Honor Magic V

     So the year 2022 seems to be pretty exciting because not only Honor is back again but they actually got a new foldable smartphone! BUT is it better than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3? Let's first start with the build quality, during my first impression when I hold the phone. It felt really nice in the hands. Now, the weight of the phone is very close to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 because it has a symmetrical design with no gap. When it is closed and the multi curves cover screen making it feel better in the hands. Now, this is because Honor uses an advanced water drop hinge technology compared to a traditional ball and bat hinge.

 This Honor Magic V is crafted with Zirconium Liquid Metal which has high strength carbon fibers and titanium alloy where the unofficial word confirms up to 200,000 folds. This was nice to know so if you are looking at closing and opening the phone about 100 times a day it could probably last about 5 years or so However, this could probably be because this is still a production unit because while I did find that while closing it felt really nice and satisfying but when I opened the phone, It felt not so seamless like how it felt on other foldable smartphones like the Z Fold 3 And also worth mentioning is the fact that the Honor Magic V is not IP rated as well.   This cool eco leather-looking finish at the back also made it feel very premium compared to any other foldable as well And speaking of finishes, the one which I got my hands on is called the Burnt Orange and it is also available in black. Then the camera arrays are towards the left, with a medium-sized camera bump where this camera bump has a 3D Dual curved lens glass protector that actually reduces the size of the camera bump making it very nice and flat as well Next, looking at the ports and buttons, when folded looking below there is the USB-C port and one of the dual stereo speakers over there. Then on the right, there is the volume rocker and the side-mounted fingerprint sensor, and the power button of course. Then looking on top, there is the IR blaster, very interesting on a foldable smartphone and the other stereo speaker, then you will find the dual SIM card slot with no micro SD card slot expansion.

    Next, looking at the displays on the Honor Magic V when folded, it has a 6.45-inch OLED display which is larger than the Z Fold 3, since it is at only 6.2 inches with a resolution of 2560 x 1080 but what's interesting is that this cover screen has a refresh rate up to 120Hz but the unfolded screen has up to 90Hz instead Speaking of unfolded, the screen size is once again bigger at 7.9-inches which uses an OLED display with a resolution of 1984 x 2272 pixels once again, bigger compared to the 7.6-inches on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 Now, screen refresh rate aside, when it comes to playing videos on the phone, it looked great when unfolded And while there are a lot of people talking about the creases in the middle which I don't understand why is it such an issue it's like complaining if you take out the cash from your pocket and then... you fold it... ...and then there's a crease So what? Because I have actually already subconsciously ignored the existence of the crease just like how camera notches "took over" our lives Speaking of the crease, if you really insist, it is not as visible as the Z Fold 3 So that is great, but yes, you will still find the crease Based on my first impressions using the phone unfolded over here there is a difference in experience because I'm very used to a higher refresh rate especially when it comes to using another foldable like the Samsung Z Fold 3 or even a tablet as well. 

    There are also some nice multitasking features to take advantage of the nice and big screen where it allows up to 4 screens which is surely a huge plus and apparently. There is a very unique anti-fingerprint coating technology over here that is not only great to make the phone screen unfolded very durable but it is also anti-dust and anti-oil as well As for the camera department, Honor decided to go ALL OUT. When it comes to the specs where not only does it has one but three 50-megapixel sensors where other than the main and the ultrawide cameras, there is also a unique Spectrum Enhanced Camera Very interesting which apparently uses to capture more details in a more complex environment. Then there are two selfie cameras, like how other foldable are as well which is a massive 42-megapixel lens on the cover screen and another 42-megapixel camera inside of the unfolded screen Based on my quick test images, it did turn out very nice but keep in mind that since, this is an unofficial unit so the results will be better like how Honor smartphones usually are Next, looking at the specs of the phone, the Honor Magic V comes with the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 4nm chipset. 

Which has 5G support and of course WiFi 6 as well So yes, this means that the Honor Magic V is the very first foldable smartphone that has this new chipset. Then when it comes to the GPU, it comes with the Adreno 730 GPU where it comes with either 256 or 512 gigabytes of storage and both variants have 12 gigabytes of RAM Then as for the battery, similar to other foldable, where the battery is divided into two parts that total up to 4750 mAh of battery, which is also bigger than the Z Fold 3's 4400 mAh and the phone also supports a massive 66W Super Fast Charge, also better than the Z Fold 3. Then when it comes to the software, the phone comes with Honor's Magic UI which I've always liked and appreciated more than Xiaomi's MIUI Now, since this is a unit from China, there is no Google as there is no official word on whether or not it will be released or IF and When it will be released globally where if it does come out globally, I am pretty sure they will have Google Play Services since they are back on having Google on their smartphones.

Honor Magic V - phone specifications

• 6.45in 21.3:9 curved OLED cover display.
• 7.9in "creaseless" folding main OLED display.
• IMAX Enhanced certified.
• Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset.
• 12GB RAM.
• 256GB or 512GB storage.
• Rear cameras: 
• 42Mp f/2.4 front-facing hole-punch camera (both internal and external displays)