Honor goes after Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 3 with its first foldable flagship

Honor Magic V
Honor Magic V (Image credit: Honor)

What you need to know

  • Honor has launched its first-ever foldable phone.
  • The phone features a 7.9-inch inner screen and Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor.
  • It is slated to go on sale in China from January 18 from 9,999 yuan (about $1,570).

Honor on January 10 announced the Magic V, the first foldable phone to feature Qualcomm's 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. Just as expected, the phone features an inward-folding design like Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the recently launched OPPO Find N.

Unlike the OPPO Find N, which is a "compact" foldable device, the Magic V has a massive 7.9-inch main OLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and IMAX Enhanced certification. The phone's cover display is a 6.45-inch curved "creaseless" OLED panel with a 21.3:9 aspect ratio and a 90Hz refresh rate.

The Honor Magic V impresses in the camera department as well, at least on paper. Honor has equipped the phone with a triple-camera array featuring a 50MP main sensor, a 50MP ultra-wide shooter, and a 50MP color spectrum lens. You also get two 42MP selfie cameras, one on the inner screen and one on the cover screen.

The foldable packs a large 4,750mAh battery with support for 66W wired charging. The company claims it only takes 15 minutes for the battery to be juiced up to 50%.

As for the software, Honor's first foldable runs the company's Magic UI 6.0 on top of Android 12. Unsurprisingly, the phone includes Multi-Window support, allowing users to split the screen into multiple windows. The Magic V's AI Smart Intelligent System can also automatically detect and recommend content for Multi-Window based on your usage.

The Honor Magic V will go on sale in China from January 18 in two variants. While the 256GB version will retail for 9,999 yuan (about $1,570), the 512GB variant has been priced at 10,999 yuan (about $1,725). Unfortunately, there's no word on whether the Magic V will make its way to global markets to challenge the best foldable phones on the market.

Babu Mohan
News Writer