Honor Magic V3: The strengths make up for the weaknesses

For all those who see a point in folding a regular smartphone to twice its size: The Honor Magic V3 is currently the thinnest foldable. You don't have to do without anything and still don't have to carry a bulky device in your pocket. However, the device is extremely expensive at almost 2000 euros or francs at launch.

Design and displays: The thinnest foldable in the world

The foldable Honor Magic V3 is just 9.2 millimetres thin - when closed. The screen then measures 6.4 inches. When opened, it is still 4.4 millimetres thin and has a 7.9-inch display.

While I was using a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 with its 12.1 millimetre thickness when closed, it feels like I'm holding two smartphones in my hand, I carry the Magic V3 around almost as little as my regular smartphone, a Google Pixel 8.

I like the matt green back of the Foldable and the gently rounded edges are pleasant to the touch. However, the material is quite slippery. The camera module is huge, bulky and makes the phone a little thicker. On the other hand, the module is positioned in the centre and the smartphone does not wobble on the table, at least when closed. It was a different story with the predecessor: It had a square module on the side of the back.

I look at an OLED display with rich colours and good contrasts on the outside and inside. The resolution is 2376 × 1060 pixels on the outer display and 2344 × 2156 pixels on the inner display. This is unchanged compared to the previous model. When opened, I hardly notice the fold. It doesn't bother me while I'm using the smartphone and is also barely visible. The home button is positioned directly in the fold, but I can use it without any problems.

I find it practical that the volume control is at the top when the phone is closed and the power button is at the bottom. When I open the phone, one button is on the left and the other on the right. So I can easily take a screenshot with physical buttons. To do this, I have to press both buttons at the same time. With the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold or the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, I always have to turn the phone to press them simultaneously.

Hardware: Qualcomm chip and solid battery

Honour has used the latest technology for the hardware and has installed a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of internal storage are also included.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 has the same chip, just with a slightly higher clock rate. I can also see this in my measurement with Geekbench 6. In practice, the lag in the Magic V3 shows no disadvantages. However, the Magic V3 shows a weaker result in single-core mode than the Magic V2 with the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. That shouldn't really be the case. However, I have not yet found an explanation. After all, the Magic V3 is better at multitasking.

At 5150 mAh, the battery has a slightly larger capacity than the previous model with 5000 mAh. It easily lasts over a day. My test with PCMark simulates average use with scrolling, video editing and web surfing. The device achieves a battery life of 13 hours and just under 40 minutes. In power-saving mode, the device adds another two hours. Then you are in dark mode and without Always On Display. The activities of apps in the background are also limited in this scenario.

The Honor Magic V3 can be charged with the supplied power adapter with up to 66 watts in just over an hour. Wireless charging goes up to 50 watts.

Honor has IPX8 certification for the Magic V3. Although it is not certified to be protected against dust, it can withstand a dive in fresh water up to 2.5 metres for 30 minutes.

Cameras: detailed images with natural colours

The shape of the camera module has changed significantly. You get slightly more megapixels. Here are the specifications:

• Main camera: 50 MP, f/1.6
• Tele: 50 MP, f/3.0, 2.5× optical zoom
• Ultra wide angle: 40 MP, f/2.2
• Front cameras outside and inside: 20 MP, f/2.2

The cameras deliver images very much to my taste. They have a natural, not overly bright colour reproduction. They could be a little less sharpened, but details of a mountain landscape, for example, come out extremely well.

If I want to use the main camera instead of the front camera for group photos and selfies, that's no problem. With a button in the camera app, it shows me a preview on the outside display when opened.

I like the selfies with both the main and front cameras.

Up to 2x optical zoom, the quality is perfectly fine. At 3x, now digital, zoom, the quality is still okay. From ten times, the structures of the objects start to flatten out considerably. However, I only notice this when I enlarge the image on the screen. I no longer recommend the 50x zoom. A 100x magnification is theoretically possible, but practically unusable.

At night, I find the camera surprisingly good at first glance, but when zooming in I see weaknesses. The windows of houses are blurred and look distorted. The level of detail decreases significantly. Dark interiors with exciting incidences of light, on the other hand, produce beautiful results.

In the camera app, there are special functions such as a 360-degree panorama or light painting. For me, these are gimmicks. However, I find the panorama function on the Honor Magic V3 extremely impressive. The resolution on the computer too. For reasons of space, I'm only showing you a third of the complete shot here.

With light painting, you can create a painterly effect thanks to longer exposure times. For example, you can use light to draw a picture in the air. Or you can show the flow of a water movement.

I find the results rather mediocre. Despite the tripod, some of the pictures look very blurred and often artificial. In the case of the waterfall, I found the gentle blurring suitable and the image itself quite okay. I was less satisfied with a shot of a busy traffic artery.

Software still has room for improvement

Honor uses Android 14 with the in-house user interface "Magic OS 8" for the foldable. What works very well is the display of an app when switching from the inside to the outside display when I close the smartphone. Then, for example, the font sizes and images adapt to the display format. Of course, it works the other way round too.

Honor has also adapted some apps to the folding function. If I open the camera app, for example, I can either use the entire screen when fully unfolded or I can unfold the Magic V3 halfway. I then see a preview of the photos I have taken on the left-hand side for scrolling and the camera on the right-hand side.

Third-party apps also have such customised designs. Unfortunately, YouTube is not one of them, as is the case with Samsung. On Instagram, for example, the menu bar is positioned vertically on the left.

Not all apps can be arbitrarily rotated 90 degrees when the smartphone is open. For example, I only game in landscape mode, while the benchmarks are only displayed in portrait mode.

Videos and games: Performance and graphics are right

For gaming, the Honor Magic V3 is also light and easy to hold. For the performance check, I use the 3D Mark programme and a performance-hungry stress test. This shows me how well the smartphone performs in a 20-minute session of a graphics-heavy game.

The performance remains extremely constant even under prolonged load. In practice, I game "Genshin Impact". The graphics-heavy game can be played smoothly on the large screen, even in high resolution.

The Honor Magic V3 is also ideal for watching videos. Thanks to the folding mechanism, there is a decisive advantage over regular smartphones: I can set up the Honor Magic V3 to watch a video hands-free. The OLED display delivers a high-contrast, rich picture with dark blacks. The sound is very pleasant for a smartphone.

AI functions: Google brought on board

Honour has not had much to offer when it comes to artificial intelligence. The Chinese company now has a range of different functions, some of which it has brought to the devices in collaboration with Google. This includes, for example, the "Magic Eraser" for photo editing.

The AI suggestions are already well known. You can find them in a folder on the start page. There, the smartphone suggests four apps based on your usage behaviour. In other words, apps that you use every day or always at certain times of the day.

Practical for the form factor of the Honor Magic V3 are the face-to-face translations. Your spoken text is displayed on one side of the screen and the other person immediately sees the translation in the desired language on the other side. So you can have a dialogue together and have an interpreter between you.

A similar function is also available on Samsung devices. During my brief test, I haven't noticed any problems or incorrect translations so far.

The notes app from Honor can convert handwritten notes into printed text. A bit of a joke for me, as the only compatible stylus for the Magic V3 is not available in this country. If necessary, I can also write something with my finger and the smartphone converts the words correctly.