Honor V Purse in for review

A very rare phone just landed in HQ - or should we say a very high-tech fashion accessory. With the leather case strap attachment, the Honor V Purse certainly looks the part.

Despite its limited launch in China, the phone attracted genuine interest when it launched back in September and drew quite a few "wows".

The strap accessory comes in a separate box, while the phone itself ships with a 35W charger and a USB cable.

The case accessory attaches to the V Purse's frame and is not easy to get off. We don't expect it to fall off unexpectedly at any point. The chain itself is made of some sort of soft material that won't scratch the display - it's not metal.

The Honor V Purse is an outward folding phone, much like some Huawei Mate X series devices. When it's folded, you get a 6.45-inch 1088x2348px display with an almost regular 19.4:9 aspect ratio. Tap the buckle on the back and the rest of the screen folds forward, revealing a 7.71-inch 2348x2016px panel with a 10.5:9 aspect ratio. The screen refreshes at 90Hz.

There's not as much of a crease either making the unfolded screen truly gorgeous. The Honor V Purse is also very thin - 8.6mm when closed and as low as 4.3mm when opened. The Honor V Purse is only 214g too, which is amazing for a horizontal foldable and lower than some bar phones.

An outward folding design means the phone has its soft folding display exposed, leading to some durability concerns. But the design and its mechanics is truly mesmerizing.

You have your pick between 6.45-inch and 7.71-inch

A word on the Honor V Purse as a phone. It uses a Snapdragon 778G chip with 16GB of RAM. There's a relatively big 4,500mAh battery with 35W wired charging. Camera-wise, you have a 50MP f/1.9 wide-angle shooter and an 8MP fixed-focus ultrawide. There's an 8MP selfie camera too, but obviously selfies can be produced with the main cameras as well.

The phone runs Android 13 with Honor's MagicOS 7.2 on top. There's some built-in multitasking enhancements but it's not as advanced as on the Galaxy Z Fold5 or OnePlus Open (and Oppo Find N3). Open an app in full screen then drag and hold from the side for a menu to bring in more apps on the screen.

The clasp mechanism

When folded, the Honor V Purse has a screen-only left edge that's addictively smooth to the touch. We'd keep it away from abrasive surfaces but expect most people will enjoy the feel of it in the hand.