Honor Magic V3 Review: The New Book-Style Foldable to Beat?

In concept, book-style foldables are the best hybrid gadget. You basically get two gadgets in a single, with a full-sized cellphone that opens to disclose a small pill.

Nonetheless, each single mannequin launched to date has had not less than one massive flaw, whether or not it’s a cumbersome design, poor cameras or sub-par battery life.

On paper, the Honor Magic V3 addresses all three, whereas providing top-tier shows, quick charging and an array of options – together with loads of AI.

Does that make it the primary no-compromise book-style foldable that you would be able to purchase? I spent over per week utilizing the Magic V3 as my predominant cellphone, and have loads of ideas.

Design & Construct

• Unimaginable skinny and lightweight design
• IPX8 ranking

The Magic V3’s design is solely unimaginable.

I didn’t suppose Honor might do any higher than the Magic V2, which was already ridiculously skinny at 9.9mm when folded, nevertheless it’s gone one higher right here. The Magic V3 is simply 9.2mm, making it the thinnest book-style gadget on this planet.

Examine that to the 12.1mm Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and you may see simply what Honor has achieved right here. Even the corporate’s common Magic 6 Professional cellphone is barely barely slimmer at 8.9mm.

Alongside a weight of simply 226g (lighter than many non-folding telephones), the Magic V3 is a marvel of engineering. You should use the quilt display with out even understanding the interior show is there, which is definitely the last word aim for all book-style foldables.

I used to be involved that such a skinny and lightweight design would make the gadget really feel flimsy, however that’s not the case. The Magic V3 incorporates a ‘Tremendous Metal’ hinge which feels impressively powerful and sturdy.

I need to’ve opened and closed it greater than 100 occasions with out ever having to fret about being too cautious. Nonetheless, it’s value noting that the hinge affords various resistance, so you possibly can’t simply open it one-handed.

The Magic V3’s design is solely unimaginable

The physique of the gadget is made out of what Honor calls ‘Particular Fiber’. I can’t confirm the corporate’s claims of wonderful drop safety, although the gadget does really feel very solidly constructed.

Elsewhere, anti-scratch glass on each screens helps them keep protected. The pre-applied display protectors add an additional layer of safety, even when a few scratches have already appeared on my evaluation unit.

With its IPX8 ranking, the Magic V3 is rated to outlive submersion in as much as 2.5m of freshwater, up from the same old 1.5m normal.

Nonetheless, there’s no official safety towards mud. With a hinge that’s usually uncovered to the weather, this isn’t a cellphone you’ll wish to take to the seaside.

Getting full mud safety on a foldable is extraordinarily troublesome, however the IP48 Galaxy Z Fold 6 is not less than rated towards strong objects bigger than 1mm.

Nonetheless, that’s the one design draw back that I can see. If the modern ‘Black’ mannequin I examined is just a little plain for you, the ‘Inexperienced’ and ‘Reddish Brown’ choices add a splash of color and look nice in particular person. Matt finishes on all three restrict the looks of fingerprint smudges.

The octagonal digital camera bump can also be certain to show heads, however I just like the distinctive look and it doesn’t protrude from the again of the cellphone a lot. Be ready to place up with some filth across the edges, although.

Honor continues to construct a bodily fingerprint scanner into the facility button, which is a clever transfer on a foldable. It’s naturally positioned on the correct facet when open or closed, and is a dependable different to the much less safe face unlock.

It’s additionally value mentioning the haptics, which ship delicate but real looking suggestions whereas typing, switching apps, charging and extra. The vibration motor is the very best I’ve tried on any foldable, although it may well simply be disabled in Settings in case you’re not a fan.

Screens & Audio system

• 6.43-inch cowl show
• 7.92-inch inside show
• Twin stereo audio system

Like every book-style foldable, the Magic V3 has two shows. On the skin is a 6.43-inch cowl display, which opens to disclose a 7.92-inch inside panel.

And I’m glad to report that each screens are up there with the easiest you’ll discover on any foldable. They’ve so much in frequent, as LTPO OLED screens which may robotically modify between 1-120Hz, balancing smoothness with energy consumption.

Being OLEDs, you additionally get the same old wealthy, vibrant colors and deep blacks, which makes them ideally suited for photograph and video content material.

A pixel density of 402ppi ensures element and readability are each wonderful, giving resolutions 2344 x 2156 (inside) and 2376 x 1060 (cowl) respectively. The inner display additionally will get noticeably brighter, however you possibly can count on a high tier viewing expertise on each.

Each screens are up there with the easiest you’ll discover on any foldable

Nonetheless, that uncommon decision means the inner display may be very sq.. When watching movies and enjoying some video games, you’ll need to put up with massive black bars above and under the content material, which means you lose a number of the good thing about that bigger show.

In fact, there’s additionally a crease down the center of it, although Honor has minimised its affect right here. You may really feel it below your finger, nevertheless it doesn’t have an effect on navigation in any respect, and you may solely see it when the display is switched off or displaying black content material.

The Magic V3’s twin stereo audio system are located on the high and backside of the cellphone. That’s nice when the gadget is folded, however just a little impractical when unfolded, the place sound is barely popping out of the left facet of the gadget.

Even so, you possibly can count on pretty punchy audio. There’s a pleasant hit of bass and no distortion, even at excessive volumes, although they lack the room-filling audio you get from some tablets.

Specs & Efficiency

• Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and 12GB RAM
• Nice efficiency, however drop-off on inside display
• 512GB of non-expandable storage

As a flagship gadget launched in 2024, it ought to come as no shock that the Magic V3 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It’s Qualcomm’s newest and best chipset on the time of writing, although the 8 Gen 4 isn’t far-off.

Alongside 12GB of RAM, on a regular basis efficiency is great, no matter which show you’re utilizing. I usually used the quilt display to ship messages, take photographs and for navigation, then switched to the inner show for net searching and watching movies.

The transition between apps and screens is completely seamless, with no hesitation or slowdown by any means. And the addition of that prime refresh charge makes the entire expertise really feel very premium. I can’t fault it.

Sadly, there’s a larger distinction in terms of demanding duties. The Magic V3’s giant inside show makes it a perfect candidate for gaming, however efficiency is demonstrably worse than on the quilt display.

This gained’t be a problem for informal titles, however there are some noticeable dropped frames whereas enjoying demanding video games resembling Genshin Impression, Asphalt Legends and Name of Responsibility: Cellular that you just don’t get on the quilt show.

At no stage was it sufficient to make them unplayable, nevertheless it does take the shine off the gaming expertise. If gaming is a precedence for you, you would possibly wish to rethink shopping for the Magic V3, or any book-style foldable for that matter. The bigger show dimension means lowered body charges are virtually inevitable.

On a regular basis efficiency is great, no matter which show you’re utilizing

Nonetheless, throughout these demanding workloads, you don’t want to fret about overheating. Honor has completed an excellent job with the cooling system on the Magic V3, to the extent that it solely ever obtained barely heat to the contact.

The one mannequin obtainable in Europe affords 512GB of storage, which is greater than sufficient for most individuals. There’s area for 2 SIM playing cards or eSIM, although no help for expandable storage.

Elsewhere, with Wi-Fi 7, 5G and a rock-solid Bluetooth 5.3 connection, plus NFC for contactless funds, connectivity is one other robust level.

Honor Magic V3 benchmarks

Within the chart under, I’ve included the upper GFXBench scores recorded on the quilt display, which provide a fairer comparability to rivals.

Cameras

• 50Mp predominant rear lens, may also be used for selfies
• 50Mp 3.5x telephoto
• 40Mp ultrawide
• Twin 20Mp front-facing sensors

In complete, the Honor Magic V3 has 5 digital camera lenses. Some are wonderful, others are good, and one is just a little underwhelming.

Let’s begin with the 50Mp predominant lens, which is up there with the very best sensors you’ll discover on any smartphone, foldable or not. Element and dynamic vary are constantly wonderful, and I discovered it to deal with publicity very properly. Whether or not I used to be taking a photograph of meals, buildings, a road or complicated panorama, a high-quality picture was virtually assured.

See a variety of photographs within the gallery under:

That extends to low-light environments, the place the primary lens excelled. I like the way in which it brings scenes to life, preserving element and subtly brightening the picture with out ever trying unrealistic. See a few samples on the finish of the slideshow above.

When just a little farther from my topic, the 50Mp telephoto sensor comes into its personal. The lens affords as much as 3.5x optical zoom, permitting you zoom in with solely a really slight drop-off in high quality.

That is helpful in a wide range of situations, although I’d have favored to see 5x or greater. As quickly as you go previous 10x, high quality declines sharply, with the max 100x digital zoom solely there for exhibiting off to others.

Both of those lenses can be utilized to take portrait-style photographs. Identical to the Honor 200 Professional, the Magic V3 affords a alternative of three modes right here, in collaboration with Studio Harcourt, the basic French images studio.

It’s set to Harcourt Vibrant by default, which intently matches the type you’ll get in common photographs. Meaning saturated, punchy photographs with colors that actually pop, although they’re not precisely true to life.

The extra muted Harcourt Color is a bit more real looking, whereas Harcourt Basic delivers the black and white photographs many people can be acquainted with.

See under for a comparability of all three, with Vibrant adopted by Color after which Basic:

Whatever the mode you select, portraits are an actual energy of the Magic V3. It’s constantly nice at edge detection, delivering a practical background blur that may be adjusted earlier than taking the photograph. Unquestionably, that is the very best foldable for portrait images.

Sadly, the third rear lens is nowhere close to as spectacular. The 40Mp ultrawide sounds nice on paper and can be helpful in a wide range of situations, however the drop-off in high quality made me very reluctant to make use of it.

Color accuracy, element and publicity are all compromised, which is an actual disappointment. It’s not unusable, however I’d solely use it as a final resort when you possibly can’t stand additional again.

The 50Mp predominant lens is up there with the very best sensors you’ll discover on any smartphone, foldable or not

For the very best selfies, I’d extremely advocate utilizing the primary lens, the place the quilt show permits you to preview photographs earlier than they’re taken. However this may be fiddly at occasions, so it’s good to know that the 20Mp sensors atop each screens nonetheless supply respectable high quality.

See selfies under from the primary digital camera, adopted by cowl show and inside show lenses:

That features video, the place each entrance and rear cameras can shoot in as much as 4K. For the very best outcomes, use the telephoto lens, which options OIS (optical picture stabilisation) for regular footage.

Battery Life & Charging

• 5150mAh battery
• 66W charging with charger in field
• 50W Qi wi-fi charging

The Magic V3 has one of many largest batteries you’ll discover on any foldable. It’s a 5150mAh cell, making it a lot bigger than the Galaxy Z Fold 6’s 4400mAh capability.

Regardless of two shows to energy, battery life is excellent. My testing time with the Magic V3 has included a variety of utilization patterns, from simply a few hours of display time at residence to over eight hours whereas travelling.

On every event, a full cost lasted me your complete day, even when it obtained shut on a few events. With extra typical average use, you possibly can count on to finish the day with 25% or extra cost to spare.

Regardless of two shows to energy, battery life is excellent

Nonetheless, it’s value noting that I typically used solely the quilt display round 75% of the time. For those who want the larger show, or plan on gaming for a few hours or extra, the battery will deplete far more shortly.

Unusually, our standard PCMark battery check doesn’t mirror this spectacular battery life. A rating of 8 hours and 4 minutes is under common, although it’s value noting that this was carried out on the extra power-hungry inside show.

Once you do run out of battery, the Magic V3 boasts spectacular charging credentials. Not solely does it help 66W quick charging, however the vital charger can also be included within the field.

Utilizing it, the gadget went from flat to 49% in quarter-hour, then 80% by the half-hour mark. A full cost took simply 47 minutes.

If that’s not sufficient, the Magic V3 additionally helps 50W Qi wi-fi charging, although you’ll have to purchase that charger individually.

Software program & Apps

• MagicOS 8 over Android 14
• Hit-and-miss AI options
• No particular software program replace dedication

Out of the field, the Magic V3 runs Honor’s MagicOS 8 software program. It’s primarily based on Android 14, however has a really completely different feel and look, plus plenty of further options.

A few these have clearly been impressed by Apple. Splitting the notification tray and fast Settings works identical to it does on iOS, whereas the ‘Magic Capsule’ across the cowl display selfie digital camera bears greater than a passing resemblance to the Dynamic Island.

Nonetheless, neither of those annoy me. The truth is, they really feel extra intuitive than the expertise on a Google Pixel cellphone.

What I can’t ignore is the bloatware, which suggests plenty of apps are pre-installed by default. A few of Honor’s personal instruments are high quality, however there are dozens you’ll need to cope with. And third-party apps resembling AliExpress, Reserving.com, Fb and TikTok are completely pointless, even when some individuals will discover them helpful.

Then there are the AI options. Honor has added synthetic intelligence to virtually each nook of the Magic V3 expertise, although outcomes differ considerably.

Among the many most helpful is ‘Magic Portal’, which lets you seamlessly drag and drop textual content and pictures between supported apps, of which there at the moment are fairly a couple of. This could now be used to immediately search a picture utilizing Google Lens, which I discovered to be very helpful.

‘Head to head translation’ works identical to Samsung’s Interpreter for in-person interactions. I can’t confirm the accuracy, nevertheless it precisely recognised what I used to be saying in English and shortly translated it. I couldn’t work out show the dialog on the quilt display, like you possibly can on the Z Fold 6, nevertheless it appears to be doable.

Honor has added synthetic intelligence to virtually each nook of the Magic V3 expertise, although outcomes differ considerably

Throughout the Honor Notes app is a powerful audio transcription and translation device. It really works in actual time and does a very good job of recognising when completely different persons are talking.

In concept, ‘AI Eraser’ is rather like Google’s Magic Editor, letting you take away objects from a scene and use generative AI to fill within the background. Nonetheless, each time I attempted it, it ended up changing the eliminated object with one thing completely different. For instance, it swapped out a cushion for a bag one one event, and fruit for a bottle of water on one other. I by no means requested for these!

Name high quality is excellent on the Magic V3, although I’m undecided how a lot of a distinction the ‘AI Privateness Name’ and ‘AI noise cancellation’ options are making. And ‘AI app strategies’ seems to simply recommend not too long ago used apps to me.

Multitasking options embrace side-by-side apps and floating home windows, although the OnePlus Open’s ‘Open Canvas’ method nonetheless makes extra sense on a big show. And plenty of third-party apps nonetheless aren’t optimised to benefit from the inner display.

Honor hasn’t stated how lengthy the Magic V3 will get software program updates for, nevertheless it’s prone to match the Magic V2’s three main OS updates and 5 years of safety patches. When Samsung affords seven of each on the Galaxy Z Fold 6, that’s just a little underwhelming.

Value & Availability

Honor has confirmed that the Magic V3 will begin from £1,699.99 within the UK, which is identical worth because the earlier technology Magic V2.

It’s obtainable outright by way of the Honor UK web site and by way of Amazon, Argos and Very.

On contract, it’s obtainable by way of O2 and Three proper now, with EE and Vodafone to come back.

As standard, the gadget gained’t be offered within the US in any capability.

The outright worth means its going head-to-head with the very best book-style foldables you should buy. These embrace the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 (from £1,799), Google Pixel 9 Professional Fold (from £1,749) and OnePlus Open (from £1,599).

Must you purchase the Honor Magic V3?

For those who’re on the lookout for the very best book-style foldable {hardware} on the market and are keen to pay for it, sure. For mainly everybody else, no.

Value stays the massive sticking level, whereas Honor’s tackle Android feels cluttered and complicated at occasions, regardless of some helpful AI options.

Nonetheless, you shouldn’t ignore the Magic V3’s strengths, of which there are a lot. The gorgeous skinny and lightweight design deserves plenty of plaudits, whereas each shows and a few cameras are a pleasure to make use of.

You can even count on strong battery life, spectacular quick charging and flagship-level efficiency, regardless of a slight drop-off on the inner display.

The Magic V3 stays too area of interest and costly a tool for most individuals to think about, however Honor has achieved one thing very particular on the {hardware} facet.

Specs

• MagicOS 8.0, primarily based on Android 14
• Outer show: 6.43-inch 2376×1060, OLED, 120Hz
• Interior show: 7.92-inch, 2344×2156, OLED, 120Hz
• Energy button fingerprint sensor
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
• 12GB RAM
• 512GB storage
• 50Mp, f/1.6 predominant digital camera
• 40Mp f/2.2 ultra-wide digital camera
• 50Mp f/3.0 telephoto
• Twin 20Mp f/2.2 front-facing cameras
• Twin stereo audio system
• Twin-SIM
• Wi-Fi 7
• Bluetooth 5.3
• 5150mAh battery
• 66W wired charging
• 50W wi-fi charging
• 156.6 x 74.0 x 9.2mm (folded)
• IPX8 ranking
• 226g
• Launch colors: Black, Inexperienced, Reddish Brown