Honor Magic V3 long-term review: My new favorite foldable

Honor clearly is aware of what it is doing relating to foldables; the Magic Vs was an ideal showcase for what the model can obtain, however it was the Magic V2 that gave the Chinese language producer a definite benefit.

By delivering the thinnest and lightest foldable, Honor managed to simply carve out a distinct segment on this phase. That stated, availability problems with the worldwide mannequin hindered the model’s progress to an extent, and that is one thing Honor is seeking to change with the Magic V3.

The Magic V3 makes use of the identical design basis as its predecessor, however it’s even thinner and lighter, and truthfully, it does not really feel such as you’re utilizing a cumbersome foldable. It’s simply 5g heavier than the Pixel 9 Professional XL, and whereas it’s 0.7mm thicker when folded, that is not evident when utilizing the system.

The skinny-and-light design makes the Magic V3 stand out significantly, and it simply feels higher to carry and use than different foldables — it makes the Galaxy Z Fold 6 look archaic. I used the Magic V3 for simply over a month, and this is why I believe that is one of the best foldable you should buy right this moment.

Honor Magic V3: Pricing and availability

Honor unveiled the Magic V3 in China on July 12, and the foldable went on sale within the nation later within the month. The model launched the foldable in world markets at IFA 2024, and the Magic V3 is now on sale within the U.Ok. and different world markets.

Honor is bringing a single 16GB/512GB variant of the system outdoors China, and it prices £1,699 ($2,209) within the U.Ok. In the meanwhile, you will get a £300 ($390) low cost on the system when shopping for from Honor’s web site, and that brings it all the way down to £1,399 ($1,819) — £200 lower than the equal mannequin of the Galaxy Z Fold 6.

You additionally get a good variety of freebies with the foldable; Honor bundles the Band 9, a 100W charger, the X6 earbuds, and an extra six-month display safety masking each panels.

Honor Magic V3: Design

Honor’s foldable differentiation revolves round light-weight designs, and the Magic V3 is the thinnest foldable you should buy right this moment. The system is simply 4.4mm unfolded, and that is unbelievably skinny; if something, it feels just like the model may have made the system thinner if not for the USB-C port.

The ultra-thin profile makes utilizing the V3 an absolute pleasure; the interior display specifically is excellent. What’s simply as noteworthy is that the Magic V3 is 9.2mm thick when folded, and this greater than anything makes the foldable stand out — you do not really feel such as you’re utilizing a foldable in any respect.

One other issue is the burden. At 226g, the Magic V3 is not simply lighter than different foldables — it beats standard telephones on this regard. The Galaxy S24 Extremely is 2g heavier than the Magic V3, and that conveys the size of what Honor managed to attain with the foldable.

The design means the Magic V3 is simply as comfy to carry and use as an everyday cellphone. The quilt display is sufficiently vast that it is not an issue in any respect — in contrast to the Galaxy Z Fold 6 — and there are refined curves across the sides and rounded edges that make a distinction.

Honor went with a matte texture on the again that feels nice, and the inexperienced mannequin of the Magic V3 seems to be understated. When you want a daring shade possibility, the Reddish Brown variant is the one to get. The again is dominated by the digicam island, which is analogous to that of the Magic 6 Professional. The island makes use of an octagonal design, and the three digicam modules are ensconced inside.

The metal of the digicam island contrasts properly with the again, and the cellphone does not wobble when utilizing it on a flat floor. This is not the case when the system is unfolded; because the digicam island sits to the facet in that mode, you get a noticeable wobble.

Honor went with a stainless-steel hinge that is the thinnest within the business, and it’s sturdy, with the model touting 1,000,000 unfolds. Like final yr, the hinge can keep open at any angle between 45 to 140 levels, and that unlocks the power for distinctive use circumstances.

The hinge itself has a clean articulation and does not want a lot pressure to open, and whilst you get a visual crease, it isn’t as noticeable as different foldables I examined this yr — the crease on the Z Fold 6 is way more distinguished.

The aluminum body provides rigidity to the system, and there is IPX8 water resistance, giving the Magic V3 the power to face up to the weather. On the entire, the design is definitely top-of-the-line round, and the skinny profile and light-weight chassis makes the Magic V3 a implausible alternative if you happen to’re able to make the swap to a foldable.

Honor Magic V3: Shows

Honor did not change the sizing of the panels with the Magic V3, and the system will get the identical 6.43-inch cowl panel and seven.92-inch interior display as its predecessor. Each panels go as much as 120Hz and include LTPO tech to dynamically regulate display refresh, and the interior display will get an AMOLED panel whereas an OLED show is used outdoors.

There’s loads of cool tech readily available this time round, and Honor continues to cleared the path relating to making units with eye consolation in thoughts. Each panels have excessive PWM dimming — the interior display goes as much as 3,840Hz and the quilt panel hits 4,320Hz — and the AI-assisted Defocus Eyecare characteristic is legitimately helpful.

Each panels have good shade vibrancy and distinction ranges, and also you get first rate customizability relating to adjusting the colour steadiness to your preferences. A nifty utility that I made good use of is the book mode; most producers provided one thing comparable up to now, however you do not get the characteristic in as many units today, so I am glad that Honor retained it.

In book mode, the display successfully turns monochrome, making the Magic V3 an ideal alternative for studying books — notably on the interior display. On the opposite facet of the equation, the cellphone has Dolby Imaginative and prescient integration, and HDR content material is a delight to stream — it makes a noticeable distinction inside Netflix and YouTube.

Whereas the interior display will get noticeably brighter than the Magic V2, it is not fairly as vibrant because the X Fold3 Professional, which will get nearly as vibrant as common telephones. That stated, there are not any points with brightness ranges on the quilt display, and it’s among the many brightest on this class.

Gaming can be gratifying on the system, and the built-in sound is loud sufficient that you simply needn’t use earbuds for informal gaming classes. Whereas the Magic V3 has a crease — like each different foldable — it is not as seen, and it wasn’t a limitation in my utilization of the system.

Honor Magic V3: Efficiency

The Magic V3 has top-of-the-line {hardware} packages on this phase, and there actually is not something lacking. The system options the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and also you get 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage.

I did not see any slowdowns in day-to-day use, and the Magic V3 did an ideal job dealing with demanding video games. Given the restricted thermal administration, the foldable received significantly hotter than bar-style telephones, and it throttled before regular. That stated, I received constant framerates in most titles, and out of doors the extreme warmth, there have been no points.

The Magic V3 managed a stability rating of 71.6% in 3DMark’s Photo voltaic Bay stress check, which is first rate sufficient. Nonetheless, it went as much as 46 levels Celsius in that point, and that is six levels hotter than most 2024 foldables. The system had barely decrease scores in Geekbench 6.0 than different 8 Gen 3-powered telephones I examined just lately, however it wasn’t a difficulty in every day use.

Like most different foldables, Honor makes use of a side-mounted fingerprint sensor that is baked into the ability button, and whereas it does not have any issues, I’d have preferred to see an in-screen possibility.

Coming to connectivity, the system has Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, dual-band GPS, USB-C with DisplayPort 1.2, and the whole suite of AptX codecs. I did not discover any issues when making calls or utilizing mobile knowledge, and I received a dependable Bluetooth connection when pairing equipment.

Honor Magic V3: Battery

The Magic V3 has a 5150mAh battery, and similar to the Magic V6 Professional, Honor makes use of silicon-carbon tech to ship higher density. Different manufacturers are beginning to use an analogous system in their very own units, and the battery is a smidgen larger than what we received the V2 final yr.

I received a day’s value of use out of the Magic V3 between fees, however even with heavy use involving the interior panel, the foldable wanted to be plugged in earlier than the night time. There aren’t tangible beneficial properties on this space over the V2, and different foldables I used this yr delivered higher battery life.

The Magic V3 fees at 66W, and Honor bundles the requisite charger within the field. It takes slightly below 50 minutes to completely cost the battery, with an 80% cost attained in half-hour.

Honor Magic V3: Cameras

Honor has sizeable upgrades on the digicam entrance, with the Magic V3 that includes a trio of recent sensors, together with a 50MP f/1.6 primary digicam with OIS, 50MP telephoto with OIS that goes as much as 3.5x zoom, and a brand new 40MP wide-angle lens with autofocus. You get a 20MP entrance digicam housed inside every panel.

Honor’s collaboration with Harcourt is unbroken, and also you get three distinct types that you should utilize when taking portrait photographs. The digicam interface itself is equivalent to final yr, and also you get the same old set of taking pictures modes, together with the power to take pictures of fast-moving objects.

The Magic V3 takes 4K60 video in any respect focal lengths, and there is a devoted video-focused night time mode much like what you get with Evening Sight Video on Pixels. The Film mode has larger management over movies, and also you get a Professional mode with nonetheless pictures that permits you to tweak particular person settings.

Picture 1 of 12

Whereas it isn’t on par with the Magic 6 Professional or Vivo X100 Extremely, the Magic V3 does an ideal job in daylight conditions, with good particulars and correct shade rendition. The resultant pictures aren’t oversaturated, however they nonetheless look nice.

There are three shade modes accessible — Pure, Vibrant, and Genuine — and the latter provides a vignette to the photographs. I went with the Vibrant mode because it delivered higher vibrancy to the pictures. The brand new zoom lens delivers detailed pictures at as much as 3.5x, and it does a very good job with portraits as properly.

The wide-angle lens is first rate sufficient in its personal proper, and whereas it does not fairly measure up in difficult low-light eventualities, it’s higher than what you get on most different foldables. The lens doubles as a macro shooter because it has autofocus, and it takes detailed pictures from simply 4cm away.

Total, the Magic V3 does an admirable job on this regard. The X Fold3 Professional nonetheless has an edge relating to foldables, however the Magic V3 is not that far behind, and that is an enormous deal in and of itself.

Honor Magic V3: Software program

The Magic V3 runs MagicOS 8.0.1 based mostly on Android 14 out of the field, and the interface is almost equivalent to earlier years. Honor’s UI is in want of a facelift, and whereas there may be a lot to love, the interface nonetheless has vestiges of legacy EMUI, and that should change.

That stated, the interface itself is clean, and the software program is optimized to reap the benefits of the highly effective {hardware}, so you will not see any lag or jitter in every day use. There’s a noticeable uptick in fluidity, and Honor addressed long-standing points, like the power to not view app information whereas lengthy urgent an app icon within the drawer. Honor’s tackle the iPhone 16 Professional Max’s Dynamic Island is helpful, and I discovered myself utilizing the characteristic fairly a bit.

Nonetheless, the strategies bar positioned on the prime of the app drawer nonetheless does not ship helpful apps, and also you get the identical listing of utilities on a regular basis. Reminiscence administration continues to be aggressive, and there have been points with push notifications at occasions. Outdoors of these bugbears, I did not see any issues with the Magic V3.

There’s loads of AI-based utilities as properly, and Magic Portal is helpful if you wish to collate data or lookup a photograph on-line. Honor teamed up with Google to allow face-to-face translation, and the characteristic does an ideal job. You additionally get Circle to Search, and a number of different Google utilities.

Coming to foldable use, there’s a lot to love on the Magic V3. There is a cut up notification shade, a taskbar that is simply accessible, and intuitive multi-window modes. The fundamentals are coated right here, and also you get a very good quantity of customization as properly.

With regards to software program updates, the Magic V3 will get the identical 4 years of Android OS updates alongside 5 years of safety patches. Whereas that is not as many because the Pixel 9 Professional Fold or the Galaxy Z Fold 6, it’s according to what different Chinese language producers ship, however I might prefer to see Honor do higher on this regard. 

Honor Magic V3: The competitors

Foldables are now not a distinct segment, and there are many nice selections on this class. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is the plain start line for lots of customers, however I would not even pit the foldable in the identical league because the Magic V3 — it feels a number of generations behind when it comes to the {hardware}.

Vivo’s X Fold3 Professional is the closest rival to the Magic V3, with the system providing a svelte design, terrific {hardware}, nice battery life, and excellent cameras. It has one of the best battery lifetime of any foldable I used this yr, and one of the best general cameras. The one limiting issue is that it’s bought in only a few nations globally, and if something, that works out to Honor’s benefit.

Google’s Pixel 9 Professional Fold is an efficient foldable as properly, and it has one of the best software program and AI-based options on this class. The design is a lot better than its predecessor, and whereas it is not highly effective by any measure, it does not have points in every day use. However the greatest difficulty with the 9 Professional Fold is that the cameras simply aren’t ok, and if that is a consideration, it is best to simply get the Magic V3.

Honor Magic V3: Must you purchase it?

You can purchase this if:

You want the thinnest foldable accessible todayYou want vibrant OLED panels which are straightforward on the eyesYou need highly effective {hardware} and nice cameras

You should not purchase this if:

You want one of the best battery lifeYou want in-screen sensors

The Magic V3 has its drawbacks; the X Fold3 Professional has higher battery life, and I like the truth that Vivo in some way managed to fit in two in-screen sensors, as a substitute of the side-mounted fingerprint reader that is normal on each different system on this phase.

Vivo additionally has an edge relating to the cameras, with the auxiliary lenses specifically delivering fabulous photographs. That stated, the Magic V3 does an ideal job in its personal proper, and it has top-of-the-line digicam packages on this class — it outshines the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Pixel 9 Professional Fold by a substantial margin.

The Magic V3 additionally has the brightest OLED panel of any foldable, and Honor leads the pack relating to eye-friendly tech. The {hardware} is among the many finest on this class, and whereas it is not an enormous improve over the Magic V2, there are sufficient small tweaks to offer the V3 an edge.

Finally, I favor the Magic V3 due to the design, and I just like the route Honor is taking with the software program. MagicOS wants a visible overhaul, however the upcoming MagicOS 9.0 construct seems to be attention-grabbing to say the least, and the model has a ton of customized options and is leaning closely on AI utilities you may really find yourself utilizing.