Now, it’s the turn of Chinese brand Honor, with its debut foldable – the Honor Magic V, which also happens to be the first in the category to sport the latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, as well.
When will the Honor Magic V be released worldwide?
Honor launched the Honor Magic V in China on 10 January, where it officially went on sale on 18 January. This was a China-specific launch, and so far Honor hasn’t said whether or not the phone will be given a global release. Not every Honor phone leaves China, and even bigger brands like Oppo and Xiaomi are currently keeping their foldables regional exclusives. The company is holding a launch event at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Spain on 28 February, but this is now confirmed to be for the new Magic 4 flagship series. That means we’re not sure where it leaves hopes for a global launch of the Magic V – not to mention the Honor Magic 3, which is also awaiting an international launch.
How much does the Honor Magic V cost?
Based on the assumption that it would be building on the foundation of Huawei’s Mate X2 5G – which costs CNY¥17,999 – the Magic V was anticipated to fetch a pretty penny. Thankfully, the Magic V is markedly more competitive, starting at ¥9,999 (around £1,150/$1,575) for the 256GB model or ¥10,999 (around £1,275/$1,700) for the 512GB version. That’s certainly still not cheap, but few foldables are. For reference, here’s how other top foldables are priced:
Oppo Find N – From CNY¥7,699 Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 – £1,599/$1,799/€1,799 Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 – £949/$999/€1,049 Motorola Razr 5G – £1,399/€1,399/$1,399
What features does the Honor Magic V offer?
With specs like a 50Mp primary camera and 66W wired charging leaking alongside official teaser imagery from Honor itself, we already had a good (albeit incomplete) idea of what the Magic V would be bringing to the table, but now everything has been pulled into focus. One of the big moves that the Honor Magic V is making is that this is the first foldable to showcase the latest Qualcomm-made Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset: the silicon likely to power the majority of 2022’s flagship Android phones, already found on the likes of the Xiaomi 12, Realme GT 2 Pro and Motorola Edge X30. Paired with 12GB of RAM, this should immediately give it an edge over other recent foldables, like the Huawei P50 Pocket and Oppo Find N, both of which run on variants of Qualcomm’s previous Snapdragon 888 SoC, despite both only hitting the market last month (December 2021). Following in the footsteps of the Honor Magic 3 Pro+, the Magic V is also the first foldable with IMAX Enhanced certification, which according to Honor means better image quality and optimisations for enjoying native content, along with DTS’ X Ultra audio algorithm. As well as multi and floating window support on the phone’s 7.9in internal “creaseless” OLED display for multitasking, the V showcases Honor’s Magic UI 6 user experience (atop Android 12), which the company states uses AI (under what it calls “Magic Live”) to intelligently predict the user’s needs, serving up travel reminders and boarding gate updates when relevant, for example. Here’s the Honor Magic V’s full spec sheet:
6.45in 21.3:9 curved OLED cover display2560×1080 resolution120Hz431ppiHDR10+DCI-P31920Hz PWM7.9in “creaseless” folding main OLED display2272×1984 resolution90Hz381ppiHDR10+DCI-P3Stylus support1920Hz PWMIMAX Enhanced certifiedSnapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset12GB RAM256GB or 512GB storageRear cameras:50Mp f/1.9 23mm primary sensor50Mp f/2.2 13mm 122° ultrawide sensor50Mp f/2.0 20mm “Spectrum Enhanced” sensor8×8 dTOF laser focusing system42Mp f/2.4 front-facing hole-punch camera (both internal and external displays)Side-mounted fingerprint sensorAluminium alloy frameFoldable Dynamic Glass frontGlass backTitanium alloy, zirconium liquid metal and carbon fibre floating waterdrop hinge made from 213 partsAI-managed graphene cooling systemStereo speakers3 microphonesDTS: X UltraH-TEE & Q-TEE securityHonor Magic UI 6.0 (based on Android 12) w/ Honor Magic LiveBluetooth 5.2NFCDual SIM5GIR remote controlUSB-C4750mAh battery66W wired charging Honor SuperCharge (50% in 15 mins, 100% in 40 mins)Finishes: Titanium Silver, black, Burnt Orange (leather)288 grams (Titanium Silver, black), 293 grams (Burnt Orange)160.4mm x 72.7mm x 14.3mm (folded)160.4mm x 141.1mm x 6.7mm (unfolded)
While Honor made no mention of the Magic V’s availability outside of China, the company’s newfound autonomy does free it from the restrictions imposed on its former parent company Huawei, meaning Honor could bring the Magic V to markets internationally, complete with traits like 5G, Android and Google Mobile Services – some aspects of which Huawei has been unable to offer globally with its own Mate X2. For more devices that we’re looking forward to seeing, read our roundup of the best new phones coming in 2022.
