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The HONOR Magic Vs takes a different approach with its ‘Super-light Gearless Hinge’.
HONOR announced not one, but two flagship smartphones during Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023. The company announced the HONOR Magic5 Pro, and Magic Vs, both of which are on the receiving end of our ‘Best of MWC 2023’ awards. The Magic5 Pro is a regular, candybar-style flagship, while the Magic Vs is the company’s very first globally-available foldable smartphone. That is actually the device we’re here to talk about.
The HONOR Magic Vs is a book-style foldable, much like the Galaxy Z Fold 4. This handset does differ from Samsung’s offering in a number of ways, and that goes for both the hardware and the software. HONOR made some interesting choices here, and based on the hardware itself, it’s obvious this is not the company’s first rodeo.
‘Super-light Gearless Hinge’ & considerable durability
The main way the HONOR Magic Vs differentiates from basically all other foldables is its hinge. HONOR made a “Super-light Gearless Hinge’ for this phone. Now, to give you a full picture as to how this hinge is entirely different. The hinge inside the HONOR Magic V included 92 structural components, this one has 4. Yes, you read it right, HONOR removed 88 structural components. That removes a lot of things that could go wrong, and quite frankly makes it easier to repair.
HONOR says that the hinge can withstand up to 400,000 folds, and that is based on a test by TÜV Rheinland. In other words, if you were to fold this phone 100 times per day, the hinge could last over 10 years. That is plenty, needless to say. On top of that, the phone folds flat because of this hinge, unlike the Galaxy Z Fold 4. The HONOR Magic Vs is also considerably thinner than its main competitor.
A huge canvas & fast charging
The HONOR Magic Vs includes two large displays. Its main panel is a 7.9-inch unit that offers a 2272 x 1984 resolution. This is an OLED panel with a 90Hz refresh rate, which gets up to 800 nits of brightness at its peak. The other display, the outer one, measures 6.45 inches, and has a resolution of 2560 x 1080. This is also an OLED display, but it offers a 120Hz refresh rate, and it’s curved on the right side. This panel gets up to 1,200 nits of peak brightness.
The outer display on this phone has a wider aspect ratio than the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which makes it feel more natural to use, if you’re used to regular phones. It’s easier to type as well, as it’s not as narrow. It is still quite tall, though, so keep that in mind. HONOR also included 66W fast wired charging here, a snappy side-facing fingerprint scanner, stereo speakers, and the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC. To top it all off, the phone offers 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, while it comes in two colors, Black and Cyan.