After some light teasing, Honor officially rolled out three new devices to the global market during a keynote event at IFA Berlin 2024 – the incredibly thin and light Magic V3 foldable smartphone along with the MagicPad 2 and MagicBook Art 14.
Of the three, the Magic V3 was the star of the show. Honor CEO George Zhao took every chance he could to point out how much better (on paper, at least) the Magic V3 is compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and iPhone 15 Pro Max. This wasn’t the first cheeky jab Honor has sent Samsung’s way but judging from the specs, the jabs seem warranted.
Magic comes in thin packages
The Honor Magic V2 was, until July this year, the world’s thinnest and lightest folding smartphone – 9.9mm folded, 4.7mm unfolded, and 231g – yet Honor’s engineers somehow managed to make the Magic V3 thinner and lighter, albeit not by much – 9.2mm folded, 4.35mm unfolded, and 226g. Those engineers also saw it fit to add an IPX8 ingress protection rating which Honor showed off by submitting the Magic V3 through an entire wash cycle.
A Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 lurks inside that slim chassis with either 12GB or 16GB of RAM and a choice of 256GB, 512GB, or 1,024GB of non-expandable storage. You’ll also find a third-generation 5,150mAh Silicon-carbon battery that’s capable of 66W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.
Most of the display specs remain unchanged. The cover screen still measures 6.43in and features 120Hz LPTO tech but this time it supports the Dolby Vision HDR format and offers a peak brightness of 5,000 nits. Similarly, the inner foldable display retains its 7.92in size and 120Hz LTPO variable refresh rate while also supporting Dolby Vision and an increased peak brightness of 1,800 nits.
For camera specs, you’re looking at a slightly altered 50MP main sensor, a 50MP telephoto sensor with a 3.5x lens, and a 40MP ultrawide sensor. The two front-facing selfie cams, embedded in a display each, have been upgraded to 20MP sensors.
On the AI front, Honor has improved its AI offerings through a partnership with Google. The Magic V3 comes with a few of its own AI-powered features. There’s what Honor calls ‘Face to Face translation’ which does pretty much what it says on the tin, the ‘AI Eraser’ feature will clean up any unwanted photo bombers from your pics, and the Honor Notes app receives an AI-powered update too.
Slightly larger Magic rectangles
It’s powered by the same Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 as you’d find in the Honor 200 Pro with 8GB, 12GB, or 16GB of RAM and 256GB, 512GB, or 1,024GB of local storage. There’s a 10,050mAh battery powering everything inside and 66W wired charging will get it up to full when it runs flat.
Not only for binging Netflix, the Honor MagicPad 2 will ship with a Magic Bluetooth keyboard and Magic Pencil 3 in the box for when you’re feeling productive or artsy respectively.
It has a 60Wh battery inside but what sets this laptop apart from most of the other laptops we’ve come across is the detachable camera. It lives in a nifty spot along the laptop’s left side when not needed. Pop it out and it will magnetically attach to the top edge of the display, facing towards or away from the user.
Prices and availability
In a media session with Honor South Africa general manager Fred Zhou, we learned that South Africa will need to wait a little longer before the Magic V3 arrives on our shores. Zhou said an exact local launch date has yet to be decided but that the company was aiming for a Q1 2025 launch.
In Europe, the Honor Magic V3 with a 12GB/512GB configuration costs €2,000, or R39,350 directly converted. We expect it to cost slightly more than that when it arrives in South Africa however, Zhou seemed confident Honor will be able to undercut its main competition in the foldable market.
The South African future of the MagicPad 2 and MagicBook Art 14 is less certain. Zhou did say his company is planning to expand its local tablet and laptop offerings but that it wasn’t likely for its two new devices to arrive this year.
However, he did say Honor would launch the MagicBook X 16 in South Africa in November and the Honor Pad 9 and Honor Pad x8a in October and November for the high-end and entry-level markets respectively.