Brand: HONOR
Offer price: 6999
Currency: MYR
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Appearance - 8.5/10
8.5/10
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Efficiency - 7.8/10
7.8/10
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Features - 8.2/10
8.2/10
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Materials - 8.5/10
8.5/10
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Performance - 8/10
8/10
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Portability - 8.6/10
8.6/10
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User Experience (UX) - 8.8/10
8.8/10
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Value - 7.5/10
7.5/10
Summary
HONOR has done it yet again as the HONOR Magic V3 isn’t just a great foldable smartphone, it’s the best one in 2024 for sure.
Overall
8.2/10Pros
+ The thinnest foldable of its kind yet
+ Superbly durable
+ Cover display brightness improved
+ Best displays on a foldable yet, with cover screen aspect ratio akin to standard smartphones
+ Best thermal stability for a foldable thus far
+ Main camera works great, telephoto camera can capture a surprising amount of detail
+ Stereo speakers are balanced, loud, clear, and have a very slight touch of bass
+ Quite a bit of interesting AI features
+ Great battery life when folded
+ Fast charging speeds with included 66W charger
Cons
– Included phone case hinders the use of gesture navigation
– Subpar ultrawide camera performance
– Battery life when using the main screen could be better
– Some AI features’ performance are a hit-or-miss affair
– Pricey
Unboxing the HONOR Magic V3
Starting off he HONOR Magic V3 review with the unboxing, it comes in a rather large black box, reminiscent of last year’s model. There’s really nothing much on the box aside from the product name, giving it a very minimalist look. Inside the box, we found the following items:
- Documentations
- 66W HONOR SuperCharge charger
- USB-C to USB-C cable
- SIM ejector tool
- Two-piece protective case (front and rear)
- The HONOR Magic V2 smartphone itself
Our review unit also came with the HONOR Magic Pen, which you can see right above here.
Specifications
Performance
Starting off our benchmark suite with Antutu v10, the HONOR Magic V3 is on the lower to middle side of Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 devices in terms of score. This isn’t an indication that it is bad however, as it’s still notably better than the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip.
Then on Geekbench 6, it’s interesting that the single core score seems to be more on par with the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 while the multi core score is notably better, though still below par of what you’d expect from other devices running the same chip.
Moving on to 3DMark, the HONOR Magic V3 redeemed it self as it had the best score for Solar Bay and Wild Life Extreme, only losing out slightly in Steel Nomad to the top contender, which is still within negligible range. It’s showing strong performance in 3D applications, which might make it the best foldable for gaming.
Interestingly, the HONOR Magic V3 had a stability rating of 66.9%, making it the most thermally-efficient foldable we’ve tested thus far, though there’s still plenty of room for improvements. While most Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 devices suffer from heat-related issues, the two devices that fared well enough comparatively speaking are both from HONOR, with this foldable and the HONOR Magic6 Pro taking the cake.
A similar pattern can be seen in GPUScore Sacred Path, with the slight exception here being that it took the top spot easily in VRS, Native, and Official scores. I find it odd that it seems to score noticeably higher than other Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 devices, especially since High Performance mode was not enabled to provide a fairer assessment, in terms of both raw performance and thermals.
Lastly on PCMark, the HONOR Magic V3 seems to be sharing its score with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 devices while other Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 devices are typically situated better. Of course when it comes to being an actual daily driver, it’s hard to beat this type of foldable as the added screen real estate and the versatility of switching back to a smaller, more traditional screen always wins out. Perhaps the chip was tuned more towards performance to ensure better efficiency and thermal stability.
In case you’re wondering about battery life, the HONOR Magic V3 lasted 11 hours and 29 minutes while folded in PCMark’s Work 3.0 endurance test. When unfolded and the bigger screen is in play, it drops down to 7 hours and 8 minutes. While I find the battery life when folded to be more than acceptable, it’s not definitely not the case for the main screen. However, since the aspect ratio is in line with a traditional smartphone, it’s not really a problem, especially since you’re less likely to use the bigger screen more.
Meanwhile for charging speed, here’s what I managed to get using the included 66W HONOR SuperCharge charger starting from 2%:
- 15 minutes = 46% battery life
- 30 minutes = 74% battery life
- 45 minutes = 95% battery life
- 49 minutes = 100% battery life
Camera
HONOR has let its AI loose on the camera, so you can auto-capture shots with AI Motion Sensing and lovely portraits with the AI Portrait Engine. The camera system doesn’t quite match the best smartphone cameras, but is not far behind. The 50MPl main camera is excellent. It is speedy enough for action shots, has a relatively large sensor and aperture for solid low-light performance, and generally produces pleasing photos.
To my surprise, the telephoto camera can capture a surprising amount of detail, which is especially noticeable with food. The way it captures each grain of quinoa and the zoomed in shot of mutton, though some loss in coloring is normal. When used for capturing subjects that are very far, the results often have this oil painting effect. The ultrawide camera is quite the hit-or-miss affair as even shots with good lighting can look unnaturally soft.
As for selfies, I took two shots for each camera that one would use for selfies in daytime and nighttime; the cover display camera, the main display camera, and the primary camera itself. In daylight, the two front cameras have a brighter look at the expense of colors whereas the main camera is able to capture a more natural look. Details are surprisingly great on all 3 cameras but the main camera is clearly better.
In nighttime, it didn’t seem too bad as the AI detects the lack of lighting and thus uses the screen to provide some level of fill lighting. The main camera doesn’t get the same treatment unfortunately but it’s still the best looking one since I don’t look overexposed. Generally speaking, you can expect good results in all 3 cameras but for the best results, stick to the main camera since the option is there.
The Good
There are a good number of reasons to consider getting the HONOR Magic V3. For starters, this is by far the thinnest foldable of this form factor ever created thus far, at 4.35mm and 9.2mm when unfolded and folded respectively. In fact, it’s so thin that it doesn’t feel like you’re holding a foldable smartphone. Its predecessor was already very thin, and they managed to go beyond it this time around, all while still packing a whopping 5,150mAh battery, which is an insane feat to achieve.
It’s also quite durable as it’s IPX8 water resistant up to 2.5m instead of the usual 1.5m, the Super Steel Hinge is able to last at least 500,000 folds, and the anti-scratch NanoCrystal Shield along with the Super Armored Inner Screen technology is said to protect against potential hard and sharp threats. They’re confident about the screen so much, they are tossing in a 365-day Screen Protection for free on top of the device. If it ever manages to be dust-resistant, it will practically be on par with the standard smartphone.
The displays are arguably the best part as you get a sub-8″ LTPO AMOLED display, making it more akin to compact tablets, while the 6.43″ LTPO OLED is on par with a standard smartphone display experience, so you don’t have to worry about feeling cramped on real estate. While the main screen’s brightness is adequate, the cover display really takes it up a few notches with up to 5,000 nits of brightness. When you consider the whole picture with excellent PWM dimming, adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, and even stylus support, it can’t get any better than this in 2024 for a foldable.
And then in comes the stereo speakers, which are balanced, loud, clear, and have a very slight touch of bass. Furthermore, the fact that it has a top and bottom firing arrangements mean that you will get the same listening experience regardless of whether you’re using the HONOR Magic V3 folded or unfolded. Sure, front-firing is better for the most part but given the form factor, it’s the best possible arrangement without sacrificing versatility. With this being such a multimedia beast, there’s really no reason to have a tablet.
Last, but not least, the HONOR Magic V3 does come with AI features just like any other flagship-level 2024 smartphone. Magic Text allows quick text extraction from images, while Magic Portal enables users to drag content, like text or screenshots, into apps such as Gmail or Notes, working particularly well with Maps.
AI Suggestions, similar to Google Pixel 9, offer useful shortcuts that improve with usage. Three features are powered by Google Cloud; AI Eraser removes unwanted photo elements, Face-to-Face Translation enables dual-language conversations using both screens, and HONOR Notes transcribes conversations in real-time, albeit results can vary from time to time.
The Bad
Of course, the HONOR Magic V3 has its share of drawbacks. For starters, while the included phone case is of good quality and not the cheap transparent kind, it can be a nuisance if you using gesture navigation. To be precise, the top part that goes around the cover display has a raised lip, so sliding from the sides of the screen will feel awkward. As a result, I ended up only using the rear part of the case.
Next up, it’s great that there are AI features here but some of them feel like it requires more work to truly be usable. As I’ve mentioned, the Face-to-Face translations are a hit-or-miss endeavor but more than that, the Magic Portal, arguably my most favorite, is rather limited. It only really works with a handful of apps so don’t expect it to be able to share things from any apps to each other universally.
Lastly, and this shouldn’t be a surprise, is that the HONOR Magic V3 is pricey. It’s retailing for RM6,999 but then again, all the other foldables of this type are around this price range and you do get 512GBs of storage at the very least. HONOR Malaysia is doing a good job at sweetening the deal, especially since it comes with the HONOR Magic Pen but I do hope that most of the pre-order freebies are included permanently. I’m okay with the wireless charger not being included after the pre-order phase since it comes with a 66W charger.
HONOR Magic V3 Verdict
HONOR has done it yet again as the HONOR Magic V3 isn’t just a great foldable smartphone, it’s the best one in 2024 for sure. Sure, it has its quirks but considering that some of them can be remedied via software updates, the overall package is the most attractive one yet. The only reason why you wouldn’t get this foldable is if you’re loyal to a particular brand, not a fan of foldables, not a fan of Android, and / or the RM6,999 retail price is too heavy to bear.
At the end of our HONOR Magic V3 review, I award this foldable smartphone with our coveted Gold Pokdeward.
Big thanks to HONOR Malaysia for sending us this foldable for the purpose of this review.
