Honor Unveils its First Foldable Smartphone

Former Huawei sub-brand Honor has just announced its first foldable smartphone, the Magic V. It uses a similar folding form factor to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold devices, combining a large internal folding display with a smaller external display that can be used while the device is folded.

Honor Magic V Chinese launch is today, and its price starts at ¥9,999 (around $1,569) for its 256GB storage model. It will go on open sale on January 18th. The Magic V’s flagship feature, its internal folding screen, measures 7.9 inches from corner to corner, has a resolution of 2272 x 1984 with a refresh rate of 90Hz, and an aspect ratio of 10:9.

This device is bigger than Samsung’s Z Fold 3, whose internal screen is 7.6 inches and resolution of 2208 x 1768. Honor says the Magic V’s internal screen is like using two 21:9 screens side by side. The Magic V’s external screen is slightly larger than the Z Fold 3 at 6.45 inches (compared to 6.2 for Samsung), with a resolution of 2560 x 1080, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 21:9 aspect ratio. Honor says this will help make the device more usable when you don’t want to unfold it.

Honor Magic V is running Qualcomm’s latest chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, paired with 12GB of RAM and 256GB or 512GB of storage. The device has a 4,750mAh battery that can be charged at up to 66W, which gives you a 50 percent charge in 15 minutes.