Introduction
Following up on the Magic V from the start of 2022, Honor just announced an improved version of its large-size foldable marked by an 's' - the Magic Vs. Developments are advertised in many areas, including build, displays, and, in a way, the camera system.
With the phone scheduled for a market launch on December 30th in China, however, there are still a few things to be ironed out on the software side, and the unit we have here is not review-ready just yet. The hardware is very much hands-on-ready, we've been assured, so we'll settle for that.
But let's quickly go over the key changes first. A gearless hinge has replaced the geared one of the Magic V - Samsung made a similar move going from Fold3 to Fold4 - bringing the number of components down from 92 to just 4 (though there has to be some semantics in there to explain the new component count). A switch from aluminum to magnesium and titanium, meanwhile, has helped shave off some 10% of the V's weight.
The displays are now brighter, with a 800-nit peak claimed for the foldable panel and 1200 nits for the outer one, though the internal screen does remain capped at 90Hz - Samsung's is 120Hz. We will do some brightness testing later on, as we understand that to fall under the hardware category. Plus, comparisons are explicitly encouraged in the press materials we got.
We won't be looking at camera samples, sadly, but that's one of the areas where the Vs brings some changes over the V. There's now a telephoto camera, albeit a modest 8MP 3x one, in place of the 'ultra-spectrum' 50MP module on the Magic V that we never quite got to experience. The ultrawide remains the same, but the primary camera is new for this generation foldable - by the looks of it, the 54MP unit is shared with the Honor 70. A couple of 16MP selfie cameras, one punch hole per display, bring the tally up to 5 cameras.
The Magic Vs also gets a chipset upgrade from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 to the plus version - perhaps it's too early for Honor foldables to be getting the Gen 2. A welcome battery capacity bump sees the number go from 4,750mAh to 5,000, while the 66W charging should help keep the time you spend tied to the wall reasonable.
Honor Magic Vs specs at a glance:
- Body: 160.3x141.5x6.1mm, 261g; Glass front, glass back or eco leather back, magnesium alloy frame, titanium alloy folding mechanism.
- Display: 7.90" Foldable OLED, 1B colors, 90Hz, HDR10+, 800 nits, 1984x2272px resolution, 10.31:9 aspect ratio, 382ppi; Cover display:, OLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1200 nits, 6.45 inches, 1080 x 2560 pixels, 431 ppi.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM8475 Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (4 nm): Octa-core (1x3.0 GHz Cortex-X2 & 3x2.5 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4x1.80 GHz Cortex-A510); Adreno 730.
- Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM.
- OS/Software: Android 12, Magic UI 7.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 54 MP, f/1.9, 27mm, 1/1.49", 1.0µm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 50 MP, f/2.0, 13mm, 122˚, AF; Telephoto: 8 MP, f/2.4, PDAF, 3x optical zoom, OIS.
- Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.5, (wide).
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30/60fps (10-bit), 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS, HDR10+; Front camera: 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS.
- Battery: 5000mAh; 66W wired, 5W reverse wired.
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); NFC; Infrared port; stereo speakers.
Honor Magic Vs unboxing
The Magic Vs ships in a large black cardboard box with a fine striped pattern and a matte finish. Inside, the handset lies unfolded in a tray with the accessories in further boxes placed in dedicated compartments - a bit much in a world where makers are making claims for environmentalism. Then again, the Magic Vs isn't going to sell by the tens of millions for that to be of any serious concern.
The bundled peripherals include a 66W adapter to match the phone's charging capabilities and a cable to go with it.
Also inside the box is a protector for the back of the phone - the only surface that doesn't feature a display of some sort. It's a combined snap-on/sticker design - it will stay on without the adhesive strip, but the sticker provides an extra level of holding power, of course.
Design, build quality, handling
It's the hardware that we're here to marvel at and play with, and it's undoubtedly some pretty nice hardware. The glass/metal combination would feel premium on any bar smartphone while the extra exclusivity of the foldable form factor further elevates that impression of a top-tier handset.
We say glass and metal, and that's what our unit, the Cyan colorway, is made of. A shimmery frosted finish on the back adds a bit of flair on this particular variant.
The other color options have their own different takes on it. The Black one is glossy and relies on a golden Honor logo for a splash of color. The Orange one, on the other hand, is in no shortage of color - the back is... well, orange, and the metal bits are golden.
Alternative color options: Black • Orange
It's that Orange one that lets Honor make statements like the Magic Vs being 'the lightest foldable smartphone in the global markets currently' - the Magic Vs in its Orange colorway weighs 261g and that's less than the Galaxy Z Fold4. There's a ton of technicalities in that claim, like the fact that the number doesn't include either screen protector, and while the plastic sheet over the cover display is strictly optional, we wouldn't dare remove the one on the foldable panel. Not to mention that the Magic Vs has yet to make it to market.
In any case, the Orange version swaps out the glass panel for a textured eco-leather one, and that helps shave 6g off the 267g weight of the glass options, like our Cyan one here.
Another weight reduction measure can be found in the hinge mechanism. Doing away with the geared design of the previous generation, the Vs comes with a gearless alternative, and Honor says the number of components has been reduced from 92 to just 4, which can't not involve some semantics itself. Looking at the promo videos, there's a whole lot of stuff going on there.
Hinge bits: Old one (with gears) • New one
New materials have been adopted too, also contributing to weight savings. The inner screen's support structure is made of titanium, making it 20% lighter, while the magnesium alloy support structure of the outer screen is 34% lighter than the previous aluminum solution. Those are Honor's numbers, and we won't be tearing down units and weighing any of these individually just to check, of course.
The hinge has been tested and rated for 400,000 actuations which is close to 11 years worth of 100 folds per day. Should be good enough. In practice, it feels remarkably sturdy in action, and it exhibits no weird noises or flexing in any direction.
It does even have the capability to remain in intermediate positions, possibly enabling use cases like a 'tripod mode' of sorts where you place the phone on a table and use it for long exposures or group photos with you in them. There is some creep, however, particularly if you start off from the unfolded state, in which case the Magic may tend to fully reopen - the Galaxy is more stable for such applications.
The phone folds flat in on itself, leaving no gap between the two halves - a common gripe we've had with several generations of Galaxy Folds (Flips too).
There are magnets keeping the two sides together, as with other foldables. This one here, however, is particularly hard to pry open - the combination of the magnets and the thin flat sides that meet with little gap between them makes unfolding the Magic Vs a more fiddly operation than we're used to. The Galaxy Z Fold4's thicker sides, flat as they may be as well, provide a larger grip area, while the more rounded rails of the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 make it easier to wedge your fingertips inbetween the two halves.
You could file this under nitpicking probably - it's not like unfolding the Vs is a dealbreakingly difficult task. And the flipside of that complaint of ours is that the Honor handset does manage to pull off a strikingly slim gapless look that can easily embarrass a Galaxy Fold.
Galaxy Z Fold4 (left) next to the Magic Vs
Naturally, that's not the first time we've seen it done better than Samsung - the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 is another svelte gapless large foldable, but that's never coming outside of China, and the Magic Vs just might, eventually.
Your pocket will need to accommodate the Magic Vs in its folded state, and in that case, it measures 160.3x72.6x12.9mm. It's taller and wider than the Galaxy Fold, but thinner, and it looks and feels even thinner than the numbers suggest, thanks to the lack of gap and the parallel surfaces.
It can be used a lot like a normal phone in its folded state, too, the 21:9 aspect of the cover screen being closer to convention than the 23.1:9 Galaxy. The current Fold4 is admittedly a step in the right direction from the even narrower 25:9 Fold3, but the Honor is still better in this respect than the latest Galaxy. And it's an overall larger display too, at 96cm2 compared to the 84cm2 of the Fold4, further reinforcing its superiority for 'regular smartphone' use cases.
Magic Vs (left) next to the Galaxy Z Fold4
For tablet use cases, the Honor also offers a larger viewing area, if not quite by as much. The 7.9-inch display of the Magic Vs comes in at 199.5cm2, compared to the 'tiny' 7.6-inch unit of the Galaxy and its 183.2cm2. To be fair, the difference isn't huge, but what's really welcome is the fact that you're getting more screen estate without having to accept a weight penalty.
Magic Vs (left) next to the Galaxy Z Fold4
Claims for creaseless-ness are being thrown around left and right by foldables manufacturers, and Honor also mentions it in the press materials. In fact (and, really, as expected), it's not quite there. The groove along the middle of the display is there, and it's probably a tiny bit shallower than on the Galaxy Z Fold4, but it's still there for you to feel and see. The Mix Fold 2 is marginally better still, but none of these comes close to what we saw on the Oppo Find N.
Naturally, those comparisons should be accompanied by the usual disclaimer that creases tend to be ironed out by your brain as time goes by and you get used to using a foldable, and the very possibility of having a display this large in half the footprint trumps a mostly cosmetic imperfection. That's not to say we don't appreciate smoother creases; we just tend to not get too fixated on them.
One of the checkmarks missing in the Magic Vs' spec sheet is dust- and water-resistance. The latest two generations of Galaxies (both Flip and Fold) remain the only foldable models with a proper IP rating.
Brightness to spare, inside and out
Honor is really proud of the displays on the Magic Vs and makes some bold claims about their brightnesses, among other things. We already talked about things like form factor, aspect and creases, but let's mention some of the numbers again.
The internal OLED display has a resolution 1,984x2,272px in a 10.3:9 aspect ratio. Stretched across a 7.9-inch diagonal, those pixels amount to 382ppi.
This display has a 90Hz refresh rate, which is a notch below the 120Hz capability of the Galaxy Z Fold4 and other, more regional offerings like the Mix Fold 2 or the Oppo Find N. Even the somewhat related and somewhat global outward-folding Mate Xs 2 boasts a 120Hz refresh rate, while the more conventional (but nearly two-years-old) Mate X2 is also at 90Hz.
The Magic Vs' outer display, on the other hand, does refresh up to 120 times a second - same as the Galaxy and the Mix. It's got a sensible aspect ratio too at 21:9, and with its 6.45-inch diagonal and 1,080x2,560px resolution has a slightly higher pixel density of 431ppi.
Both displays feature 1920Hz pulse-width modulation for brightness control, so should look flicker-free to even the most flicker-sensitive eyes. HDR10+ support is also on both spec sheets.
On the folding display, we measured a maximum brightness of 587nits when operating the slider manually, while flipping on the adaptive brightness toggle returned 878nits. That's higher than the 800nits that Honor promises, but we've standardized our measurements for a 75% display area, and they could be rating it at 100%, and the lit up area typically makes a difference in max brightness on OLEDs.
The Galaxy Z Fold4 is capable of pushing some more nits, both automatically and at your request, while the Mix Fold 2 only beats the Honor in bright ambient conditions. The Honor is substantially brighter than either of the last two large-size Huawei foldables we've tested. In any case, you won't be strapped for nits on the Magic Vs when in tablet mode.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0 | 587 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 878 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 505 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 809 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 1000 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 522 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 1054 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 490 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 582 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 506 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 469 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 542 | ∞ | |
It gets even better in smartphone mode - on the cover display. We measured a whopping 1279nits with the adaptive brightness enabled and the phone under bright light. That's roughly 250nits more than the Z Fold4's outer display and actually a handful of nits brighter than the Galaxy S22 Ultra under the same conditions.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0 | 556 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 1279 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 486 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 802 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 1034 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 501 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 940 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 505 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 785 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 514 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 725 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 472 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 601 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 494 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 829 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 1266 | ∞ | |
Wrap-up
We're always thrilled to receive a new foldable smartphone, so the arrival of the Honor Magic Vs was an event. It's even better when it's one that carries a promise for global availability, even though there's no specific timeframe for when we might see it on shelves. Realistically, the only current large foldable sold outside of China is the Galaxy Z Fold4, with the exception of the Huawei Mate Xs 2, which however is handicapped by the lack of Google Services support.
Sadly, the Magic Vs that we had with us wasn't quite ready. That is to say, it was running a global variant of the Honor in-house OS with full Google Play support; it's just that it wasn't in a final, review-ready state. That was unfortunate, because we would have liked to explore it in more detail and run the barrage of tests we normally do, but that wouldn't have been fair on the Magic. We'll then reserve final judgment for when we get to experience a commercial-grade sample (there might be an 'if' in there too, we'll see). As it is right now, the Magic Vs is looking promising, that's for sure.
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