Honor Magic Vs Review – A Better Foldable Done Right

The Honor Magic Vs is available in China at a starting price of CNY 7,499 (approx. Rs 86,000) for the 8GB RAM and 256GB storage variant. Whereas the 12GB RAM and 512GB storage variant cost CNY 8,999 (approx. Rs 1,03,000).

The phone is available in three different colour options: Black, Cyan, and Orange. It is expected to launch soon in global markets including India.

The Honor Magic Vs packs the following items inside the box:

• Phone
• Case
• Type-C cable
• 66W charger
• SIM ejector tool
• Documentation

Before we talk in detail about the Honor Magic Vs, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 7.9 inches OLED, 6.45 inches OLED
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1
• RAM & ROM: 8GB 256GB, 12GB 512GB
• Software: Android v12
• Rear camera: 54MP + 50MP + 8MP
• Selfie camera: 16 MP
• Battery: 5000 mAh
• Weight: 261 grams
• Dimensions: 160.3 x 72.6 x 12.9 mm

Planning to upgrade? Sell Your Old Phone in 60 Seconds From Home

Honor’s second-gen foldable delivers everything you’d expect: less weight, smaller bezels, and finer dimensions without sacrificing the size of the display. It has unquestionably high build quality. The glass/metal combo feels premium on any premium smartphone, and the additional exclusivity of the folding form factor adds to the feeling of a top-tier handset.

This particular version has a shimmery sparkling finish on its back that gives it a little flair. You should still keep a firm grip on it. While the back camera unit protrudes somewhat, it has rounded edges to prevent snagging on clothing when you take the phone out of your pocket.

But it’s surprisingly slim for a smartphone of this design aesthetic, which makes the phone feel much less bulky than you may expect. The Magic Vs is slightly thinner and lighter than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 when folded, measuring just 12.9mm when closed and weighing just 261 grams. The hinge opens easily, feels solid enough when partially opened, and has no apparent seam gaps on either end.

Check Out: OPPO Find N2 Review – True Successor Of Foldable Smartphone

When folded partially or opened entirely flat, it does present a tiny amount of play in the real world, but not to the point where it would negatively impact the user experience. However, it does make one wonder how the mechanism could feel after repeated use and if the tension will remain the same. The fact that the device has a zero-gap design when completely closed, on the other hand, is undeniably impressive.

As with every other foldable on the market right now, there is no in-display fingerprint scanner. So you get a power button on the right side serving as biometric authentication. The main issue I had was the high placement of the volume rockers above the power button, which seemed a bit awkward.

Let’s now talk about the cameras on the Honor Magic Vs. The phone features a triple camera setup on the back which includes a 50MP main camera, a 50MP ultra-wide lens and an 8MP telephoto lens. Both the cover display as well as the inner display has a punch-hole cutout for a 16MP selfie camera.

The primary camera captures images with a high level of detail, dynamic range, and colour during the daytime. The details were preserved even after zooming in. Though there is some image distortion, the 50MP ultra-wide lens is also quite good. There is no compromise on details when you switch to the ultra-wide from the primary lens. It also serves as a macro sensor.

Read More: 10 Easy Tips and Tricks For Better Smartphone Photography

The 8MP telephoto 3x zoom lens in a foldable smartphone is acceptable. Although it may not have a particularly high pixel count, it should be able to produce reliable results in bright conditions.

The 16MP front cameras do a pretty good job of taking selfies. The selfies came out to be detailed and punchy. They were sharp and the skin tones were close to natural.

The Honor Magic Vs packs a big 5,000 mAh battery and has managed to cramp a bigger cell when compared to the competition. In fact, you get the biggest battery ever on a foldable smartphone.

Talking about battery backup, you can easily get a full day of battery life with this. I got about 5-6 hours of screen on time with my casual use. My usage involved some gaming, social media scrolling and taking pictures. Now if you play games all day, you would need to plug in the charger by the evening.

Read More: Top 10 Tips To Keep Your Smartphone Battery Healthy

However, that won’t be a problem as the Honor Magic Vs features 66W of fast wired charging support. You also get the 66W adaptor inside the box which can fully charge the phone from 0 to 100 per cent in less than an hour.

A quick charge of just 20 minutes will juice the battery level to nearly 50 per cent. All that is good but one thing where is disappoints me the lack of the wireless charging support. For a premium phone coming at this price, wireless charging should have been given.

In terms of display specs, Honor Magic VS’s two panels should provide top-tier performance. Honor is very confident with the displays on the Magic Vs and, among other things, makes some brash claims about their brightness.

Starting off with the outer display, Honor Magic Vs features a 6.45 inches OLED panel on the outside. It features a refresh rate of 120Hz and a peak brightness of 1200 nits. With a 21:9 aspect ratio that is comfortable for using with one’s hand and gorgeously vibrant colours, the 1080p OLED looks great.

There is less left-to-right cramming, making typing more comfortable. This cover screen will be helpful in those situations where you do not require the large internal screen or you have to respond to something quickly.

Check Out: Infinix Zero Ultra Review – Zero Drawbacks, Ultra Fast Charging

Honor Magic Vs features a 7.9 inches foldable OLED display on the inside. It has a refresh rate of 90Hz and a peak brightness of about 800 nits; both of which are lesser than the cover display. It has great viewing angles, bright colours, and doesn’t feel super plasticky like some other foldables I’ve tried. Even in bright sunlight, the display coating does a good job of minimising reflections.

Both panels can play HDR10+ videos, which have crisp highlights and dark shadows made possible by the OLED panels’ deep blacks. It’s unfortunate that Honor’s internal screen only supports a limited refresh rate.

Despite this, I discovered that I used the outer screen much more frequently in this situation due to the bigger aspect ratio, switching to the inner display only when I had to watch videos, read a blog, or do multitasking.

The Honor Magic Vs currently is equipped with one of the most powerful and versatile CPUs on the market. Honor Magic Vs is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset which is paired with up to 12GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. That implies ample memory for effective performance and a large amount of storage for documents, media, and applications.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor can easily handle multitasking and can strike through just about any app in the Play Store, be it casual social media app or video editing apps. This is useful for a foldable phone, where being able to do two things simultaneously on the larger inner display is a big selling point.

Talking about gaming, I ran a couple of graphic-intensive games on the phone. These include Call of Duty Mobile and Apex Legends Mobile. Both the games ran smoothly on their highest graphic settings. I did not experience any kind of lags or frame drops during my gaming session.

Check Out: Xiaomi 13 Review – Balanced In Each Aspect

The temperatures were kept well under control. I really feel like you do get the flagship performance out of this phone. It runs on MagicOS 7.0 skin which is based on Android 12.

When the Honor Magic Vs does go on sale worldwide, hopefully, it will run the more recent Android 13 and have a few foldable features. Everything in the UI works just fine. I especially like MagicOS’ split-screen multitasking system, which uses a slide-over menu that you activate by simply swiping and holding the screen from the sides.

The Honor Magic Vs features stereo speakers, one located at the top and the other at the bottom. The audio quality was just good, nothing special. The output was loud and clear.

The phone comes with 5G connectivity but as of now we don’t which 5G bands it will support in India. Other connectivity features include Bluetooth v5.2, WiFi, GPS, NFC as well as an IR blaster.

Check Out: Xiaomi 13 Pro Review – All-Rounder Flagship Phone

Talking about biometrics, the phone comes with a side-mounted fingerprint scanner. It unlocks the phone pretty quickly. You can also use the face unlock feature to unlock your device.