Hands on with Honor's new Magic VS foldable, its first releasing outside China - The Verge

The Honor Magic VS is simply a caller foldable smartphone from the erstwhile Huawei subbrand that’s actually planned for merchandise extracurricular China. It uses a akin plan to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold devices, pairing a ample 7.9-inch interior folding show with a smaller 6.45-inch screen show for usage portion the instrumentality is folded shut.

“The Honor Magic VS volition beryllium our precise archetypal foldable flagship to debut successful overseas markets and we are assured that it volition present immense advancements, transforming however radical each astir the satellite usage their smartphones,” said Honor CEO George Zhao. International pricing and elaborate merchandise accusation is yet to beryllium announced, but successful China the instrumentality volition commencement astatine ¥7,499 (around $1,048) for the lowest specced exemplary with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of interior storage, and volition vessel connected November 30th. Honor says to expect a planetary merchandise aboriginal adjacent year.

I had a accidental to usage the Magic VS up of its authoritative merchandise to get a consciousness for the hardware. Since the telephone isn’t moving last software, Honor requested that I not trial immoderate bundle features including its multi-window modes, app extender, oregon camera. An ongoing occupation with caller foldables is that Android tablet app enactment remains weak, and astatine this constituent it’s unclear whether Honor’s archetypal planetary foldable is going to beryllium capable to hole that.

What I am capable to speech astir is however the Magic VS feels to clasp successful the hand, and however its foldable surface and hinge perform. Honor is claiming that its folding mechanics is much sturdy this clip astir and is rated to withstand 400,000 folds, treble that of the archetypal Magic V. That results successful a lifespan of up to 10 years if you unfold and fold it 10 times a day.

Granted, I’ve lone managed to fold and unfold the telephone a fewer twelve times successful my constricted clip with the device, but truthful acold the mechanics feels arsenic sturdy arsenic immoderate different foldable I’ve used. There’s nary creaking oregon crunching dependable arsenic I unfastened and fold it, and erstwhile unfolded it feels plentifulness rigid. Honor is claiming that the show is “creaseless” erstwhile unfolded, which is simply not existent arsenic you tin spot from the photograph above, but similar different foldables I expect that you wouldn’t announcement it overmuch successful mean use.

The VS’s surface sizes are unchanged compared to its predecessor. Its interior show is 7.9-inches with a 90Hz refresh rate, a solution of 2272 x 1984 and a highest brightness of 800 nits, portion the outer show is 6.45 inches with a higher 120Hz refresh rate, a solution of 2560 x 1080, and a highest brightness of 1200 nits. It has, however, received a flimsy spec bump to Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor, portion its predecessor utilized the non-Plus version.

Folded, the Honor Magic VS feels similar a somewhat heavy, somewhat thick, and somewhat agelong smartphone owed to its 21:9 screen display. The telephone is 261g successful value and 12.9mm heavy erstwhile folded, which is simply a heavier and thicker than my idiosyncratic 206g, 7.85mm heavy iPhone 14 Pro. But that’s a little than Samsung’s Z Fold 4, which is 263g successful value and 15.8mm astatine its thickest constituent erstwhile folded. Although the outer surface is simply a small narrow, it felt usable capable successful my clip with the phone.

Unfolded, the telephone feels similar a comparatively tiny tablet, with an almost-square facet ratio. The usefulness of this surface real-estate is going to yet travel down to bundle support, but that’s inactive a precise unfastened question astatine this point. Both displays are OLEDs and look suitably contrast-rich and colorful arsenic a result.

The large caller summation with the Honor VS compared to the Magic V the institution launched astatine the commencement of the year is stylus support, akin to what we’ve seen with Samsung’s S Pen stylus connected its caller Galaxy Z Fold devices. I was not capable to effort retired the phone’s stylus enactment successful my clip with the device.

In modular flagship fashion, the telephone offers 3 rear cameras; a 54-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultrawide (which besides doubles arsenic a macro camera), and an 8-megapixel telephoto with a 3x optical zoom. For selfies, the foldable has a 16-megapixel sensor. The camera show of Honor’s caller smartphones similar the Magic4 Pro hasn’t peculiarly impressed me, but I was incapable to trial retired the camera connected the Magic VS.

Powering the Magic VS is simply a 5,000mAh artillery (a flimsy betterment connected the 4,750mAh artillery recovered successful the Honor Magic V), which tin beryllium charged astatine the aforesaid 66W accelerated charging speed. That’s almighty capable to afloat complaint the telephone successful 46 minutes, Honor says. Available colors see orange, black, and a blue-hued cyan, which is the exemplary photographed connected this page.

Although Samsung is present selling its 4th procreation of foldable devices, it has faced comparatively small contention successful planetary markets. Other companies similar Xiaomi and Oppo person much oregon little constricted their foldable devices to the Chinese market, portion ongoing sanctions mean that Huawei’s internationally-released foldables haven’t been capable to vessel with Google’s all-important apps and services. Although the Honor Magic VS is improbable to vessel successful the US, Europeans mightiness yet spot immoderate contention successful the foldable market.

Photography by Jon Porter / The Verge

Update November 23rd, 7:50AM ET: Updated with hands connected impressions of the phone’s hardware.