Saturday, February 22, 2025

Honor Magic V3 Review: A Balanced Take on Foldable Phone Innovation

Honor Magic V3 Review: A Balanced Take on Foldable Phone Innovation

The Honor Magic V3 (official page), first launched in China on July 12, 2024, and introduced globally at IFA 2024 on September 5, 2024 (we were there), represents Honor’s latest push to redefine smartphone innovation. Marketed as having a very large battery capable of powering through an entire day with ease, the device also features extraordinary durability. Honor positions the Magic V3 as a serious contender in the premium smartphone space, blending advanced materials with practical features. Let’s break down its features and performance to see if the Honor Magic V3 lives up to the hype.

Industrial Design and Build Quality

A quality protective case is included. Nice touch!

Honor positions the Magic V3 as a serious contender in the premium smartphone space, blending advanced materials with practical features. The Magic V3 boasts an IPX8 rating, indicating it is “water-proof” for continuous immersion beyond 1 meter deep. However, the ‘X’ in the rating means the device hasn’t been tested or certified for dust protection. For more information on IP ratings and what they mean, check out this detailed guide on IP ratings at Ubergizmo.

“IT DOES OFFER REASSURANCE AGAINST ACCIDENTAL SPILLS OR IMMERSION”

This level of water resistance shows significant progress for foldable phones in general and Honor in particular. These designs used to be more susceptible to environmental damage than traditional smartphones, primarily because the moving parts were hard to protect and their chassis were very thin. While this rating doesn’t guarantee protection against dust or sand, it does offer reassurance against accidental spills or immersion.

Here’s how the Magic V3 compares to competitors and classic phones in terms of thickness, weight, and water resistance:

Device Thickness (unfolded) Thickness (folded) Weight IP Rating
Honor Magic V3 4.35mm 9.2mm 226g IPX8
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 5.6mm 12.1mm N/A IP48
Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 4.6mm 9.5mm N/A IPX8
Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max 7.85mm N/A 240g IP68
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra 8.6mm N/A 240g IP68

official washing machine challenge video

The chassis is hardened by what Honor calls a ‘super steel hinge,’ that resists a force of 1150 Kg, for enhanced durability (previous Magic V3 durability coverage). This is paired with an aerospace-grade specialty fiber build that emphasizes both strength and lightweight design. Foldables may not have a reputation for being tough cookies, but Honor is changing this perception and this should help the whole industry.

Another case, with a magnet, we found online

Honor Magic V3 Display

The Honor Magic V3 features two screens, as it is a foldable phone. The large and comfortable internal foldable display measures 7.92 inches and utilizes AMOLED technology. With a resolution of 2156 x 2344 pixels (~402 ppi), the display provides sharp visuals, and its 120 Hz refresh rate ensures smooth scrolling and fluid animations.

The impressive display size offers a magnificent visual user experience (120Hz, 870 NITs brightness measured in our tests). Competitors will point out that it’s not the absolute highest brightness, but remember that extreme brightness (beyond 1000 NITs) is typically not sustainable because 1/ that consumes a lot of power and builds up heat 2/ your eyes will adapt by contracting the pupil. Extreme brightness is neat to glance at a phone quickly in a very bright environment. For reference, the ambient brightness on a sunny day is easily 30,0000 NITs.

When unfolded, the device’s dimensions are 156.6 x 145.3 x 4.35 mm, while folding reduces its width to 74 mm and increases the thickness to 9.2 mm, which is comparable to a high-end non-foldable phone. That’s a very strong point for this Honor design, as it feels like a “normal” phone when closed.

“A MAGNIFICENT VISUAL EXPERIENCE”

This could lead to the display appearing more washed out than competitors. If you hang out at the beach, a much brighter display can be handy for quickly peeking at some information. However, it isn’t going to compete with the sun for any sustainable amount of time. Peak brightness above 1000 NITs isn’t meant to be sustained. Would higher brightness be nice to have? Yes! However, this doesn’t make or break the experience for us.

The screen excels in smoothness when browsing the web or navigating through apps, making daily use enjoyable and responsive. Many users are sensitive to refresh rates, especially during scrolling, so this is on point for such a high-end display.

Honor Magic V3 Performance

The Honor Magic V3 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, a well-known hardware platform that has proven its worth in many high-end and premium smartphone designs, including the Honor GT.

At launch time, the most powerful foldable competitors ran on the same Qualcomm platform, so they tend to perform comparatively and we don’t expect this aspect of the phone to be a huge differentiator as foldable users tend to be more focused on display-related productivity than gaming or video editing performance. In that respect, you’ll still get an impeccable high-end smartphone experience anyway.

Is the Honor Magic V3 Camera good?

Ubergizmo CAMERA HW score: 186

The Honor Magic V30’s camera system revolves around a powerful primary camera, powered by a very large sensor, said to be a Sony IMX906. If true, that’s a quality sensor that Honor knows to wield since it was in the Honor 200 Pro, which we reviewed. This primary camera is supported by a 50MP 90mm long zoom and a 40MP 16mm ultrawide camera. The Ultrawide camera has a medium-size sensor, while the Zoom camera has a smaller sensor, which makes sense since zoom cameras would need to be thicker to fully utilize a larger sensor.

“THE NEW HONOR MAGIC V3 CAMERA SYSTEM BRINGS SIGNIFICANT UPGRADES”

It’s fair to say this camera configuration is very good for a foldable as Honor engineers had to work hard to pack this much technology on one side of the phone. They were able to smartly utilize the camera bump which is nearly 1mm thick.

From a technical point of view, the new Honor Magic V3 camera system brings significant upgrades (over the already good Magic V2) across all rear camera modules: primary, zoom and ultrawide. The primary camera electro-optic hardware is significantly better and that should reveal itself in reduced noise and higher low-light photo quality. The optical zoom is more powerful and the Ultrawide benefits from slightly better hardware too.

Image Quality: Sharper, More Natural colors, Less Noise

The primary camera (26mm) on this phone delivers a clear upgrade over the previous Honor Magic V2. Photos now have a more natural and true-to-life color balance, accurately matching what you see with your own eyes. Another big improvement is the reduction in noise, especially in HDR shots where bright sunlight and shadows mix. The ultrawide camera benefits from these upgrades too, though the difference isn’t as dramatic.

At night, the biggest improvement is the true-to-life colors. Moody scenes are better captured, and not overly/artificially bright. That’s one of the most important things to save the memory as you’re experiencing them. Night photography is all about the contrast between light and shadows.

These improvements come from both hardware upgrades and better software tuning, ensuring crisp, vibrant photos in everyday conditions.

Honor Magic V3 Battery Life

The battery is a high-capacity 5150 mAh Li-Poly unit, designed to deliver efficient performance with advanced features such as integrated wireless charging and fast charging capabilities. It boasts a charge speed of 115 mAh per minute, enabling it to reach 67% charge in just 30 minutes with a peak at 6.0 Amp, effectively maxing out the honor included cable’s rating.

Although the talk time and music playback durations are unspecified, its energy density of 853 mAh per cubic inch highlights its compact yet powerful and ingenious chassis design.

The high battery capacity should get you through a day of moderate use with 8-10 hrs of screen on time (SoT), but keep in mind that the display’s extra large size does use more battery than a classic (smaller) OLED display. Running it at high brightness, or playing games will deplete the battery faster, which is why having a 66W peak charging (50W wireless, and 50W max wired charging with non-Honor chargers) is extremely useful. Obviously, using the external display is much less taxing to the battery, due to its smaller size.

Conclusion

The Honor Magic V3 positions itself as the top foldable phone for users who aren’t willing to compromise on the phone’s thickness and want to use a foldable phone that feels like a classic phone when closed. Additionally, Honor has made great strides in building confidence about how sturdy this phone is. Hopefully, no real user will have to find out how rugged their phone is, but the technical and expert feedback look excellent.

“TOP FOLDABLE PHONE FOR USERS WHO AREN’T WILLING TO COMPROMISE ON THICKNESS”

The camera experience is very good, especially in the context of a foldable design, which is inherently more difficult to engineer because of the extreme thinness of the chassis hosting the camera modules. Fitting this kind of photo quality in that small space is an engineering feat.

Since the phone is not as widely available in volume, your choices of phone cases and other accessories may be more limited than those of more established brands. However, if you’re willing to wait, places like AliExpress have a decent selection.

Highs

  • Amazingly thin and sturday design
  • Strong performance
  • Very large battery
  • Extremely comfortable display

Lows

  • Display could be brighter
  • Not certified against dust
  • Expensive as an import in some markets

Rating + Price

  • Rating: 8.8/10
  • Price: ~ $1265
  • Available on Amazon

Filed in Cellphones >Reviews. Read more about , , and .

Related Articles

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest Articles