Honor is a smartphone brand that is majority-owned by a Shenzhen municipal government-controlled state-owned corporation. Huawei Technologies used to own the company. The Chinese-based company is known for releasing innovative devices and has recently tried its luck with foldables.
Honor is currently a maker of foldable phones. The Magic V, the company’s first foldable phone, was unveiled earlier today, and it takes design cues from the Galaxy Z Fold series.
According to Samsung’s success, the book-like and clamshell form factors are the only two acknowledged formulae for foldable phones today, and Honor could’ve gone either route. It chose a more ambitious book-like design for its first foldable phone, albeit it did not follow Samsung’s lead.
Further Details
The Honor Magic V looks to use a similar hinge mechanism to the Oppo Find N, which is based on a Motorola patent. When folded, this way of folding the display has the advantage of reducing the space between the device’s two folding parts. However, it trades one visible display seam for a slew of smaller creases that run the length of the foldable display.
Honor’s first foldable phone also lacks an IP classification, indicating that it is neither water nor dustproof, and it employs a 120Hz outer display and a 90Hz folding screen, rather than a 120Hz refresh rate for both screens. Moreover, there’s still no Under-Display Camera or stylus compatibility, so the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is still the only folding phone with these features.
Features Worth Mentioning
The Honor Magic V is about a year younger than the Galaxy Z Fold 3, and it might come with Qualcomm’s newest CPU, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
The camera setup on Honor’s foldable phone is much more promising. It doesn’t appear to feature Flex Mode, but the camera sensors have much greater resolutions. Three 50MP cameras and a 42MP selfie sensor are included. The Honor Magic V, on the other hand, has a few flaws with the Galaxy Z Fold 3. Neither phone, for example, offers expandable storage or a 3.5mm audio connector.
With all of this said, hardware components increase, camera specs improve, and owing to technological developments, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 will ultimately dethrone the Z Fold 3. The screen aspect ratio is one area where the Honor Magic V is fundamentally different from the Galaxy Z Fold series, and it’s arguably for the better. It is worth mentioning that the Honor device is capable of performing tasks such as removing contacts with ease.
We’ve already expressed our dissatisfaction with the Galaxy Z Fold series’ peculiar aspect ratio, which makes the cover display a little too small for our tastes. With the 3rd Fold model, Samsung hasn’t solved this problem, however, the Honor Magic V does. It has bigger screens with a squarer aspect ratio, which is something we’d want to see from Samsung’s premium foldable phone in the future.
Summing Up
The Honor Magic V is around $200 less expensive than the Galaxy Z Fold 3, but it lacks an IP certification, Ultra-Thin Glass (UTG), Under-Display camera technology, and stylus functionality. Overall, a worthy contender for Samsung.