Honor Magic V3 review

Introduction

Somewhat of an office favorite thanks to its slim profile (among other virtues), the Magic V2 has now gotten a replacement. The Honor Magic V3 is going global, making further strides towards pocketability, while also setting standards for durability, and improving upon the camera system.

The V2 was the thinnest of its kind when it arrived, and now so too is the V3, at just 4.4mm in tablet form or 9.3mm when it's posing as a bar phone. It's also gone lighter still, at 226g, and that's with an added wireless charging coil, and a bump in battery capacity - is it engineers working at Honor or is it miracle workers?

Rhetorics aside, the weight and size reductions come courtesy of improved materials, at least partially. The Magic V3's panels and build are particularly tough, Honor insists, and they even had us torture a unit to see where it breaks. There's also an IPX8 rating that takes things further than the standard's minimum requirements.

Cameras on foldables tend to lag behind industry-leading efforts on 'plain' smartphones, and the Magic V3 is no exception. Still, this new generation greatly improves upon the zoom camera, lowering the number of trade-offs you need to make in order to have 300 sq. cm of screen estate in your pocket instead of just 100-ish.

The displays on the Magic V3 should be pretty great, going by the specs pages, even if the only apparent improvement is maximum brightness - more on that a little later on. Sure enough, there's a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 to do the calculations, and half a terabyte (on the international model) feels like ample storage.

Here's a quick rundown of the key specs, before we proceed.

Honor Magic V3 specs at a glance:

• Body: 156.6x74.0x9.2mm (folded), 156.6x145.3x4.4mm (unfolded), 226g; IPX8 water resistant (up to 2.5m for 30 min), Stylus support.
• Display: Main: 7.92" Foldable LTPO AMOLED, 1B colors, Dolby Vision, 120Hz, 1800 nits (peak), 2156x2344px resolution, 9.78:9 aspect ratio, 402ppi; Cover: 6.43" OLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, Dolby Vision, 5000 nits (peak), 1060x2376px, 402 ppi, nanocrystal glass 2.0.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8650-AB Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4 nm): Octa-core (1x3.3 GHz Cortex-X4 & 3x3.2 GHz Cortex-A720 & 2x3.0 GHz Cortex-A720 & 2x2.3 GHz Cortex-A520); Adreno 750.
• Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 16GB RAM, 1TB 16GB RAM.
• OS/Software: Android 14, MagicOS 8.0.1.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.6, 1/1.56", PDAF, OIS; Telephoto: 50 MP, f/3.0, 1/2.51", PDAF, OIS, 3.5x optical zoom; Ultra wide angle: 40 MP, f/2.2, 112˚, AF.
• Cover/Internal camera: 20 MP, f/2.2, 90˚.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30/60fps (10-bit), 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS, OIS; Cover/Internal camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS.
• Battery: 5150mAh; 66W wired, 50W wireless, 5W reverse wired.
• Connectivity: 5G; eSIM; Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 7; BT 5.3, aptX HD, LDAC; NFC; Infrared port.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); stereo speakers.

Honor Magic V3 unboxing

The Magic V3 ships in a proper full-size black box with a complete set of accessories - a premium product with a fitting treatment.

Especially nice is the included protective solution - the soft-feeling faux leather snap-on back cover can turn into a stand thanks to the swing-out octagonal camera ring. There's also a frame-like piece to attach to the cover portion, with adhesive strips to ensure it stays into place.

Also bundled is a power adapter rated for 66W, as well as a USB-A-to-C cable to complete the link.