Honor Magic V3 Goes Official: A Slimmer & Lighter Foldable With Enhanced Features

Honor has just launched its latest foldable smartphone, the Honor Magic V3, a successor to last year’s groundbreaking Magic V2. With its exceptional specifications and innovative design, the Magic V3 sets a new standard for foldable devices. Let’s dig into what the highly anticipated handset offers.

Honor Magic V3 Slimness and Lightweight Design

The Honor Magic V3 is the thinnest foldable smartphone in the market. It measures just 9.2mm in its folded state and 4.35mm when unfolded. This notes a significant improvement from its predecessor, the Magic V2, which measured 9.9mm and 4.7mm, respectively. The new model’s slim profile is accomplished through an upgraded hinge mechanism, 2.84mm thick, and rated for 500,000 folds. The frame is crafted from durable 7-series aluminum alloy. It makes the Honor phone not only slim but also robust. Despite its advanced technology and features, the Magic V3 weighs just 226 grams, 13 grams lighter than the newly launched Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6.

Display and Durability

The Magic V3 comes with a 6.43-inch LTPO cover screen with FHD+ resolution, a 1-120Hz refresh rate, and a 20:9 aspect ratio. Moreover, it ensures a smooth and responsive user experience. The cover screen is capable of reaching a peak brightness of 2,500 nits and supports stylus input.

When unfolded, the main display expands to 7.92 inches. The secondary screen is also an LTPO OLED with FHD+ resolution, a 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 1,800 nits. The smartphone features a side-mounted ultra-narrow capacitive fingerprint sensor from Goodix for faster fingerprint enrollment. Notably, it is the first Honor foldable phone to offer an IPX8 water resistance rating, adding an extra layer of durability.

Power and Performance

Under the hood, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset powers the handset. It is paired with up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 1TB UFS 4.0 storage. Despite its slim design, the handset includes a larger vapor chamber (VC) cooling system than the Magic V2, providing efficient thermal management during heavy use.

Advanced Camera System

The Magic V3’s camera setup includes a 50MP main shooter with an f/1.6 aperture and OIS, a 50MP periscope lens with 3.5x optical zoom and an f/3.0 aperture, and a 40MP ultrawide lens with an f/2.2 aperture. Both screens house 20MP front-facing selfie snappers. Honor also announced support for the Harcourt portrait mode, coming in August.

Battery and Software

The device boasts a 5,150 mAh silicon-carbon battery, supporting 66W wired and 50W wireless charging, providing long-lasting battery life and quick charging capabilities. Magic V3 runs on MagicOS 8.0.1 based on Android 14. Moreover, it includes a host of AI features such as Circle to Search and Honor Parallel Space, allowing dual SIM support and the ability to split the main display for two separate phone profiles and apps.

Pricing and Availability

The Honor Magic V3 comes in red, white, green, and black colors. Magic V3 Price starts at CNY 8,999 ($1,240) for the 12/256GB model and goes up to CNY 10,999 ($1,516) for the 16GB RAM and 1TB storage variant. Open sales in China will begin on July 19, with a global launch yet to be confirmed. Furthermore, Honor has announced a Magic V3 satellite connectivity edition set to launch later this year.