Honor Magic V3 review

Magic OS 8.0.1 over Android 14, some AI bits included

The Magic V3 runs Android 14 with a custom layer of Magic OS 8.0.1 on top. The Magic6 Pro had a similar software combo, and the V3 looks and behaves just like that. Before you open it up to enjoy its foldable display, that is.

The visuals are sleek and rounded, animations are nice and well timed, operation is smooth - no complaints. The iOS-like pill-shaped Magic Capsule notification is present here as well, even if the selfie cameras aren't really pill-shaped - it is useful for stuff like timers, and background music and video playback. Neat little things that you can't get everywhere include large folders and cards - another name for the widgets that you can add for in-house apps, indicated by a bar under the app icon.

Magic OS

We'd like to point out that one of our long-standing gripes with Magic OS has been addressed and now, long-pressing on an app icon does give you the 'App Info' button, so you don't have to fumble through the settings menu to get there.

More Magic OS

Sure enough, there are some AI-based features, like the Magic Portal functionality - long-press on, say, an image, and a bar appears on the side with pre-selected apps and actions allowing you to search, email, and put down a note about the highlighted item. For instance, you could search online for any item you see pictured on a shopping site like eBay.

The front-facing camera can also be used for air gestures - a familiar capability also found on the previous model.

Magic Portal • Magic Portal • Air gestures

A new addition on the V3 that's been enabled by a contribution with Google is the face-to-face translation feature. There are 10 languages to translate between, and the best bit is that you can use both displays - that way the other party gets their own display. It works best with the phone placed on a table, hinge folded mid-way, cover screen facing away at the other person. The operation is done on the Google Cloud, but it's stripped of personally identifieable info, they say.

Face to face translate

Naturally, the big screen offers a lot more estate for work and play. Magic OS has a great multi-window implementation with intuitive actions and both horizontal and vertical splits with a relatively wide ratio adjustment range (not just 50/50), plus floating windows.

Big screen interfaces

Benchmarks

The Magic V3 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 - no surprises there. A single memory configuration is available on the global variant - 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage - while the Chinese model gets 12GB/256GB, 16GB/512GB, and 16GB/1TB options.

The high-end Qualcomm chip for 2024 is a familiar performer and it performs as expected on the Magic V3. There are subtle differences between the current crop of foldables using it, and the Magic had a slight edge in 3DMark, it does pretty well in GeekBench, and it is more like so-so in Antutu.

We've discontinued GFXBench graphics benchmarking as the app is often banned/blacklisted on the phones we receive for review. The graphics performance ranking in 3D Mark is just as meaningful, so we suggest you refer to that one instead.

Performance stability under sustained load showed an improvement over the Magic V2, another welcome finding in light of the further reduced thickness. The performance graph in the CPU Throttling test is more uniform now and generally better than the Galaxy Z Fold6, though not as good as the X Fold3 Pro. The 3DMark Wild Life stress test result - in the mid 50s - is about as normal as they come on flagships.

CPU Throttling test • 3DMark Wild Life stress test