Honor Magic V3 Review

Closed, the Magic V3 is 9.2mm thick and weighs 226 grams, lighter than a Galaxy S24 Ultra and barely thicker, and it made Samsung's 12.1mm Z Fold6 look like a previous generation the week it launched. Honor got there with a steel and titanium hinge, a 5150 mAh silicon carbon battery that is thinner than a conventional lithium cell of the same capacity, and an obsessive diet on every part. Both screens are LTPO OLED at 120Hz: 7.92 inches inside with a shallow crease you stop noticing, 6.43 inches outside at a sensible width, so it works as a normal phone shut.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 runs at full speed but warms fast in a body this thin. Battery life is a full day, not more, with 66W wired and 50W wireless charging. The camera is a proper flagship set on paper, a 50 megapixel main, a 40 megapixel ultrawide and a 50 megapixel 3.5x periscope, and in practice the main lens is very good, the periscope is reliable to 10x, and the processing over-sharpens skin the way Honor's phones tend to. It carries IPX8 water resistance and no dust rating.

The weak part is MagicOS 8 on Android 14: heavy iOS-style gestures, aggressive background limits, and a four-year update promise at launch when Samsung offered seven; the seven-year pledge Honor made in 2025 started with the Magic7 Pro, not this phone. The Magic V2 pioneered this thinness in 2023; the V3 perfected it. Launched in China on 12 July 2024 and in Europe at IFA in September at 1,999 euros for 12GB and 512GB, about $2,200 converted, with no US release.