This is the Honor Magic V3, the world's thinnest & lightest folding phone to date. And by the time Apple fans get something like this they'll be like

So if you are an Apple fan maybe now is the time to try a bit of magic. Honestly, it takes a lot to impress me these days & Honor seems to have done that with this one.

So instead of doing a review, I will show you 8 things about the Magic V3 that you could brag to friends about if you get one…However, there are a couple of catches though. You'll see what I mean

Here's the first one. There was no charger in the box on the model I have here. ]

So now let's talk about the magic V3

Thinness / Hinge

So the biggest argument for not getting a folding for me and for many other people that I speak to is the thickness, the size of the outer display and the weight…

Well, you probably already know what I'm going to say. The V3 is 1.39mm thicker than an iPhone 15 pro max and just 5 grams heavier. It also has an official IPX8 rating which means it is waterproof, the X indicates it’s not however resistant to sand and fine dust.

But there is a deal sweetener here Honor does apply screen protectors before shipping & they very kindly throw in a protective case for the front and back.

And check this out, this is genius. The camera ring thing on the back flips out to become a kind stand. Nice

Displays

The outer display is large for a folding phone. It's a 6.43” LTPO 120Hz Amoled. With 402ppi

And according to GSM arena the glass used here has maybe the most epic glass name I've ever seen. They're calling it King Kong Rhinoceros…

I don't know if the GSM arena just made that up…or not. But if it's real. I like that name.

And yes compared to an iPhone 15 Pro Max for example you'd be sacrificing a few mm on the diagonal, but you'd be gaining a 7.92” inch display in exchange. And it is also an LTPO 120Hz Amoled with 402 ppi. It's 0.6” larger than the Zold 6’s inner screen…which was already mind-blowing.

Now you might be thinking that's a good trade-off, but what about the crease?

Well, Good news. Thanks to Honor’s very clever Super Steel Hinge design it kind of helps to flatten it out way more than I've seen on some other foldables out there, in fact, it's one least noticeable creases that I've seen so far.

No one wants to see an unsightly crease

And there is a brand new stand-out feature here that Honor is pioneering on the V3, it's designed to do one thing that to my knowledge has never been done before on a folding phone.

They call it AI defocus eye protection. Put simply, it's designed to reduce eye fatigue but also reduce the risks of you becoming short-sighted due to holding phones so close to your face.

Which is becoming more and more of a problem these days. Especially for the younger generations. So if you don't want to develop misshapen eyes…yeh I'll think you appreciate this new feature. Also, PWM dimming features are here which will also help protect your retinas.

Battery/charging

Now let's talk speed and power. Let's do power first. Usually folding phones have smaller batteries than your usual bar phones. Due to how slim they are when unfolded…this one the V3 is an exception to that. It's got a bigger battery than a lot of flagship bar phones.

It uses an Honor 3rd gen silicon carbon battery and combines its 5150mAh battery. This means this phone holds significantly more juice than the 4441mAh battery in the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Also, this is the next level. You got the Honor 66 watts super-charge speeds via a wire. But also get 50-watt wireless charging support and 5-watt reverse wireless charging.

But you know, efficiency does play a part in battery life…so might be thinking surely this is the V3s Achilles heel.

Performance

Well, it isn't.

Honor has equipped the V3 with their own E1 power management chip

And It's got Qualcomm's 2024 flagship 4nm chip. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the titan of AI, they call it.

It's not only extremely powerful but it's also extremely efficient. I did run some benchmarks to gauge how powerful it is. It is placed just between the 2 Vivo X100 phones.

You also get 12 or 16GB or RAM depending on the model you get. And you can get 256 up to 1TB ROM. No expandable memory card slot though.

Camera

Now let's talk about the shooters. Now folding phones typically have watered-down cameras compared to the bar phone flagships. And it might surprise you to know that the V3. Actually has some flagship-tier sensors and optics.

You got a 50mp primary with an F1.6 aperture and the sensor is large for a folding phone. It's 1/1.56”

You also get a 50 MP periscope telephoto with OIS for 3.5X optical zoom and this goes all the way up to 100x digitally.

And the ultra-wide is a respectable 40mp sensor a 112-degree field of view. If you'd like to see a camera comparison from me. Let me know what you'd like to see this compared to in the comments.

And let's see if the selfie cameras default to beauty mode. Both in-display selfie cameras are 20mp but of course, you can use the main cameras to take selfies thanks to the cover screen.

Oh, before we move on let's not forget the Harcourt portrait photography mode.

Ai

Now let's talk about AI. It does use the Titan of Ai chip after all. So what kind of AI are we talking about here? Well, you can of course swap out the Google Assistant for Gemini. That's pretty standard stuff on Android phones these days. But the V3 does have a few magic tricks up its sleeve.

For example the magic portal. That allows you to drag text and images across to the Magic C portal and the phone will try to contextually predict what you might want to do.

You also have the new Ai image erase for deleting annoying photo bombers.

There's also a new face-to-face translator that uses both the inner and outer display. And some new translation tools in the Honor Notes app.

Price

Now that catch I mentioned in the intro. The best things in life are free…the second best are very expensive…The colour options here are black, green and reddish brown and the price prior to launch is rumoured to be upward of grand and half.

However when you compare the new iPhones price maybe it'll be less of a shocker. You could always wait for the Apple foldable of course

But check this out, if you sign up for Honors early bird deals you save a few hundred quid on the pre-order, which does mean you'll have some left over to send me a super thanks.

Only joking, like I said before the best things in life are free and just a like and subscribe and maybe comment if you enjoyed this one will do.