Honor clearly is aware of what it is doing on the subject of foldables; the Magic Vs was a terrific showcase for what the model can obtain, nevertheless it was the Magic V2 that gave the Chinese producer a definite benefit.
By delivering the thinnest and lightest foldable, Honor managed to simply carve out a distinct segment on this phase. That mentioned, availability problems with the worldwide mannequin hindered the model’s progress to an extent, and that is one thing Honor is trying 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 actually, it would not really feel such as you’re utilizing a cumbersome foldable. It is simply 5g heavier than the Pixel 9 Pro XL, and whereas it’s 0.7mm thicker when folded, that is not evident when utilizing the gadget.
The thin-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 here is why I feel that is one of the best foldable you should purchase as we speak.
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 international markets at IFA 2024, and the Magic V3 is now on sale within the U.Okay. and different international markets.
Honor is bringing a single 16GB/512GB variant of the gadget exterior China, and it prices £1,699 ($2,209) within the U.Okay. At the second, you may get a £300 ($390) low cost on the gadget 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 an honest variety of freebies with the foldable; Honor bundles the Band 9, a 100W charger, the X6 earbuds, and a further six-month display screen safety protecting 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 purchase as we speak. The gadget is simply 4.4mm unfolded, and that is unbelievably skinny; if something, it feels just like the model might have made the gadget thinner if not for the USB-C port.
The ultra-thin profile makes utilizing the V3 an absolute pleasure; the inside display screen particularly is excellent. What’s simply as noteworthy is that the Magic V3 is 9.2mm thick when folded, and this greater than the rest makes the foldable stand out — you do not really feel such as you’re utilizing a foldable in any respect.
Another issue is the load. At 226g, the Magic V3 is not simply lighter than different foldables — it beats typical telephones on this regard. The Galaxy S24 Ultra 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 snug to carry and use as a daily telephone. The cowl display screen 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 appears to be like understated. If you want a daring coloration possibility, the Reddish Brown variant is the one to get. The again is dominated by the digicam island, which has similarities to that of the Magic 6 Pro. 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 telephone would not wobble when utilizing it on a flat floor. This is not the case when the gadget is unfolded; because the digicam island sits to the aspect in that mode, you get a noticeable wobble.
Honor went with a stainless-steel hinge that is the thinnest within the trade, and it’s sturdy, with the model touting 1,000,000 unfolds. Like final 12 months, 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 would not want a lot drive to open, and when you get a visual crease, it isn’t as noticeable as different foldables I examined this 12 months — the crease on the Z Fold 6 is rather more distinguished.
The aluminum body provides rigidity to the gadget, and there is IPX8 water resistance, giving the Magic V3 the power to resist the weather. On the entire, the design is well the most effective round, and the skinny profile and light-weight chassis makes the Magic V3 a unbelievable alternative in case you’re able to make the swap to a foldable.
Honor Magic V3: Displays
Honor did not change the sizing of the panels with the Magic V3, and the gadget will get the identical 6.43-inch cowl panel and seven.92-inch inside display screen as its predecessor. Both panels go as much as 120Hz and include LTPO tech to dynamically alter display screen refresh, and the inside display screen will get an AMOLED panel whereas an OLED show is used exterior.
There’s loads of cool tech available this time round, and Honor continues to cleared the path on the subject of making units with eye consolation in thoughts. Both panels have excessive PWM dimming — the inside display screen goes as much as 3,840Hz and the quilt panel hits 4,320Hz — and the AI-assisted Defocus Eyecare function is legitimately helpful.
Both panels have good coloration vibrancy and distinction ranges, and also you get respectable customizability on the subject of adjusting the colour steadiness to your preferences. A nifty utility that I made good use of is the e book mode; most producers provided one thing comparable up to now, however you do not get the function in as many units today, so I’m glad that Honor retained it.
In e book mode, the display screen successfully turns monochrome, making the Magic V3 a terrific alternative for studying books — significantly on the inside display screen. On the opposite aspect of the equation, the telephone has Dolby Vision integration, and HDR content material is a delight to stream — it makes a noticeable distinction inside Netflix and YouTube.
While the inside display screen will get noticeably brighter than the Magic V2, it is not fairly as vibrant because the X Fold3 Pro, which will get nearly as vibrant as common telephones. That mentioned, there are not any points with brightness ranges on the quilt display screen, and it’s among the many brightest on this class.
Gaming can be pleasurable on the gadget, and the built-in sound is loud sufficient that you simply need not use earbuds for informal gaming classes. While 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 gadget.
Honor Magic V3: Performance
The Magic V3 has the most effective {hardware} packages on this phase, and there actually is not something lacking. The gadget 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 a terrific job dealing with demanding video games. Given the restricted thermal administration, the foldable acquired significantly hotter than bar-style telephones, and it throttled prior to common. That mentioned, I acquired constant framerates in most titles, and outdoors the extreme warmth, there have been no points.
| Category | Vivo X Fold3 Pro | Honor Magic V3 | Honor Magic 6 Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCMark Work 3.0 (Overall) | 14366 | 15720 | 17314 |
| PCMark Work 3.0 (Web Browsing) | 10796 | 18363 | 15748 |
| PCMark Work 3.0 (Video Editing) | 6642 | 7706 | 7707 |
| PCMark Work 3.0 (Writing) | 19077 | 16451 | 21271 |
| PCMark Work 3.0 (Photo Editing) | 32883 | 30295 | 36257 |
| Geekbench 6 (single-core) | 2120 | 1489 | 1908 |
| Geekbench 6 (multi-core) | 6482 | 5291 | 6816 |
| 3DMark Wild Life Extreme (rating) | 4216 | 4170 | 5121 |
| 3DMark Wild Life Extreme (FPS) | 25.245 | 24.965 | 30.67 |
| 3DMark Solar Bay (rating) | 5802 | 7605 | 8623 |
| 3DMark Solar Bay (FPS) | 22.06 | 28.915 | 32.79 |
The Magic V3 managed a stability rating of 71.6% in 3DMark’s Solar Bay stress check, which is respectable sufficient. However, it went as much as 46 levels Celsius in that point, and that is six levels hotter than most 2024 foldables. The gadget had barely decrease scores in Geekbench 6.0 than different 8 Gen 3-powered telephones I examined just lately, nevertheless it wasn’t a difficulty in day by 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 would not have any issues, I’d have preferred to see an in-screen possibility.
Coming to connectivity, the gadget has Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, dual-band Location Services, USB-C with DisplayPort 1.2, and your entire suite of AptX codecs. I did not discover any issues when making calls or utilizing mobile knowledge, and I acquired a dependable Bluetooth connection when pairing equipment.
Honor Magic V3: Battery
The Magic V3 has a 5150mAh battery, and identical to the Magic V6 Pro, Honor makes use of silicon-carbon tech to ship higher density. Other manufacturers are beginning to use an identical system in their very own units, and the battery is a smidgen greater than what we acquired the V2 final 12 months.
I acquired a day’s value of use out of the Magic V3 between expenses, however even with heavy use involving the inside panel, the foldable wanted to be plugged in earlier than the evening. There aren’t tangible positive factors on this space over the V2, and different foldables I used this 12 months delivered higher battery life.
The Magic V3 expenses at 66W, and Honor bundles the requisite charger within the field. It takes just below 50 minutes to totally 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 undamaged, and also you get three distinct types that you should use when taking portrait pictures. The digicam interface itself is equivalent to final 12 months, and also you get the same old set of taking pictures modes, together with the power to take photographs of fast-moving objects.
The Magic V3 takes 4K60 video in any respect focal lengths, and there is a devoted video-focused evening mode just like what you get with Night Sight Video on Pixels. The Movie mode has larger management over movies, and also you get a Pro mode with nonetheless pictures that permits you to tweak particular person settings.
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While it is not on par with the Magic 6 Pro or Vivo X100 Ultra, the Magic V3 does a terrific job in daylight conditions, with good particulars and correct coloration rendition. The resultant photographs aren’t oversaturated, however they nonetheless look nice.
There are three coloration modes obtainable — Natural, Vibrant, and Authentic — and the latter provides a vignette to the pictures. I went with the Vibrant mode because it delivered higher vibrancy to the pictures. The new zoom lens delivers detailed photographs at as much as 3.5x, and it does an excellent job with portraits as properly.
The wide-angle lens is respectable sufficient in its personal proper, and whereas it would not fairly measure up in difficult low-light situations, 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 photographs from simply 4cm away.
Overall, the Magic V3 does an admirable job on this regard. The X Fold3 Pro nonetheless has an edge on the subject of foldables, however the Magic V3 is not that far behind, and that is an enormous deal in and of itself.
Honor Magic V3: Software
The Magic V3 runs MagicOS 8.0.1 based mostly on Android 14 out of the field, and the interface is sort of equivalent to earlier years. Honor’s UI is in want of a facelift, and whereas there may be lots to love, the interface nonetheless has vestiges of legacy EMUI, and that should change.
That mentioned, 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 day by day use. There is a noticeable uptick in fluidity, and Honor addressed long-standing points, like the power to not view app data whereas lengthy urgent an app icon within the drawer. Honor’s tackle the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s Dynamic Island is beneficial, and I discovered myself utilizing the function fairly a bit.
However, the options bar situated on the high of the app drawer nonetheless would not ship helpful apps, and also you get the identical checklist of utilities on a regular basis. Memory administration continues to be aggressive, and there have been points with push notifications at occasions. Outside 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 beneficial if you wish to collate data or search for a photograph on-line. Honor teamed up with Google to allow face-to-face translation, and the function does a terrific job. You additionally get Circle to Search, and a number of different Google utilities.
Coming to foldable use, there’s lots to love on the Magic V3. There’s a cut up notification shade, a taskbar that is simply accessible, and intuitive multi-window modes. The fundamentals are lined right here, and also you get an excellent quantity of customization as properly.
When it involves software program updates, the Magic V3 will get the identical 4 years of Android OS updates alongside 5 years of safety patches. While that is not as many because the Pixel 9 Pro Fold or the Galaxy Z Fold 6, it’s in keeping with what different Chinese producers ship, however I’d wish 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 decisions 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 Pro is the closest rival to the Magic V3, with the gadget 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 12 months, and one of the best general cameras. The solely limiting issue is that it’s offered in just some international locations globally, and if something, that works out to Honor’s benefit.
Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold is an effective 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 would not have points in day by day use. But the most important subject with the 9 Pro Fold is that the cameras simply aren’t adequate, and if that is a consideration, you must simply get the Magic V3.
Honor Magic V3: Should you purchase it?
You should purchase this if:
- You want the thinnest foldable obtainable as we speak
- You want vibrant OLED panels which are straightforward on the eyes
- You need highly effective {hardware} and nice cameras
You should not purchase this if:
- You want one of the best battery life
- You want in-screen sensors
The Magic V3 has its drawbacks; the X Fold3 Pro has higher battery life, and I like the truth that Vivo one way or the other managed to fit in two in-screen sensors, as a substitute of the side-mounted fingerprint reader that is commonplace on each different gadget on this phase.
Vivo additionally has an edge on the subject of the cameras, with the auxiliary lenses particularly delivering fabulous pictures. That mentioned, the Magic V3 does a terrific job in its personal proper, and it has the most effective digicam packages on this class — it outshines the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Pixel 9 Pro Fold by a substantial margin.
The Magic V3 additionally has the brightest OLED panel of any foldable, and Honor leads the pack on the subject of 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 present the V3 an edge.
Ultimately, 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 appears to be like attention-grabbing to say the least, and the model has a ton of customized options and is leaning closely on AI utilities you may truly find yourself utilizing.
The Magic V3 is the thinnest foldable you should purchase as we speak, and it
