HONOR Magic Vs Hands-On

We initially saw first hand, the HONOR Magic Vs in Barcelona during MWC. It is one of the highlights of the massive HONOR booth at the Fira Intenacional de Barcelona.

We managed to get a review unit this week and while we’re still running it thru its paces with our standard benchmarks and all, here’s our quick hands-on and impressions of the device so far. Our review unit is the international variant, in Cyan colorway, that runs MagicOS 7.1 on Android 13. It also has 12GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage.

The HONOR Magic Vs is currently at the top with the biggest foldable display at 7.9 inches, even beating the newly announced Huawei Mate X3 (at 7.85-inches) and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 (7.6-inches). The Cover Display is also the biggest at 6.45 inches, compared to the 6.2 inches of the Galaxy Z Fold4 and the 6.4 inches of the Mate X3.

Sometimes, it is the screen aspect ratio that really matters when you’re talking about huge displays of foldable like the Magic Vs. The device’s outer or cover screen has an aspect ratio of 21:9, commonly referred to as an ultrawide screen, and fits perfectly with cinematic movies.

This is the sweet spot for most people and that also means no black borders at the top or bottom end when you consume content, whether it’s a movie on Amazon Prime Video or a series on Netflix.

The unit features a triple-camera setup with a 54MP f/1.9 primary camera, a 50MP F2.0 ultra-wide camera and 8MP f/2.4 telephoto with OIS and 3x optical zoom. The main camera can shoot in 1:1, 4:3 and full aspect (21:9) ratios but no option for a 16:9 shot, so you’re left with a squarish photo or a slightly wider-than-usual photos.

The telephoto camera can zoom up to 3x optical, 10x hybrid zoom and goes up to 30x digital.

Check out some of the initial photos we took from the main camera:

Thankfully, with video recording, you can set it at either 16:9 or 21:9 aspect ratio and record up to 4K video at 60fps.

Running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, the Magic Vs also comes with either 8GB or 12GB RAM and 256GB or 512GB internal storage. The other variant, the HONOR Magic Vs Ultimate, is configured with 16GB and 512GB storage.

Benchmark scores also indicated good performance for the chipset and internal storage:

PCMark Work 3.0: 11,298
GeekBench 6: 1,300 (Single Core), 3,774 (Milti-Core)
Antutu Benchmark v9.5.7: 815,323
Antutu Storage: 1,668MB/s (read), 1,156MB/s (write), 224MB/s (random)

The Magic Vs’ 5,000mAh is enough for a whole day’s use based on our experience from using the cover screen half the time and the inner screen the remaining times. Our internal benchmark tests showed 13 hours and 6 minutes of screen-on-time for the cover screen and 9 hours 47 minutes for the entire screen (tested at 50% brightness, zero volume and in airplane mode).

HONOR also claims the 66W fast charger can re-charge a fully depleted Magic Vs to 100% charged in just 46 minutes, but we still have to look into this if it’s accurate.

So far, that’s all we can share about the HONOR Magic Vs, for now, since we’re still putting it to its paces. Our conversations with HONOR Philippines reps did not provide any conclusive results regarding the release date in the Philippines. The most promising outcome is that the Magic Vs will come out with Globe and Smart postpaid plans but that is still under negotiations.

HONOR Magic Vs specs:
7.9-inch (2272×1984) OLED main screen
90Hz refresh rate
6.45-inch (2560×1080) OLED cover screen
120Hz refresh rate
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset
Adreno 730 GPU
8GB, 12GB RAM
256GB, 512GB storage
16GB + 512GB (Ultimate)
Triple-rear cameras:
• 54MP F1.9 main
• 50MP F2.0 ultra-wide
• 8MP F2.4 telephoto, OIS, 3x optical
16MP F2.45 front camera
Dual-SIM
5G, 4G LTE
WiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.2
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS
IR Blaster
NFC
USB-C
Fingerprint scanner (side)
MagicOS 7.1 (Android 13)
5,000mAh battery w/ 66W fast charging
160.3 x 141.5 x 6.1 mm (Unfolded)
160.3 x 72.6 x 12.9 mm (Folded)
Cyan, Orange, Black (Standard)
Gold, Black (Ultimate Edition)