HONOR became something of a headliner at the recent IFA 2024 exhibition. The Chinese manufacturer presented many interesting new products: the global version of the world’s thinnest folding smartphone Magic V3, the very thin and light MagicBook Air 14 laptop with a removable camera, the productive MagicPad 2 tablet, as well as the Watch 5 smart watch.
Most folding smartphones are very thick when folded, which scares off some users. HONOR is committed to fixing this. Last year, also at IFA, the company presented the Magic V2 smartphone, the thickness of which when folded was only 9.9 mm. But the company did not stop there, and this year it introduced Magic V3 – the thinnest foldable smartphone in the world. It’s only 9.2mm thick when folded, thinner than some traditional all-in-one smartphones.
One of the most important advantages of HONOR Magic V3 is the improved hinge mechanism with a thickness of 2.84 mm, designed for half a million bends. It helped reduce the thickness of the case to 4.35 mm when unfolded, without taking into account the protruding camera blocks. The smartphone body boasts a 7th grade aluminum alloy frame and IPX8 water resistance; The weight of the gadget is only 226 g. By the way, HONOR demonstrated the water protection and durability of the Magic V3 using a washing machine – very impressive.
On the front side of the HONOR Magic V3 case there is an external 6.43-inch LTPO OLED display with FHD+ resolution and a refresh rate of 1–120 Hz. It has an aspect ratio of 20:9, standard for modern smartphones, and a peak brightness of 2500 cd/m². The main 7.92-inch display also uses an LTPO OLED matrix with a resolution of 2156 × 2344 pixels, a refresh rate of 1-120 Hz and a peak brightness of 1800 cd/m². Both screens support stylus input. There is a triple rear camera: a 50-megapixel main camera with an f/1.6 aperture and an optical stabilizer, a 50-megapixel with periscope optics and 3.5x zoom (f/3.0), and a 40-megapixel wide-angle (f/ 2.2). A hole in each of the screens houses a 20-megapixel camera.
HONOR Magic V3 runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, paired with 12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a 512 GB UFS 4.0 drive. The thin body did not prevent the manufacturer from equipping the device with a larger cooling system with an evaporation chamber than last year’s model. The third generation silicon-carbon battery has a capacity of 5150 mAh and supports 66W wired and 50W wireless charging.
The smartphone runs MagicOS 8.0.1 based on Android 14. AI-based search “Circle to Search” is supported; There is a HONOR Parallel Space feature that allows you to split the main display and create two separate smartphones with their own applications and profiles – you can even assign them separate SIM cards. The internal screen also offers HONOR AI Defocus Eye Protection, which prevents the development of myopia by simulating the effect of bifocal glasses.
As for the MagicBook Air 14 laptop, its unique feature is the removable webcam. HONOR engineers tried to make the laptop as light and compact as possible and, among other things, did their best to reduce the size of the frame around the display, so the camera had to be placed in a separate unit. When the camera is not in use, it is stored in a special tray on the side of the laptop. When necessary, the module can be easily removed and attached with magnets in the usual place above the screen on the laptop lid. And the camera is immediately ready for use. Interestingly, you can fix the camera by pointing it both at yourself and in the opposite direction if you need to show something to your interlocutor.
MagicBook Air 14 also stands out for its light weight – only 1 kg, which is very modest for a 14.6-inch laptop. By the way, it uses an OLED display with a resolution of 3.1K, an aspect ratio of 3:2 and a peak brightness of 700 cd/m².
HONOR presented two versions of the laptop at the exhibition in Berlin: one with Intel Core Ultra chips, and the other with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite. The latter belong to the Copilot+ PC category. Of course, HONOR has endowed the new product with all sorts of functions based on artificial intelligence, such as improving sound quality during online calls or removing unnecessary objects from photos.
The HONOR MagicPad 2 tablet is positioned as an alternative to the iPad Pro. It has all the data for this: an elegant and durable body, a large, high-quality screen and powerful hardware. The tablet has a 12.3-inch OLED display with 3K resolution and a refresh rate of 144 Hz. The thin body of the device is also noted – only 5.8 mm, but thanks to the use of high-quality aluminum alloy, the tablet cannot be easily bent.
The new product is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor with Adreno 735 graphics, which is complemented by 12 GB of RAM and a 256 GB flash drive. The battery capacity is an impressive 10,050 mAh, and this can be enough for more than one day of work. There is a 13-megapixel camera (f/2.0) on the back panel, and a 9-megapixel (f/2.2) camera on the front, which is on top when the computer is in a horizontal position.
For comfortable typing, the HONOR MagicPad 2 is offered with a case with a Smart Bluetooth Keyboard, which connects via Bluetooth. This accessory has a notable feature – mechanical chiclet switches, which make typing more comfortable. HONOR also released an active Magic Pencil 3 stylus for the tablet.
Finally, HONOR has unveiled its latest smartwatch, Watch 5. The device comes in an elegant metal body and features a large 1.85-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 450×390 pixels. The battery life of Watch 5 has been increased to 15 days, the device is equipped with a 480 mAh battery.
HONOR Watch 5 received an improved GPS module compared to its predecessor. The new product can also perform a health check in a few seconds with “one click”: the watch will check your heart rate and blood oxygen saturation level. In addition, Watch 5 can monitor sleep hygiene, stress levels, support 85 sports modes and 12 professional training modes. The watch offers over 300 preset watch faces and is also water resistant up to 5 ATM.