Honor Magic V3 review

Competition

A brand new entry into the global foldables race, the Magic V3 competes with other fresh bendy tablets, some older ones, and then some large flat-screened handsets that it rivals in one way or another.

We've come to accept the Galaxy Z Folds as the de facto standard in the large foldables space. The Fold6 is barely a month old, yet it doesn't really have a ton of obvious advantages over the Magic V3, unless you count the Samsung badge or go into some specifics. Sure, it's got nicer speakers and slightly better battery life, plus you can have an S Pen case for it. Maybe you have a use case for its DeX capability and you can also reason your way into thinking 7 years of updates is a real advantage.

But the Magic has a nicer build and in-hand feel, it's probably more durable, and it's definitely more compact. The Honor is as at least as good a cameraphone too, some hiccups aside (small and likely temporary ones). With meaningfully faster charging, the battery life disadvantage isn't as bad, and it's not unlikely that the Honors displays are better. We're heavily leaning towards the Magic here.

The other major international name is the vivo X Fold3 Pro - if international means you can find it outside of China, though not necessarily everywhere that the Honor will be sold. The vivo's somewhat limited availability is good news for the Magic too, because the X Fold3 Pro has some strong advantages - it's a better cameraphone, and it has significantly better endurance, plus we do have a soft spot for its two under-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensors.

A more widely available option is the OnePlus Open, though this one is now in the aging category. That could be an advantage as it may save you some cash, but it's running on last year's Snapdragon, and that is bad for... bragging rights. The Open's other flaw is the lack of wireless charging, and it's also nowhere as water-resistant as the Magic.

Honor is happy to have made a large foldable that feels like a regular phone when it's in phone mode, but Honor also makes regular phones without a tablet inside. The Magic6 Pro's biggest virtue is its telephoto camera, though it's also a more competent cameraphone overall. Well, that, and the fact that you could get a couple of Magic6 Pros for the price of a Magic V3.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 • vivo X Fold3 Pro • OnePlus Open • Honor Magic6 Pro

Verdict

The Magic V3 is easy to like, particularly for those who have been continually annoyed by the Samsung Z Folds' brick-like form factor (thick and narrow). Indeed, one of the Magic's major selling points is that you can forget it's a foldable and treat it like a regular bar phone, but still have the convenience of the large screen always in your pocket.

The Magic has a class-leading cover display to help make the above case. The internal one, while not the brightest, has little to be ashamed of either. It doesn't hurt that Honor has gone to great lengths to ensure that everything is well protected, too.

What we can think of as a weak point is the battery life when using the internal display, though if you spend most of your time on the cover, the V3 is as good as the rest, making it somewhat of a moot weak point.

The missteps in the camera department that we observed are the other thing that's giving us pause but they may be somewhat little niche and/or a firmware away from a fix.

With all things considered, the Magic V3 is a great all-around option if you're out there looking for a tablet that fits in phone-sized pockets.

Pros

• Thinnest phone-turns-tablet handset, in either state.
• Brightest cover display on a large foldable.
• IPX8 rating goes all the way to 2.5m, impressive durability in our own (admittedly not very comparative) testing.

Cons

• Battery life on the foldable display is behind the competition.
• Camera peculiarities - telephoto stills not always sharp, subpar ultrawide videos, iffy backlit portraits.