Honor launches the Magic V, the first foldable to use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor

We first heard rumours about an Honor foldable device since June of last year now, and after some teasers from Honor recently it’s finally official. Honor have launched the Honor Magic V in China today, and it makes them the latest company to try and knock the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 off its perch as the gold standard for foldable smartphones.

Honor Magic V pricing and availability

The Honor Magic V is already available for pre-order in China, with full sales beginning on the 18th of January. Unfortunately though Honor did not confirm if it’ll be made available elsewhere in the world. The pricing for the Honor Magic V is as follows:

• Honor Magic V, 12GB RAM, 256GB storage – CNY9,999 (~RM6,591.07)
• Honor Magic V, 12GB RAM, 512GB storage – CNY10,999 (~RM7,250.24)

This means that it would be fairly more expensive than the Oppo Find N that starts at just CNY7,699 but the Honor Magic V does have a few number of choice upgrades over its rivals that may just make the extra cost worth it.

Honor Magic V specs

Right off the bat, you’d notice that the cover display has a much more typical looking aspect ratio. The 6.45-inch cover display has a 21:9, FHD OLED display capable of up to a 120Hz refresh rate. This means that when using as a regular phone while folded, it feels more natural in your hand than the Galaxy Z Fold 3’s 25:9 cover display would. It also has a higher refresh rate than the Oppo Find N’s 5.49-inch cover display, which is capped to 60Hz. The right edge of the cover display is also slightly curved, giving the overall build a symmetrical look when unfolded. It’s understood that this display is made of ultra-thin glass.

The main display itself meanwhile is a 7.9-inch OLED display with a 10.3:9, 2272 x 1984p resolution and goes up to a refresh rate of 90Hz. This makes it bigger than the 7.6-inch display on the Galaxy Z Fold 3, though the latter does have a higher 120Hz refresh rate. You can probably guess by now that it dwarfs the Oppo Find N too, which has a 7.1-inch main display. The Magic V’s main display also has HDR10+ support and can reach a peak brightness of 800nits. The folding mechanism itself leads to a tighter fold than that of Samsung’s foldable, almost as close to a perfect fold as the one achieved by the Oppo Find N with its Flexion Hinge. Honor claims that the hinge on the Magic V will survive up to over 200,000 folds and unfolds.

Under the hood is the new flagship system-on-chip from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. This means that the Honor Magic V is the first foldable device to use the brand new flagship processor from Qualcomm. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 gets mated to 12GB of RAM, and comes in either 256GB or 512GB of storage. Honor have preloaded it with their MagicUI 6 skin based on the Android 12 operating system. Keeping the lights on meanwhile is a 4,750mAh battery with 66W SuperCharge fast charging. Overall, the Magic V is only 14.3mm thick once folded, and is a mere 6.7mm thin once unfolded.

In the camera department, there’ll be a triple 50MP rear camera setup, with a 50MP, f/1.9 main shooter. That gets flanked by another 50MP, f/2.2 ultrawide angle lens as well as a third 50MP, f/2.0 shooter that is what Honor dubs the ‘spectrum enhanced’ camera. As for selfies, there are two 42MP, f/2.4 front facing cameras, located in a punch hole cutout on the cover display as well as the main display.

Other features of note include a side-mounted fingerprint sensor on the power button, and the Magic V is also the first foldable to come with IMAX Enhanced certification. It comes in Silver, Black or Burnt Orange colourways, with the latter having a leather back. You won’t find any IP rating on it though unlike the IPX8 rating that the Galaxy Z Fold 3 devices have, nor is there a 3.5mm audio jack on the Magic V.

Honor’s decision to join the foldable club will certainly spice up the segment that’s so far been dominated by the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3. However, that’s also mostly due to the fact that the alternatives have so far not made it out of China. If Honor does release the Magic V in Malaysia, it’ll be exciting to see if Honor can make a dent in Samsung’s time on top of the foldable segment.