The Honor Magic Vs offers something Samsung foldable phones cannot
A stunning design and zero-gap hinge helps the Honor Magic Vs stand out from the competition
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: a foldable with a difference
📱 I went hands-on with the Honor Magic Vs at MWC 2023
💰 NICE: It sports a stunning cyan body that reflects the light
🤼♂️ SLIM: There’s no gap in between the displays when folded
I’m a huge fan of Samsung foldable phones and have used every single one for the past few years. From the days of the original Galaxy Fold, right through to last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4, Samsung has shown that foldables can be sleek and mainstream. Yet despite being four generations in, there are a few issues that Samsung hasn’t been able to resolve.
At MWC today, Honor bought the Magic Vs foldable to global markets, and in doing so, showcased two key things that Samsung hasn’t been able to achieve with its foldable.
First, the hinge. Samsung has spoken a lot about its redesigned hinges, which despite being a couple of iterations in, still haven’t achieved the zero-gap design of others. When you fold the Galaxy Z Fold 4 fully closed, there’s a noticeable gap between the two sides of the display. By comparison, the Honor Magic Vs has no gap and folds closed just like a book does.
The waterdrop hinge design not only allows the Magic Vs to fold closed without a gap but also helps the phone feel super light. On paper, there is only a difference of two grams in the weight between the two devices, yet in the hand, the Magic Vs feels considerably lighter. Part of this is likely down to the even weight distribution of the Magic Vs, compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 4 where the design means that the hinge adds considerable bulk to the overall profile of the device.
The Magic Vs has a 7.9-inch main Foldable OLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate that supports HDR10+ and offers 800 nits peak brightness. The front display is a 6.45-inch OLED panel that supports a 120Hz refresh rate and has a 1200 nits peak brightness. The front display is particularly comfortable to use, and offers a slightly better aspect ratio compared to other foldable phones, making it more comfortable in the hand.
It includes a 54MP main camera, 8MP telephoto and 50MP ultrawide camera. None of these specs are particularly groundbreaking, but they should provide a great experience and the display in particular is vibrant and visually appealing in person.
The second thing that Honor has achieved with the Magic Vs is a stunning shimmering blue color effect on the rear. Light reflects off the Magic Vs in a stunning effect that’s reminiscent of all the old Honor devices that stood out for their design appeal. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 looks just fine, but the Honor Magic Vs looks spectacular in comparison.
The Magic Vs is coming to many global markets this year, although it won’t launch in the US sadly. It runs Android 13 out of the box, and it will be available in three colors: the stunning cyan seen here, a generic black and a gorgeous orange vegan leather which, sadly, won’t be launching outside of China.