Honor Unveils World's Thinnest Foldable Phone: The Magic V3

Honor Magic V3 Folding Smartphone in Action (Video)

The Honor Magic V3 is an innovative foldable smartphone that takes the strengths of its predecessor, the Magic V2, to new heights. With significant improvements in design, functionality, and performance, the Honor Magic V3 sets a new standard for foldable devices, offering users an unparalleled mobile experience. The video below from The Tech Chap gives us a detailed look at the design and features of the Honor Magic V3. When folded, the Honor Magic V3 measures a mere 9.2 mm in thickness, making it the thinnest foldable phone currently available. The device features smooth, rounded corners and an elegant octagonal camera module that adds to its premium look and feel. The phone's durability is enhanced by the Honor Super Shield steel hinge and an anti-scratch nanocrystal shield, ensuring that it can withstand the rigors of daily use. The Honor Magic V3 features an impressive 6.43-inch cover screen with a 20:9 aspect ratio, providing users with a comfortable viewing experience when the phone is closed. When unfolded, the device reveals a stunning 7.92-inch inner tablet screen with a 10:9 aspect ratio, offering an immersive visual experience. The display's enhanced brightness and reduced reflectivity ensure excellent visibility in various lighting conditions. With a 120 Hz refresh rate, OLED HDR10+, and Dolby Vision support, the Honor Magic V3 delivers a superior viewing experience for both media consumption and productivity tasks. Under the hood, the Honor Magic V3 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, ensuring smooth and responsive performance across all applications. The device offers options for 12 or 16 GB of RAM and up to 1 TB of storage, providing ample space for apps, media, and files. This powerful configuration results in improved sustained performance and reduced throttling, allowing users to enjoy a seamless and uninterrupted experience. The new Honor Magic is equipped with a 5150 mAh battery that features a third-generation silicon-carbon design, ensuring long-lasting power throughout the day. The device supports 66W wired charging and 50W wireless charging, allowing users to quickly top up their battery when needed. Additionally, the phone offers reverse charging capability, allowing users to charge other devices using the Honor Magic V3. Photography enthusiasts will appreciate the Honor Magic V3's triple-lens camera setup, which includes a 50 MP main camera, a 40 MP ultra-wide camera, and a 50 MP telephoto camera. The device's AI portrait engine and motion sensing capture technology enhance dynamic range and zoom capabilities, allowing users to capture stunning photos and videos in various scenarios. The Honor Magic V3 runs on Magic OS 8.0.1, which features AI optimizations to enhance the user experience. The device supports the Honor Magic Pen for precise input and seamless note-taking, and it integrates with the Magic Ring ecosystem, allowing users to control other Honor devices. Additional features include: The Honor Magic V3 offers IPX8 water resistance, ensuring protection against accidental splashes and submersion. However, it lacks dust resistance, so users should still exercise caution in dusty environments. To enhance user comfort, the device features a circadian display and blue light filtering, reducing eye strain during extended use. The fast PWM dimming technology further minimizes eye fatigue, while the seamless transition between cover and tablet screens ensures a smooth and intuitive user experience. The Honor Magic V3 is a testament to the company's commitment to innovation and user-centric design. With its sleek and durable build, powerful performance, and a range of intelligent features, the Honor Magic V3 is poised to be a catalyst in the foldable smartphone market, offering users a truly premium and versatile mobile experience.

Honor Claims Its AI-Infused Folding Phone Is the World's Thinnest

I'm PCMag's managing editor for consumer electronics content, overseeing an experienced team of reviewers and product testers. I've been covering tech for more than 22 years. Prior to PCMag, I worked at outlets such as Android Authority, Fortune, InformationWeek, and Phonescoop. Honor made a big splash at the IFA trade show in Berlin, where it announced a new phone, tablet, and smartwatch. The Honor Magic V3 folding phone is the company's marquee device, with a thin and lightweight design that doesn't skimp on power or advanced features. It's already available for sale in China and Honor used IFA to launch the phone to a global audience. None of Honor's IFA offerings will reach the US, but will go on sale across the EU later this year. Here's what it had on display. Taking on Google and Samsung Honor is not hiding its hardware ambitions. The company is aiming straight at the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 with the Magic V3. Like its predecessors, the Magic V3 is a full-sized, book-style folding device with a large 6.43-inch outer display and a 7.92-inch inner screen. It carries a thickness of just 9.2mm when folded and 4.6mm when open. The 9 Pro Fold measures 10.1mm thick and the Z Fold 6 measures 12.1mm thick in comparison. Not only is the V3 thinner, at 7.97 ounces it's lighter than the 9 Pro Fold (9.1 ounces) and the Z Fold 6 (8.43 ounces). Honor says it is using a special fiber and steel hinge to add strength, which can withstand 500,000 folds, while also reducing weight. The screens are tuned to prevent eye fatigue. Honor is using what it calls an AI Defocus Display that uses 4.32GHz risk-free PWM dimming to keep brightness and screen flicker from impacting eyes. The screens also include options for matching your circadian rhythms and the ambient light. The inner screen is protected by Honor's NanoCrystal Shield to prevent scratching. Honor is adding a dash of AI to the Magic V3's camera system. The phone has a 50MP main camera, a 50MP telephoto camera, and a 40MP ultra-wide camera, all of which are housed under a domed piece of glass. AI is assisting with features like the AI Portrait Engine for portraits, AI Motion Sensing for sports photography, as well as AI Eraser for making edits in the gallery. The phone also offers tools like live translation on both screens, which is a feature offered by the 9 Pro Fold and Z Fold 6. The company worked with Google to bring a recording app to the device that can take notes in real time, as well as the ability to run two floating apps at a time to the phone. Google Gemini AI, however, is not on board. Other specs include a 5,150mAh battery, 66W rapid wired charging, and 50W wireless charging. It comes in Black, Green, and Reddish Brown. A Tablet to Counter the iPad Honor isn't going to let Apple control the tablet market. The MagicPad 2 is a svelte slate made from high-end materials and crafted with an eye toward design. The tablet is 5.8mm thick and weighs 1.22 pounds. It features a 12.3-inch screen with much of the same eye protection of the Magic V3, including AI Defocus and 4.32GHz PWM dimming. It refreshes at a fast 144Hz, which should create a smooth visual experience. Honor says it made sure to match the tablet's audio capabilities to the screen. The tablet is IMAX-Enhanced certified, which means it has DTS audio and Spatial Audio to create a wider sound field. Under the hood, Honor is powering the MagicPad 2 with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor. It has a large 10,050mAh battery that can charge at 66W. The tablet runs MagicOS 8.0, which focuses on providing user assists. For example, it can convert typed text to handwriting and recognize mathematical formulas. It comes in Black and Moonlight White. Not an Apple Watch Clone, Not at All The Honor Watch 5 might remind you of something you've seen before. It's squarish, has a rounded frame, and a big dial on the right side. The Watch 5 includes a 1.85-inch AMOLED screen with 450 by 390 pixels at 322 pixels per inch. The company says it relies on a 480mAh silicon-carbon battery that provides up to 15 days of battery life thanks to Turbo X Smart Power Management. It tracks a number of health statistics, including heart rate and blood oxygen, to generate morning health and scientific sleep reports. The Watch 5 also has precise GPS tracking for all your workouts. It comes in Black, Gold, and Green. Retail dates for all three products will vary by market.

Honor continues to shrink its foldable range with the Magic V3

We've got our hands on this year's gadget as part of our Quick Look series. As part of our ongoing Quick Look video series, we've now got our hands on the latest foldable smartphone from Honor. Known as the Magic V3, this device clocks in at just 9.2mm when folded, which is down 0.7mm from last year's offering and 3.7mm down from the 2022 model. The Magic V3 is also lighter, has a bigger battery, a more powerful chipset, broader AI capabilities, and a more resilient design that includes a hinge that promises 500,000 unfolds and a shell that is IPX8 certified for those planning to take the phone diving to depths of 2.5 metres. To learn more about the Honor Magic V3, be sure to catch the latest Quick Look below, where our very own Magnus shares a bunch of facts and thoughts about the foldable smartphone.

Honor Launches Thinnest Foldable Phone Yet With the Magic V3

Honor is looking to take on the best foldables in the market by launching the Magic V3 beyond China. During a keynote on the eve of IFA in Berlin, Honor outlined plans to infuse the device with AI-driven features to augment the software experience and camera output. Unlike other Chinese phone vendors, Honor doesn't have a current partnership with an established photography brand, like Leica (Xiaomi), Zeiss (Vivo), and Hasselblad (Oppo/OnePlus). AI is supposed to offer something unique to camera performance, but one of the selling points is the viability of the device's overall user experience. It's set to launch in global markets in black, green, and reddish brown -- just not in North America, so you'll have to import it from an online retailer. At 9.2mm (0.36 inches) when folded, the Honor Magic V3 is the thinnest foldable phone available, at least for now. Sooner or later, some brand will likely beat that number, but getting it that thin is still impressive. Fold it out, and it's a mere 4.35mm (0.17 inches) thin. Honor includes a case to cover the back (with a kickstand), along with a bumper for the front that increases both metrics, but when naked, the V3 rivals standard slab handsets in depth. Honor is also playing up its "Super Steel Hinge", which it says can withstand up to 500,000 folding cycles, thus giving it SGS Durability Certification. Both screens are OLED panels -- 6.4 inches (2376 x 1060) for the exterior display and 7.92 inches (2344 x 2156) for the interior screen. You get 120Hz refresh rates on both, plus a very bright 5,000 nits of peak brightness on the exterior screen (it's 1,600 nits for the interior one). To protect these screens, Honor uses its own anti-scratch NanoCrystal Shield glass on the outer screen and its Super Armored Inner Screen on the foldout display. While Honor threw some shade at Samsung and the Galaxy Z Fold 6, it spent most of the time presenting contrasts with the iPhone 15 Pro Max to market the Magic V3 as a serious alternative to one of the best (and most expensive) slab phones out there. Honor CEO George Zhao even showed a video of the phone going through a cycle in a washing machine. It apparently still worked, though it also seemed a little too pristine after banging around the drum inside, so its overall durability is somewhat murky. It has IPX8 protection and is the first folding phone you can submerge down to 2.5 meters for up to 30 minutes. The Magic V3 runs on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. It appears to be a single SIM, though you can install eSIMs on it as well. Being a global launch, it's also more open to different bands, so 4G LTE and 5G could work perfectly fine. Strangely, Honor said little about the cameras. With all the thinness, there is a noticeable camera bump in the rear, an octagonally-shaped module that's a complete departure from the row previously seen in the Magic V2. Honor puts three cameras in there, led by the 50-megapixel wide lens using a Sony IMX906 Type 1/1.56 image sensor and f/1.6 aperture. The 50-megapixel telephoto uses a periscope lens and Lidar Matrix autofocusing to go with its optical image stabilization and f/3.0 aperture. Finally, we have the 40-megapixel ultra-wide camera, also with OIS and an f/2.2 aperture. Both front cameras use the same 20-megapixel sensor, marking a different approach not always seen in other models. Samsung has routinely used lower-resolution front cameras on its Fold phones, particularly for the interior screen, making this an interesting move. Similar to Xiaomi's phones, Honor's camera app gives you a choice between a Natural, Vibrant, and Authentic style. In lieu of a partnership with a camera brand, Honor is instead collaborating with Harcourt, the famed photography studio founded in Paris in 1933. The Magic V3 has a specific portrait mode designed to emulate the unique and professional look the studio is known for. This is a carryover from the Honor 200 Pro, so it is not the company's first device offering it. Google is also involved on the AI front, bringing its Magic Eraser feature into the built-in editing tools in the Magic V3. It's not clear how extensive the collaboration goes, but considering that a Google Cloud rep took the stage during the keynote, it may be safe to assume whatever deal they've inked has some legs. Some of the AI tools stem back from the flagship Magic 6 Pro. Another example is the AI Motion Sensing Capture, which lets the AI control the shutter at a high speed for moments and then select the best photo from the burst. The Honor Magic V3 won't come cheap at 2,000 Euros, which roughly converts to $2,200 USD. Samsung recently went as low as $1,900 for the Galaxy Z Fold 6, while the OnePlus Open is regularly at $1,700. The latest Google Pixel Fold 9 Pro settles in the middle at $1,800. They're all expensive, but the market is starting to look more competitive.

Honor's new MagicBook Art 14 has a detachable magnetic webcam and it's just 10mm thick

Honor, former sub-brand of Huawei, has announced a range of new devices at IFA 2024, including the all-new MagicBook Art 14 laptop. This laptop, powered by Intel processors, brings with it an impressive design with next to no bezel around the display and just 10mm of thickness overall. Along with it, Honor also introduced the Magic V3 foldable phone and the MagicPad 2 Android tablet, as well as a new Magic Watch. Disclaimer: Honor sponsored my trip to IFA 2024, including lodging and transportation. Honor MagicBook Art 14 Starting with the highlight of the show, the Honor MagicBook Art 14 is a brand-new design for Honor when it comes to laptops, and it has a big focus on design. The laptop comes in at just 10mm of thickness and 1kg of weight, despite being made of aluminum, which makes it one of the lightest laptops of its kind. That's especially true when you consider the relatively large 14.6-inch display, which has a 97% screen-to-body ratio, meaning the bezels around the screen are super thin. Of course, thin bezels often come with sacrifices and in this case, the laptop simply doesn't have a webcam that's always built in. Instead, it houses a magnetic webcam that can be attached to the top of the screen whenever it's needed. This also allows the camera to be used facing the user or facing what's behind the laptop, so it becomes a little more useful in that sense. When it's not in use, the webcam is stored in the laptop's base. The display comes in 3.1K resolution, so it's plenty sharp, and it also has touch support. Interestingly enough, the Honor MagicBook Art is powered by Intel Core Ultra Series 1 processors, despite Intel just introducing the Series 2 models earlier this week, with many laptops announced to feature these chips. Honor boasts some AI capabilities, including the Turbo 3.0 feature that promises to optimize power consumption by adjusting the performance levels as needed based on what the user is doing. The laptop also uses AI to enhance the audio experience with features like spatial reconstruction and audio quality equalization. Connectivity-wise, the Honor MagicBook Art 14 features a wide range of ports despite its thin design, including Thunderbolt 4, USB Type-C and Type-A, HDMI, and a headphone jack. While it's not coming to the US, the Honor MagicBook Art 14 will launch in the UK, though pricing hasn't been revealed yet. Honor MagicPad 2 Along with the MagicBook Art 14, Honor also introduced the MagicPad 2 Android tablet. This is a tablet with a 12.3-inch display 144Hz AMOLED display, and it's powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset. The display is a big focus here, with features like dynamic dimming, support for 4320Hz PWM dimming, Circadian Night Display to lessen eye strain at night, and a feature called AI Defocus, which simulates a defocus lens to promote eye health by helping to keep the thickness of the choroid. In addition to the AMOLED display, the MagicPad 2 also comes with an IMAX-enhanced set of eight speakers to deliver a top-notch audio and media experience. The tablet leverages Honor Spatial Audio Technology to create a sound field that's 25% larger than its predecessor, too. The tablet also includes a large 10,050mAh battery that should give it pretty good battery life. The tablet weighs just 550 grams, so it's also pretty easy to carry around considering its size. On the software side, the tablet runs Magic OS 8.0, which includes AI features such as voice to text, handwriting beautification, and formula recognition, so when you write on the screen with a pen, it can recognize and enhance what you write. The Honor MagicPad 2 will start at £499 in the UK starting today, and for a limited time, it includes a Honor Smart Keyboard, Honor Magic Pencil 3, and 66W power adapter at no additional cost. Honor Magic V3 Image credit: Honor Finally, Honor also introduced some news for the mobile market, with the Magic V3 foldable phone. Honor had already set the record for thinnest foldable phone last year, but the Magic V3 breaks that record again, measuring just 9.2mm in thickness when folded. It uses a combination of new materials and structures to achieve this while maintaining its durability. Related Honor Magic V2 hands-on: The new thinnest foldable changes the game The Honor Magic V2 is the new thinnest and lightest foldable phone on the market, with a folded footprint roughly that of the iPhone 14 Pro Max. There's a 6.43-inch display on the outside and a 7.92-inch foldable screen on the inside. This display is called a Super Armored Inner screen, which grants it durability for up to 500,000 opena nd close cycles. The screens also have the same technologies found on the MagicPad 2, including 4320Hz PWM dimming, circadian night display, and an exclusive natural tone display. For pictures, the Honor Magic V3 uses an "AI Falcon" camera, including a 50MP main camera, a 50MP periscope lens for telephoto images, and a 40MP ultrawide camera. It also uses AI to improve things like motion sensing to capture faster shots, as well as enhance portrait shots. You can also use AI to edit images and remove objects from a photo, for example. Of course, the phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, so it's as much of a flagshiop as you could want. Along with the phone, Honor also announced the Honor Magic Watch 5, a new smartwatch that promises up to 15-day battery life. It has a 1,85-inch AMOLED display, heart rate monitoring and SpO2 measurements. The Honor Magic V3 is available starting today from £1,599, but the Magic Watch 5 doesn't have a price tag yet.