What you need to know
- Honor announces its second foldable smartphone of the year as a follow-up to the Magic V.
- The Magic Vs is announced in China, featuring a lighter body and bigger battery.
- It competes with the popular Galaxy Z Fold 4 in some aspects, from camera specs to battery capacity.
- The device will be available outside of China in early 2023.
Honor debuted its first foldable smartphone, the Honor Magic V, early this year. It came as the first ultra-premium handset after the company separated from Huawei. Cut to eleven months later, the successor, the Honor Magic Vs, is already here. In some aspects, it is also a possible competitor to the popular Galaxy Z Fold 4.
The Honor Magic Vs is launched in China and comes in striking colorways, Cyan, Orange, and a more traditional black. Like the predecessor, Magic V, it also features two screens: one in-ward facing and an outer screen. The exterior screen measures 6.45 inches, and the interior one measures 7.9 inches, both of which are slightly bigger than what we have seen on the Galaxy Z Fold 4.
Both are OLED panels featuring 2272 x 1984 pixels (interior screen) and 2560 x 1080 pixels (exterior screen) resolution. They also have higher refresh rates, 90Hz, and 120Hz, respectively. Weighing around 261 grams, the Honor Magic Vs is slightly thinner and lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 4.
Unlike the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which hides the selfie camera under the display in the foldable screen, the Magic Vs opts for a regular punch-hole screen. Aside from that, both screens on the Magic Vs feature selfie cameras.
Under the hood, the Magic Vs is powered by Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC coupled with Adreno 730 GPU. It would have been amazing if Honor could have pulled off bringing the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 like the Vivo X90 Pro+ did early this week, but we'll probably see more from the company soon.
Unfortunately, it still ships with Android 12, although Android 13 is still early in its rollout across OEMs and devices.
The device equips two RAM configurations, 8GB and 12GB, with either 256B or 512GB onboard storage, although the higher storage is exclusive to the 12GB variant.
As for the optics, there is a triple rear system housing in a slightly larger module than the predecessor. There is a 54MP IMX800 primary camera, a 50MP ultrawide camera that also acts as a macro camera, and an 8MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and 30x digital zoom.
The punch-hole cameras on both screens sport a 16MP selfie shooter with f/2.45 aperture and can capture Full HD+ videos.
The other interesting aspect of the Honor Magic Vs that makes it compete against foldable phones is its battery capacity. It has a massive 5,000mAh battery powering the device, which beats the competition like the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the Oppo Find N, which house 4,400mAh and 4,500mAh, respectively. The 5,000mAh battery further supports Honor’s 66W SuperCharge technology via USB Type-C interface.
As for the pricing, the Honor Magic Vs starts at CNY 7499 (~$1047) for the 8GB+256GB variant, the 12GB+256GB is priced at CNY 7999 (~$1117), and lastly, the 12GB+512GB retails at CNY 8999 (~$1257). While it is already up for presale in China, potential buyers can get it shipped before December 14.
The best part is that the phone is expected to launch outside of China, making it Honor's first foldable to go on sale outside of its homeland. The device, however, isn't expected to land until early 2023.
