm, and the new product weighs 226 grams. This is 13 grams less than the recently launched Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6, and also less than some flagship smartphones in the traditional all-in-one format. Honor has reduced the size of its flagship smartphone by using a redesigned hinge mechanism that is just 2.84mm thick and is designed to withstand 500,000 folds. The frame of the new product is made of 7-series aluminum alloy. The case is protected from fire according to the IPX8 standard.
The Magic V3 features a 6.43-inch LTPO OLED external display with FHD+ resolution and a refresh rate of 1-120Hz. The screen aspect ratio is 20:9, which means the screen is almost the same as many modern all-in-one smartphones. The display has a peak brightness of 2500 cd/m2 and supports stylus input, just like last year’s Magic V2.
The main display is also made using LTPO OLED technology and measures 7.92 inches. It offers a resolution of 2156 × 2344 pixels, an adaptive refresh rate of 1-120 Hz and a peak brightness of up to 1800 cd/m2. Honor has also added a side-mounted ultrasonic fingerprint sensor from Goodix that allows for faster fingerprint recognition.
Honor Magic V3 is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, which is complemented by 12 or 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a UFS 4.0 storage capacity of 256 GB to 1 TB. Despite the thin body, Honor still managed to install a larger cooling system with an evaporation chamber in the new product than in the previous Magic V2 model.
On the rear panel there is a trio of cameras: a 50-megapixel main one (f/1.6 aperture) with optical stabilization, a 50-megapixel module with a periscope lens and 3.5x optical zoom (f/3.0), as well as a 40-megapixel MP wide-angle module (f/2.2). The holes in the outer and main screens house 20-megapixel front cameras.
The software part is represented by MagicOS 8.0.1 based on Android 14, which is endowed with many functions based on artificial intelligence, including Circle to Search and Honor Parallel Space, which, along with support for two SIM cards, allows you to separate the main display and , in essence, have two separate smartphones with their own applications and profiles. The internal display of Magic V3 is equipped with Honor AI Defocus Eye Protection, which, simulating the effect of bifocal glasses, helps reduce the progression of myopia.
An important technological breakthrough was the innovative third generation dual silicon-carbon battery. Despite the thinner body, Magic V3 received a larger battery than its predecessor – 5150 mAh versus 5000 mAh for last year’s Magic V2. The new product supports fast charging: wired with a power of 66 W and wireless with a power of 50 W.
Sales of Honor Magic V3 in China will start on July 19. The device will be available in white, black, green, and also in a version with brown eco-leather trim. Prices range from 8,999 to 10,999 yuan (approx. $1,240 to $1,517) depending on memory configuration. A global launch is expected by the end of the year.