The Honor Magic Vs is the successor to the Honor Magic V foldable phone, and it looks set to give Samsung's Galaxy Fold devices a real run for their money.
The phone is available now in China and Europe (including the UK), so we know all of the specs and features on offer. We've also spent some time with it, so you can find out what we think in our hands-on Honor Magic Vs review.
Below, you'll find everything you need to know about the Honor Magic Vs, including its price, design, display, power, cameras, and details on when it releases in your local region.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The latest foldable phone from Honor
- When was it out? November 30, 2022 in China, then global in May 2023
- How much does it cost? £1,399 / €1,599 in the UK and Europe
Honor Magic Vs release date and price
The Honor Magic Vs was unveiled in China on November 23, 2022 and started shipping on November 30.
Fast-forward to MWC 2023 in February and alongside the launch of its new flagship, the Honor Magic 5 Pro, the company also locked in European pricing for the Vs.
In China, the Honor Magic Vs starts at CNY 7,499, which converts to around $1,050 / £880 / AU$1,580. That's for a model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but there are also pricier configurations, topping out at a 12GB/512GB model for CNY 8,999 (roughly $1,260 / £1,060 / AU$1,890).
As for the phone's actual UK price, however, additional shipping and tax costs make for less appealing reading. The Magic Vs was available from May 19 and ships for £1,399 in the UK (from Honor directly). The phone is also available from Amazon, Argos and Very (in black, exclusively), as well as from Three.
It's worth bearing in mind that the base Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 costs a whopping £1,749, so £1,399 is actually a pretty competitive price for the Honor Magic Vs.
Honor Magic Vs design
The Honor Magic Vs looks a lot like the Honor Magic V or the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, with a large foldable display that opens out into a tablet-like expanse, or can be folded shut, leaving you with a more smartphone-sized device.
There’s a punch-hole camera on the foldable display, and there's a large secondary screen that you can use when the phone is folded shut, with a punch-hole camera of its own.
The Honor Magic Vs comes in Cyan, Black, and Orange shades, or at least they're the colors mentioned in global press materials - some imagery shows other shades too though.
It weighs 261g and it's 160.3mm tall, and its remaining dimensions are 141.5 x 6.1mm when unfolded, and 72.6 x 12.9mm when folded shut. That makes it both thinner and lighter than the previous model.
It should be able to hold up to a lot of use too, with Honor claiming the Magic Vs is able to withstand over 400,000 folds.
Honor Magic Vs display
The foldable screen on the Honor Magic Vs is a 7.9-inch 1984 x 2272 OLED one with 381 pixels per inch, a 90Hz refresh rate, and a brightness of up to 800 nits.
The hinge design allows the Magic Vs to fold without a gap according to Honor, and the company claims there's no crease in the center of the display - which is something that even the best foldable phones have struggled to achieve.
As for the exterior screen, that's a 6.45-inch 1080 x 2560 OLED one with 431 pixels per inch, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a brightness of up to 1,200 nits. So in many ways it's actually a better screen than the main foldable display.
Honor Magic Vs cameras and battery
There's a triple-lens camera on the back of the Honor Magic Vs, consisting of a 54MP f/1.9 main camera, a 50MP f/2.0 ultra-wide camera with a 122-degree field of view, and which can also be used for macro shots, and an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto camera, offering 3x optical zoom.
There's also a 16MP f/2.45 camera on the secondary display, though oddly Honor hasn't said anything about the selfie camera on the foldable screen.
As for the battery, that's 5,000mAh, which is bigger both than the battery in its predecessor, and the one in the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4. It can charge fast too, at up to 66W. That's apparently enough for it to charge a full 100% in just 46 minutes
Honor Magic Vs specs and features
There's plenty of power here, with the Honor Magic Vs using a high-end Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset. That's not quite as powerful as the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, but it's the best chipset seen in any 2022 Android phone.
That's paired with a choice of 8GB or 12GB of RAM, and 256GB or 512GB of storage. The Honor Magic Vs also supports 5G, and it runs MagicOS 7.0, which is Honor's custom interface laid on top of Android 12. The company has also committed to three years of OS updates and five years of security updates for its international release.
It also has dual stereo speakers, and supports the company's new Magic Pen stylus. In all then, on paper at least, this looks like it could easily be one of the best Honor phones, and could give Samsung some serious foldable competition
