Review verdict: The HONOR Magic V3 is the perfect argument for foldable phones in the Philippines. When folded, it has the overall thickness of a regular phone and doesn’t suffer from the usual durability problems like the other foldables in its class. It’s the only foldable I’d use as a daily driver without a case, which speaks volumes about how tough HONOR’s latest foldable is. 

Pros

• The thinnest foldable around
• Relatively more durable than the competition
• Good cameras for a foldable
• Fast performance

Cons

• Software still needs work
• Flimsy case

Buying a foldable phone is almost always a trade-off. You usually forego IP protection and durability for a phone that can give you more screen real estate versus its relative size. That’s not the case for the HONOR Magic V3. The phone’s overall thickness and ergonomics are as close to a regular, non-folding phone for all intents and purposes, and it’s hands-down one of the best foldables you can buy right now.

HONOR Magic V3 Philippines review: design

One of the reasons why the HONOR Magic V3 is such a pleasure to use as a daily driver is the fact that it’s no thicker than a regular, non-folding flagship when it’s folded. Putting the HONOR Magic V3 beside the company’s Magic6 Pro for example, and you’ll see that the Magic V3 is just thicker by .3mm.

Having a foldable have the same thickness and ergonomics as a regular phone is a game-changer, because that’s usually the main pain point for people who’ve tried one, especially when you’re talking about a book-type foldable. HONOR managed to reduce the size of the two halves of the phone down to just 4.4mm, which is just barely thicker than the space needed by the Type-C plug at the bottom.

Another thing that I like about this phone is that it’s more durable than your regular foldable, with HONOR promising impact resistance that’s 40 times better than the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which is, if you haven’t noticed, not a foldable. This is important because foldables are notoriously fragile, and I’ve knocked a display ribbon loose on one myself by dropping one less than a foot to the floor while I was lying down on a sofa. I’ve had the same thing happen to the HONOR Magic V3 (blame it on the old) and the phone came out of the experience perfectly fine.

Probably the only thing that’s a mixed bag for me when it comes to the design of the phone is the giant camera module. It’s similar to the design and style that’s on the Magic6 Pro. It takes getting used to and is an acquired taste.

Like most foldable, the Magic V3 holds an IP rating, but you’re only looking at IPX8 – the phone is water resistant but it doesn’t have dust resistance.

HONOR Magic V3 Philippines review: display

The outer display on the HONOR Magic V3 is a 6.43-inch LTPO OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision, and a peak brightness of 500 nits. Because of the size of the external screen and the excellent ergonomics of the phone, the cover display served mostly as the primary display of the Magic V3 during its time with me.

The internal folding screen uses a flexible, LTPO OLED panel that’s 7.92 inches big when fully opened, with a resolution of 2156 x 2344 pixels. Like the inside display, there’s HDR10+, Dolby Vision as well a 120Hz refresh rate though it’s a little brighter, capable of achieving 1800 nits at its peak brightness. Yes, there’s still a small crease but it’s not really that noticeable when you’re watching or using the display.

One part that makes or breaks a foldable is the hinge, and here the Magic V3 excels. The hinge that holds the inner display together is called the Super Steel Hinge and is rated at half a million folding cycles. Despite being incredibly tough, it’s also the smallest in the industry according to HONOR, coming in at just 2.84mm.

The cover screen gets an Anti-scratch NanoCrystal shield for protection against scratches, while the foldable panel gets a “Super Armored Inner Screen”. HONOR claims that there’s a silicone gel substance in the folding panel layers that supposedly solidifies milliseconds after impact, which makes the phone more impact-resistant than comparable foldable.

HONOR Magic V3 Philippines review: Camera

The cameras on HONOR’s newest foldable get quite an upgrade from last year. The main camera is a 50-megapixel Sony IMX 906 that has a f/1.6 aperture compared to last year’s f/1.9, which should result in brighter photos even in low light.

The 3.5x optical zoom periscope lens has also been upgraded to a 50-megapixel unit, and there’s a 40-megapixel wide-angle camera here as well.

Image quality from the cameras is very good, able to take extremely detailed shots even in low light. The details in the shot are retained, and there’s no excessive over-sharpening observed. White balance is spot on, and so is dynamic range.

Like most phones out there today, the Magic V3’s zoom camera can be used to take extreme close-up shots. 50-megapixel means you’re getting quite a lot of detail from these close-up snaps.

HONOR Magic V3 Philippines review: performance, software, battery life

The HONOR Magic V3 comes armed with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, and like most phones nowadays comes in a variety of RAM and storage configurations. Our review unit came with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

When it comes to performance, it’s no surprise that the HONOR Magic V3’s performance score is roughly the same as what you’d expect from a flagship released in 2024. And because it’s a book-type foldable, all that power comes in handy when gaming as you’ll be able to enjoy Android games with a massive screen. Pair that with a good controller, and you get a super-sized Android gaming machine that you can stuff down your pants.

Probably the biggest weak point of the HONOR Magic V3 is its software. It’s running MagicOS 8, which looks and feels quite a bit like Huawei’s EMUI/HarmonyOS. HONOR still hasn’t drastically changed the look of their UI (or actually made any noticeable changes, even the font is the same) which means they haven’t completely shed their association with Huawei, at least in our eyes.

That might be good or bad depending on who you ask, but in its defense, there are still a lot of great features in MagicOS 8, specifically, AI features that are not just generative AI.

You get the usual image-enhancement AI features, as well as the ability to remove unwanted people in shots, but the feature I’d probably use most is the real-time translation feature. You can essentially use the phone to do real-time translation for native Chinese, French, German, and English speakers, removing the need for translators when you’re traveling to countries that speak these languages.

The HONOR Magic V3 has a 5150mAh battery that’s split between the two halves of the phone. The phone also has 66W fast wired charging and 50W fast wireless charging. The charging speeds aren’t as fast as we’re used to, but that’s probably more for safety as the batteries are thinner and there’s less internal space in the phone to dissipate the heat generated by higher fast charging speeds.

As far as battery goes, you’re looking at around 8-9 hours of endurance with moderate use. It’s a little lower than we’d like but it’s still within the usual 1 day battery life that we expect from a foldable like this.

HONOR Magic V3 Philippines review: wrap-up

The HONOR Magic V3 is as close to perfect as a foldable can be in 2024. It works fine as a regular phone when folded up thanks to its insane thinness, you don’t have to baby it when you’re using it because it’s so tough, and it has an IP rating so you won’t have to worry about it getting ruined if it gets a little wet.

The only thing we don’t like is the fact that it’s more expensive than last year’s version, with a retail price of Php 89,999. At that price, the phone is already approaching the premium pricing that rival Samsung has for their own foldable. But if you’re willing to cough up that cash, you can be sure that you’re getting the best foldable currently on the market.

HONOR Magic V3 Price Philippines:

The HONOR Magic V3 is priced at Php 89,999 for the 12GB RAM/512GB storage variant in the Philippines and will be available in both black and green. Pre-orders start Nov 30, with pre-order customers getting a free HONOR Pad X9 worth Php 9,999.