Just months ago, Honor impressed the world with the Magic V2, a foldable phone with the winning formula of a gapless hinge and an ultra-thin profile. Now the Chinese phone maker has revealed the Honor Magic V3, an upgraded version with better processor and cameras .
From the front, the Honor Magic V3 looks like any other modern smartphone with its 6.43-inch OLED screen. The 226g phone’s dimensions, at 156.6mm tall and 74mm wide, feel like any other candy-bar-shaped phone.
What is most impressive is the ability to fit all the electronics into a body that is no thicker than 4.35mm. Even when folded, the smartphone is only 9.2mm thick, compared to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6’s 12.1mm. The Honor phone feels much thinner with the tapered sides, so it’s to use a phone case for a better grip.
Flip the phone to the back and the big camera array resembles the excellent Honor Magic 6 Pro. The green matt glass back is not fanciful but gives the phone an understated elegance, which I prefer.
The phone’s imaging array consists of a 50-megapixel “regular” camera with a 1/1.56-inch sensor, a 40-megapixel ultrawide camera, and a 50-megapixel periscopic camera for zooming in. There are enough pixels for the smartphone’s AI smarts to enhance the photos you take to produce great images.
From my tests, I can say the phone’s photos are vibrant and sharp, with lifelike colours and accurate skin tones. Its aperture mode helps create a blurred background for still life, which is great for portraits.
Like the Magic 6 Pro, the Magic V3 has similar controls and shooting modes for various subjects. If you do not want to deal with the settings, switch on the AI and HDR modes, and you are good to go.
The Magic V3’s advantage over the Magic 6 Pro is that you can compose yourself on the front screen and use the more powerful main cameras for selfies rather than the less-endowed 20-megapixel camera at the top of the front and inner screens.
When you open the phone with the camera app switched on, you can access both the gallery and camera app in split-screen mode. This is useful for instantaneous review without having to open the Gallery app.
That said, the Magic V3 does not shoot as wide, maxing out at 0.6x zoom and the native zoom can only go to 2x instead of 2.5x on the Magic 6 Pro. If you are into imaging and want the absolute best, the Magic 6 Pro pips the Magic V3 in this case.
In terms of its foldable design, the Magic V3 maintains the gapless hinge of its predecessor, but the new Super Steel Hinge design suggests better reliability over the phone’s lifetime. Unfortunately, we didn’t have more than a couple of weeks to try out the test unit.
Notably, the new phone’s inner screen takes effort to open but holds firm when used like a tablet. The phone also snaps shut with a satisfying “thud” when you close the screen. The good news is that the screen crease is not too obvious.
It’s too bad the Honor Magic V3 only has an IPX8 rating. This means it will survive water splashes and even 2.5m of water immersion, but not sand and dust, so do not use it on your day out at the beach.
The foldable’s inner 7.92-inch OLED screen is colourful and can display at 1,600 nits. If that is not bright enough, use the front screen’s 5,000-nit brightness for a clearer view of the content. Both screens can refresh at 120Hz, which means smoother menus and graphics. Plus, they are adaptive to save on battery power.
Interestingly, Honor employs silicon-carbon material rather than the commonly used graphite in lithium batteries’ anodes to hold more power yet keep the design thin at 2.6mm.
The Magic V3’s huge 5,150mAh battery lasts a day of intense use and can be charged up fast using the 66W charger included in the box. Despite its svelte body, it also supports 50W wireless charging.
As a flagship device, the new Honor phone is unsurprisingly equipped with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon Gen 3 processor, along with 12GB of memory for buttery smooth operation. The 512GB storage space onboard should be enough for the most ardent photo and video shooters.
The Honor Magic V3 will retail at S$1,999, which is significantly lower than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 (S$2,728 for the 512GB version).
Of course S$2,000 is still costly, but then most foldables are now. Compared to its rivals, the new Honor phone’s thin body and good camera system edge it ahead. If you’re looking for a foldable phone today, it’s definitely worth checking out first.
