It’s astoundingly difficult to pick up a decent foldable smartphone that doesn’t have Samsung’s branding plastered all over it. That dominance has led to major over-confidence on Samsung’s end, whose fans continue to lap it up despite the massive prices. You could argue the same goes for Honor’s Magic V foldable line-up, but at least Honor attempts to pack as much tech into their slim bodies as possible. Enter the Honor Magic V3.
…in China. Yup, the company just announced the successor to the superbly slim Honor Magic V2 that we had the pleasure of stretching out just a few short months ago. You might think Honor has jumped the gun by launching the V3 so soon after, but you’d be wrong. The V2 was initially released in July 2023, again, in China. A global launch followed, though months down the line.
What’s the Magic word?
Fingers crossed Honor can get its act together a little quicker this time around. The V2’s six-month delay to global markets unfortunately gave off the impression that it was running ageing tech (well, it was) and likely put customers off. The Magic V3 is anything but ageing. If it can reach enough hands in a timely fashion, that is.
When that day comes, it’ll bring with it an even slimmer and lighter body than the V2, weighing in at 229g – beating out even Samsung’s more traditional Galaxy S24 Ultra at 232g – and only measuring 9.2mm when closed. Honor reckons the hinge (2.84mm) is its thinnest yet and will withstand 500,000 folds before it… you know. It’s even got an IPX8 rating now, a massive upgrade from the V2’s IP-less ‘ask for forgiveness’ approach.
Read More: Honor Magic V2 review – Halfway to the top
The Magic V3 gets its fuel from the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, and a 5,150mAh battery to boot. According to GSMArena, it’ll turn up in 12/16GB RAM flavours, the first of which is limited to 256GB of storage while bigger RAM capabilities equate to 512GB and 1TB storage options. The folding internal OLED display measures a healthy 7.92in with 120Hz, HDR, 1,800 nits (5,000 on HDR content) – while the outer screen stands at 6.43in.
On the rear sits an impressive three-camera setup that houses two 50MP sensors – one of those being a 3.5x periscope lens, and a third 40MP shooter to handle the ultrawide stuff. Open ‘er up to find a slightly improved 20MP selfie cam.
Local pricing and availability news remain a complete mystery for the time being. We’ve reached out to someone at Honor South Africa in the hopes of receiving confirmation that the Magic V3 is due for a local launch any day now, but have yet to hear back at the time of publication. Don’t worry. We’ll keep you updated.