Magic Vs is Honor’s first foldable smartphone to go international, bringing with it state-of-the-art technology that focuses on design, engineering and user experience. Part of Honor’s commitment and investment in R&D of foldables, Magic Vs sports a superlight gearless hinge, which is unlike any other.
Revolutionary foldable hinge
A pain point for many foldable smartphones is their hinge technology. We know that not every foldable is able to deliver both comfort and durability. However, Honor Magic Vs defies this, using the industry’s first single-piece casting processing technology for its hinge. This drastically reduces the number of components required, which also makes the smartphone noticeably more lightweight and easier to carry around.
Taking it a notch higher, Honor’s technology allows for a gap-free 12.9mm design on the Magic Vs when it is folded. This is a game changer and the subtle difference in design goes a long way to make the smartphone feel sleeker in the hand. There are no sacrifices when it comes to material choices either, with aerospace-grade polymeric to ensure strength. In real-world usage, this robustness is a welcome feature for a foldable. When often switching between folded and unfolded modes, the smartphone does not creak or budge thanks to the hinge’s gear-free design. As tested by TUV Rheinland, it can last for up to 400,000 folds, which translates to approximately 10 years of use with 100 folds per day.
Lightweight without sacrifices
Despite a solid chassis, Honor Magic Vs is incredibly lightweight. A lot of credit goes to the material choice for the hinge, which is the same type as found in submarine pipelines and spacecraft. In parallel, the magnesium alloy used for the frame of the device ensures that its weight is only 267g, which impressively is only marginally heavier than a typical flagship smartphone.
With Honor toning down on the number of parts in the hinge, the additional space helps with battery. The dual batteries have a combined capacity of 5,000mAh, which is the highest seen on any foldable smartphone. This translates to a full day’s worth of mixed usage on both WiFi and 5G connectivity, with the smartphone’s display set to approximately 60 per cent. Recharging the device does not take much time either, with support for 66W Honor SuperCharge.
Well-crafted user experience
The unique aspect of Honor Magic Vs is its ability to seamlessly transition between a conventional smartphone and a full-fledged tablet. When closed, you find a 21:9 2560x1080-pixel 120Hz 6.45-inch OLED display up front with a maximum brightness of 1,200 nits making it easy to use under the direct sunlight of the hot summer in Dubai. This form factor also allows you to use the Magic Vs like a typical smartphone, complemented by the subtle curves on the display and bezel-less design.
But the wow factor comes when you open the device, revealing a gorgeous 90Hz 7.9-inch 2K+ panel with an 800-nit brightness. This comes with a special AR coating that reduces reflectivity to improve outdoor usage. Both the displays on the device support HDR10+, 1,920Hz pulse-width modulation and DCI-P3 wide colour gamut coverage, meaning the Magic Vs is your ideal companion for multimedia consumption. In fact, we often found ourselves watching movies or documentaries that paired nicely with the stereo dual-speaker experience on the device.
Honor has also ensured that the extra screen real estate that you get of the Magic Vs does not go to waste. Focused on productivity, it features split-screen and floating window modes in conjunction with its in-house Magic OS 7.1 software running on top of Android 13. This means you could potentially run up to four applications at a time. Having WhatsApp, a social media feed and a YouTube video running all at once might not be great on a smaller screen but on Magic Vs’ large one, it is an absolute treat.
To maintain buttery smooth performance across the board, Magic Vs sports a 4nm 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip. This not only helps while gaming but also plays a major part in allowing the device to take great pictures. The image signal processor alongside the triple 54MP, 50MP and 8MP camera system with computational photography and 3x optical zoom makes for reliable performance no matter the lighting conditions.
Verdict
In a growing market for foldable smartphones, Honor’s Magic Vs hits all the right notes. It addresses the most common flaws in other foldables and provides an experience that goes beyond the usual. As a first for the company in the international market, it sends a strong signal about what Honor wants to achieve in this segment in the future. If you are in the market for a foldable, this should be high up your list. We expect the Magic Vs to be available in the UAE market online and at all leading retailers starting at Dh7,000.
