I’ve been testing the Honor Magic V3, the new generation foldable from the Chinese brand, for two weeks now, and it’s been a while since a device excited me so much thanks to a form factor so slim it’s hard to believe.
Over time, the format of foldable mobile phones has gone from being a rarity that only interested the most geeks to being an established reality that is convincing more and more users.
It is true that at first most people, myself included, saw one or more drawbacks that did not convince them of the first folding phones: some were concerned about their durability, others about the usability of the external screen and others because the form factor still seemed too big, thick and heavy.
But with time, as part of what some are already calling the summer of the foldable, models are arriving that resolve most of the initial doubts and that even fit in with the idea that many people had of what they would have liked a foldable to be when they looked at the first models with distrust, back in 2019.
This is precisely what has happened to me in the last two weeks, during which I have been able to try out the Honor Magic V3, the third generation of Honor’s book-type foldable, which after its launch in China is now also arriving in Spain, with a price of 1,999 euros that places it in the high-end range.
Honor’s latest offering in the foldable category aims to differentiate itself from Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold with a striking and captivating ultra-thin design and a high-end configuration that leaves nothing to be desired compared to the most powerful phones of 2024.
Design and connectivity: the format we all wanted when we thought of a foldable device
Honor has achieved a design in which the folding form factor convinces me as well as everyone I have been able to show the phone to in person. We all agree on one thing: it’s hard to believe that the Magic V3 is so thin, but the Chinese brand has achieved the impossible.
After the radical design change achieved in last year’s Magic V2, the first foldable less than 1 centimeter thick, I personally didn’t expect major changes in this year’s model. But I was wrong.
Although the design seems the same, Honor has managed to reduce the thickness of the terminal by almost a millimeter, going from 9.9 millimeters last year to 9.2 millimeters this year when closed.
Is this reduction of 0.7 millimeters really that significant? I think so, because for the first time a foldable has a thickness comparable to that of a traditional bar-type smartphone. Just think that the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a profile of 8.3 mm or that the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra reaches 8.6 mm.
It’s incredible what Honor has achieved with the phone closed, but it’s no less so when you open it, as it is barely 4.4 millimeters thick, which is practically the same as the USB charging port. It is so thin that it does not seem possible to reduce it much further and it is a show of strength for the brand in this format.
Honor has opted for slightly rounded edges on this model, which enhances the feeling of fineness in the hand. These edges are transferred to the outer screen, with a very slight curve in the glass.
The Honor Magic V3’s hinge is surprisingly strong for such a slim design and never feels flimsy. In fact, I would even say that the magnet that joins the two halves is too strong, because it is so thin that it is difficult to apply enough force to open it.
The Honor Magic V3 stays open in several positions despite being so thin, although it is true that it does not allow the full range from 0 to 180 degrees. For example, you have to open it to almost 45 degrees for it to hold itself up, and if you open it more than approximately 150 degrees, it flattens itself.
However, for my taste it is a range of positions that is more than enough to compensate for its design and to avoid the problems that occurred, for example, in the first Xiaomi Mix Folds, which did not stay open at 90 degrees.
Perhaps the aspect of the Honor Magic V3 that I am least convinced about is the back: although I like vegan leather, the red version that I tried with gold edges and details seems too ostentatious for my taste. I like the look of the camera module, with a circle inside an octagon, but it sticks out a lot and makes it wobble too much without a case.
The Chinese brand has also produced a handset that has everything in terms of connectivity, with 5G, WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3 to round off the performance of an excellent design that I would love other manufacturers to start following in the future because I think that, finally, they have managed to produce a foldable with the design that many of us have been dreaming of for years.
Screens: a huge inner panel and an outer panel on a par with high-end models.
Logically, the screens occupy a prominent place in this foldable Magic V3, and in this sense Honor does not disappoint, but includes two of the best quality panels ever seen in a foldable.
Firstly, the internal screen seems huge the first few times the device is opened, thanks to its 7.92 inches that make it a small tablet and ideal for consuming content.
Its format is practically square and it’s basically like placing two mobile phones vertically next to each other, and it has the same problem as always: you will never remember which is the top when you use it and, if you watch videos, there will be too much space at the top and bottom.
It is a screen that has hardly any space around the hinge, although the depression in the central area is clearly noticeable, more so than in other book-like foldables such as the Galaxy Z Fold 6. And it also comes with very good quality: AMOLED LTPO panel, a refresh rate of 120 hertz and a maximum brightness of 1,800 nits, resulting in impeccable color and image.
The exterior screen is not far behind, an element that I have always found essential in book-like folding devices, designed to be opened as little as possible.
Its 6.43-inch AMOLED panel is practically identical to that of a modern mobile phone, not only in size but also in aspect ratio, as it is the same as that of bar-type phones, unlike the somewhat narrow Galaxy Fold or the wider and smaller Find N from Oppo.
This format is accompanied by a technical section that rivals perfectly the phones of more than 1000 euros of 2024, with 120 hertz of refresh rate and a maximum brightness of up to 5000 nits that allow it to be used without the slightest problem outdoors for days in intense sunlight.
Honor has not neglected another aspect such as sound, as it has a stereo speaker system located both at the bottom and top of the phone, which provides clear and surround sound at medium volumes and with a surprisingly high maximum level for such a slim design.
Performance: don’t be fooled by its foldable design, because it’s a powerhouse
Honor wanted the Magic V3 to be a high-end phone in terms of performance and I can confirm that it has succeeded.
The terminal runs on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor inside, Qualcomm’s most powerful at the time of its launch. This well-known chip also works wonders in this foldable phone, which rivals the best in terms of power.
The Honor Magic V3 is a performance beast that allows you to open and download apps in the blink of an eye, have dozens of apps open at the same time, run several apps simultaneously in split screen and not suffer at any time.
In addition, Honor’s foldable smartphone also hides a RAM memory inside that does not drop below 12 GB, but can reach 16 GB — although the LPDDR technology it uses is unknown, a common problem with this brand — and considerable storage ranging from 256 GB to 512 GB or 1 TB.
The static performance tests show the good work that Honor has done with Qualcomm, as it achieves the same performance as the most powerful book-style foldables launched in the last year, despite having a much slimmer design than its rivals.
I would especially highlight the good work of the Magic V3 in terms of graphics performance, as it has everything necessary to be a gaming phone both from its external and internal screen.
Its good work on the GPU has allowed me to run graphically demanding video games and play online games in real time like Pokémon Unite with that extra millisecond that can make the difference against rivals. It does get a little warm after several games in a row, as well as after taking several photos and videos, something I noticed especially because I tested it in the summer.
Software: MagicOS adapts well to multitasking in the foldable format
In terms of software, the Honor Magic V3 runs a customized version of the brand’s interface, Magic OS 8.0.1, based on Android 14, the latest version of Honor’s operating system.
It maintains the greatest virtues and defects of the Chinese brand’s layer, which comes with too many factory-preinstalled applications, but with a highly customizable design in which the home screen widgets stand out.
Honor repeats the AI tools that were already present in its high-end 2024 range, including Magic Ring AI, a way to save you steps when switching from one app to another, which I don’t see much use for in this terminal either, so I’d like to keep seeing what’s new in its ecosystem in the coming months.
But what is really interesting is the discreet but effective work that Honor has done so that you can use the two screens of the Magic V3 in the most productive way possible.
It is one of the few terminals that not only allows you to switch from the outer to the inner screen, but also the other way around without locking it. In this transition, some applications may crash, but the system reminds you to restart them. It’s only happened to me two or three times in the last two weeks and it’s always been fixed by restarting.
The design of the home screen on the inside panel is as simple as it is effective: it’s simply duplicated so you can access twice as many apps without having to swipe to find them, which I think is a great idea. To this you can add a bottom bar of shortcuts like on a PC or tablet.
Multitasking also works simply in MagicOS with the Magic V3, as you can create customizable size windows with up to two applications while working with another application open in the background. I would have preferred more simplicity when it comes to simply opening one application in each half, as Android already does as standard, but it’s not something that bothered me either.
Cameras: a very versatile configuration with good results, although it is not yet the best
The camera is usually considered one of the most important features of a modern smartphone and in this Magic V3 it achieves very good results although in some cases it is a step below what is usually found in the current high-end range.
Honor hasn’t forgotten about the camera and the Magic V3 has a more than respectable camera setup that looks very good on paper. and that generally has good results, but that sometimes faces a camera application that gives too many errors and is not up to par.
Before I tell you more, let me tell you about the five cameras on Honor’s foldable phone:
50-megapixel main camera (f/1.6), OIS.
Periscopic telephoto lens: 50 megapixels (f/3.0), 3.5x optical zoom and 100x digital zoom, OIS.
Ultra-wide angle: 40 megapixels (f/2.2), 112 degrees.
Selfie camera on the external screen: 20 megapixels (F/2.2), 90 degrees.
Selfie camera on the internal screen: 20 megapixels (F/2.2), 90 degrees.
Honor has managed to get all the sensors to work with good quality and, above all, with good consistency between them in terms of color and light.
It is common for the blue of the sky or the green of the trees to change when switching from wide angle to the main camera, but as you can see in the example, this does not happen on this smartphone, which is a good sign of the work that Honor has done to calibrate its sensors.
Honor usually stands out in portrait mode and this is one of the camera modes I was most looking forward to in this Magic V3, which has not achieved comparable results to, for example, the high-end Magic 6 Pro or other traditional format phones from the competition.
Although the shot has a lot of light and adds additional illumination to the figure, I expected much more in the crop. As you can see, the crop of the background in the hair area is very imprecise. I also don’t like the bokeh, which, despite not being at its maximum, gives a very artificial result in which it seems as if the person had been retouched with Photoshop.
I always recommend taking portraits with the telephoto lens on phones that have it and, in this Magic V3, the example is clear because this lens works much better to separate the subject from the background.
As you can see, in this case the crop is much more precise than on the main camera, although it has also blurred some strands of hair that should have been kept in focus. The bokeh blur is not perfect and also seems artificial, but to a lesser extent.
So whenever you can, remember: portraits come out better with a 3.5x zoom and a few steps back.
The Magic V3 is a phone with three cameras and three different ways of taking selfies.
The zoom is perhaps the camera function that has most positively surprised me on this phone. Its 3.5x periscope has a performance that is in fact superior to that of many traditional format phones, something that the optical image stabilization (OIS) of this lens also helps with.
The Magic V3 allows you to achieve a 10x magnification with practically no loss of quality and even allows you to achieve a 30x or 40x magnification with quite acceptable results. It reaches a maximum zoom of 100x, which tends to create an overly pronounced watercolor effect and is not advisable to use, but it can help you magnify distant details that are not clearly visible to the naked eye.
Battery life: enough to last all day and it charges faster than I expected.
With such a slim design, battery life seemed destined to become the Achilles heel of this Honor Magic V3. But after two weeks of use, this has pleasantly surprised me.
Despite being the thinnest foldable on the market, the use of silicon carbon in its battery has allowed Honor to include a battery that not only does not sacrifice capacity, but is still superior to that of its main rivals, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 (4400 mAh), which is much thicker.
This good capacity, somewhat higher than that of standard bar phones, means that the terminal has enough autonomy to get through the day with a fairly intense schedule, playing several video games and taking dozens of photographs and videos. In two weeks, I have never had to plug it in before dark.
Another aspect that has pleasantly surprised me has been the fast charge, although in this case I have to tell you about a major drawback: it is sold without the charger in the box.
Despite this, the Magic V3 has a fast charge of 66 watts, so if you buy a compatible power adapter you can go from 0 to 100% in an hour. I could only test it with a 45-watt charger I had at home and it charged to 100% in less than an hour and a half, which is good, although I recommend always opting for the maximum speed.
Verdict: is the Honor Magic V3 worth it?
For all the above reasons, I think there are more than enough reasons to say that the Honor Magic V3 is the best foldable on the market at the moment and surely the best of the year, pending the models that will be launched in the second half of the year.
If you are still skeptical about the folding format, I don’t think I can convince you, but its design, for the first time as thin as a traditional bar-type smartphone, means that I have never been so keen to carry a folding phone in my pocket. At last, the doubts of many have been dispelled.
Furthermore, Honor has produced a mobile that competes at the high end of the market, something suggested by the 1999 euros it starts at, and which stands out for its good performance although it is certainly far from cheap.
Despite this, if money is no object and you want to try the best, it is difficult for this mobile to disappoint you, so it is worth a try.
