Honor Magic Vs release date, price, specs and features

The Honor Magic Vs is the successor to the Honor Magic V foldable phone, and it looks set to give the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 a real run for its money.

The phone has been unveiled for China, so we know all of the specs and features on offer, and the company has confirmed it will be sold more widely from early 2023.

So below, you’ll find everything you need to know about the Honor Magic Vs, including its design, display, power, cameras, and details on when it might release globally.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The latest foldable phone from Honor
• When is it out? November 30 in China, then going global in Q1 2023
• How much will it cost? CNY 7,499 (around $1,050 / £880 / AU$1,580)

Honor Magic Vs release date and price

The Honor Magic Vs was unveiled in China on November 23, and is available to pre-order there now, with the phone shipping on November 30.

That launch is just for China, but speaking to Tech Advisor (opens in new tab), an Honor spokesperson confirmed that the Magic Vs would launch globally in Q1 2023 – so sometime between the start of January and the end of March.

That said, while the company has also previously said this phone will land in Europe, they didn’t say exactly which European countries it would be available in – nor whether it would be sold in the US or Australia. Though a US launch is unlikely.

The Honor Magic Vs starts at CNY 7,499, which converts to around $1,050 / £880 / AU$1,580. That said, we wouldn’t expect exact price conversions in other regions.

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).

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 we’ve seen in any 2022 Android phone so far.

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 phone 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