I went hands-on with the Honor Magic V3 and it’s insanely thin
Honor gave us a sneak peak at the Magic V3 foldable and it already looks like a serious challenger to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6
Having launched in China a couple of weeks ago, the Honor Magic V3 is now eyeing its European release. Honor swung by our London office ahead of the official briefing to give me an early hands-on with its latest foldable phone. There’s a lot to talk about as a result of my time with the Honor Magic V3 but one aspect of its design stands out above the rest: this is a ridiculously thin phone. In fact, it’s the thinnest foldable phone to come to the UK so far.
That’s impressive but it’s not the only trick up the Magic V3’s sleeve; somehow stuffed into that miniscule frame is a powerful processor, a massive battery, a wealth of RAM and the option for up to 1TB of storage space. The displays, while the same as last year, are still very good, too, and the cameras receive several technical upgrades. We don’t know the price or the release date just yet, but based on this initial hands-on, Samsung could be in a lot of trouble when the Honor Magic V3 hits shelves later this year.
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Honor Magic V3 hands-on review: Specifications
- Processor: Octa-core 3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
- Memory: 12GB or 16GB
- Storage: 256GB, 512GB or 1TB
- Cover display: 6.43in 120Hz 2,376 x 1,060 OLED
- Internal display: 7.92in, 120Hz, 2,344 x 2,156 LTPO AMOLED
- Rear cameras: 50MP (f/1.6); 50MP (f/3.0) 3.5x telephoto; 40MP (f/2.2) ultrawide
- Front cameras: 20MP (f/2.2) external; 20MP (f/2.2) internal
- Dust and water resistance rating: IPX8
- Battery: 5,150mAh
- Charging: 66W wired; 50W wireless; 5W reverse wired
- Folded dimensions (WDH): 74 x 9.2 x 157mm
- Unfolded dimensions (WDH): 145 x 4.35 x 157mm
- Weight: 226g or 230g
See the Honor Magic V3 in action
Check out the footage below to see just how thin the Honor Magic V3 is, as well as how the overall design is shaping up:
Honor Magic V3 hands-on review: Design, key features and first impressions
Honor’s previous foldable handset, the Magic V2, was already an impressively slender phone, measuring just 10.1mm when folded and unfolding to a minute 4.8mm. Compare that to the latest Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 (12.1mm folded, 5.6mm unfolded) and last year’s Honor foldable is already ahead.
Unwilling to rest on its laurels, however, Honor has gone and made the Magic V3 even thinner. Folded up, it measures 74 x 9.2 x 157mm (WDH), and it unfolds into a spacious 157 x 145mm square, with a ridiculously miniscule thickness of just 4.35mm.
It’s shed a couple of grammes, too, weighing either 226g or 230g, depending on the colour choice – we saw a similar weight fluctuation with the V2 so I’d bet that the former wears vegan leather on the rear while the slightly heavier variant has a glass back. We don’t know for sure what colours to expect just yet but as you can see in these pictures, the model I went hands-on with was a deep, emerald green and had glass on the rear.
Regardless of which weight we’re talking about, the Honor Magic V3 is not only lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 6, but also lighter than the non-folding Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Despite its skinny frame, the Honor Magic V3 feels nicely robust in the hand, with a sturdy titanium hinge that’s rated for 500,000 folds – 100,000 more than the Magic V2. There’s also an IPX8 rating, certifying it as able to withstand a dunk in water, although there’s no official dust resistance. The Z Fold 6 has a slight advantage here, with its IP48 rating meaning it’s protected against ingress from particles over 1mm in diameter.
We don’t see as much advancement in the displays but they’re still well-specified for a folding phone. The cover display is once again a 6.43in OLED panel with a 2,376 x 1,060 resolution and a peak refresh rate of 120Hz, while the internal display unfolds to a 7.92in LTPO AMOLED square with a 2,344 x 2,156 resolution and adaptable refresh rate up to 120Hz. The display crease was already nice and discreet on that Magic V2 and, while I’m not certain it’s better here, it certainly isn’t any more prominent than before.
Keeping all those pretty lights on is the top-shelf Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC (system on chip), paired with either 12GB or 16GB of RAM and 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage space – while that sounds like a wealth of choice, it’s worth noting that it’s very unlikely that all variants will make it the UK.
The battery has received a nice little bump over the previous generation, now a 5,150mAh unit, and Honor has added 50W wireless charging alongside the same 66W wired and 5W reverse wired provisions as last year.
The rear cameras are organised into a central, octagonal camera housing that, while definitely on the chunky side, still looks very stylish with its contrasting metal rim. The main lens remains a 50MP unit but has a wider aperture than before, at f/1.6 compared to f/1.9. The telephoto lens gets a couple of key upgrades, now a 50MP (f/3.0) shooter capable of achieving a 3.5x optical zoom, up from last year’s 2.5x unit.
The ultrawide camera is a slight downgrade, dropping from a 50MP (f/2.0) unit to a 40MP (f/2.2) camera, but we’ll see how this fares in our testing when it comes time to fully review the handset. Rounding out the camera suite is a pair of 20MP (f/2.2) selfie shooters, tucked beneath the cover and internal displays.
As this was an early hands-on, the unit that I tried out was a Chinese import, and therefore wasn’t running the same software we’ll see when the Magic V3 eventually comes to the UK. As such, I can’t comment on the software just yet but I expect the phone will run on Android 14 with the latest version of Honor’s MagicOS launcher pasted on top.
The most interesting thing to watch out for here will be software support. With the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 getting the same seven years of support as the Galaxy S24 series, Honor is going to need to do better than the four years of OS updates and five years of security patches the Magic V2 was promised if it wants to compete.
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Honor Magic V3 hands-on review: Early verdict
We don’t have a confirmed price or release date for the Honor Magic V3 just yet, so we’ll need to wait and see how it compares to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, which has gone up in price once again this year. The Magic V2 was priced at £1,699, coming in between the ultra-pricey Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Google Pixel Fold (both £1,749 at launch) and the more affordable OnePlus Open (£1,599), so I expect that we’ll see the Magic V3 aiming for a similar position: not matching OnePlus on price but still undercutting the big players.
And honestly, simply avoiding a price increase could be enough to give the Honor Magic V3 a distinct advantage this year. The slim build is a magic trick that no other brand has been able to replicate, the camera specs are massively improved over last year and missing elements from the V2 like water resistance and wireless charging are rectified here. We’ll know for sure how the Magic V3 stacks up to the competition when we review it later this year but for now, it looks like the third time could be the charm for Honor’s foldable.
