mvayaskDespite Samsung’s Galaxy Fold lineup now being in its fourth generation, it has faced relatively little competition in many parts of the world. In China, consumers have choices in tablet-style foldable devices from brands like Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo. However, elsewhere, Samsung has been the sole serious option for those seeking a smartphone-size foldable that can expand to the size of a small tablet.
But this situation is changing this year. Not only will Google’s Pixel Fold start shipping to customers later this month, but Honor has also released its Magic VS foldable outside of China. While Google’s device is competing with Samsung in terms of price, Honor is attempting to undercut it. The Magic VS retails at £1,399 (€1,599 or approximately $1,738, although it won’t be sold in the US) compared to a £1,649 (€1,799 / $1,799) starting price for Samsung’s Z Fold 4, presenting a small but significant discount. Additionally, the Honor Magic VS is thinner and is rated to endure more folding cycles.
The most remarkable aspect of the Honor Magic VS is how it feels almost normal when folded. It is thick and heavy, but fundamentally, I never had a sense that I had to unfold it to perform regular smartphone tasks. Much of this is due to the size of its 120Hz OLED cover display. It measures 6.45 inches with a 1080p resolution and a 21.3:9 aspect ratio. When folded, the device (including bezels) has a width of 72.6mm and a height of 160.3mm. In comparison, the Z Fold 4 is slightly smaller at 67.1mm by 155.1mm, and the folded Magic VS is also slightly thinner. It folds neatly without any obvious gap, making it seem like a relatively symmetrical device.
Unfolding the Magic VS reveals a 7.9-inch inner screen with slightly higher resolution (2272 × 1984) and a slightly larger size compared to Samsung’s latest foldable, but it is less responsive (at 90Hz rather than 120Hz). It has a 10.3:9 aspect ratio, which technically makes it taller than it is wide (in portrait mode), but in practice, it essentially feels square. There is no stylus support like what is available on Samsung’s recent foldables, and the screen crease is quite noticeable when held at an angle. However, like with other folding smartphones, the crease is less visible when actually using the phone, and otherwise, the screen is sharp and colorful.
That being said, when in their default “dynamic” refresh rate mode, the screens can feel a bit sluggish, and I suspect they might have been set to a lower refresh rate to save battery life. The “Medium” 90Hz refresh rate mode felt much better and didn’t seem to have a significant impact on battery life. The external screen is technically capable of up to 120Hz but never seemed to require more responsiveness.
Regardless of whether the Magic VS is open or closed, there is ample screen space for apps to utilize, but the tradeoff is weight. The Magic VS weighs 267 grams, which is four grams heavier than the Galaxy Fold 4 and significantly heavier than most traditional handsets. This is understandable considering it is essentially carrying a small tablet, but it does have its drawbacks. If you are someone who likes to put your phone in a zipped back pocket and go for a run, you might find the Magic VS’s weight bothersome.
On the back of the Magic VS is a vertical camera bump for its main, ultrawide, and telephoto cameras. On the side, there is a speedy fingerprint scanner built into the power button, and on the bottom, there is a single USB-C port. There is no headphone jack as there is no support for expandable storage.
Durability remains a concern with any foldable device, and there are both positive and negative aspects in this regard. The good news is that Honor claims the Magic VS is rated to survive 400,000 folding cycles, double the number Samsung has historically quoted for its phones. However, while Samsung ships its devices with an IPX8 rating for water resistance (but not dust), there is no such IP rating on the Honor device.
Interestingly, I managed to scratch the cover display on my review device, which doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. (There is no Gorilla Glass used in the Honor Magic VS like there is with Samsung, and there is no folding glass in its inner display) So you are left with a choice between a foldable (Honor’s) that is rated to withstand more folds in a laboratory setting or one (Samsung’s) that has more claimed protection against real-world accidents.
Internally, the Honor Magic VS is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor, with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage (to note, the base variant of the Z Fold 4 comes with only 256GB). Yes, it means it is technically powered by last year’s Qualcomm flagship processor (the phone was first announced in China last November), but I never noticed the phone struggling in everyday use.
In daily use, the Magic VS feels as fast and responsive as any other flagship and is very usable in its folded state. I view this both as a positive and a negative. Yes, you can indeed use it like a regular (albeit thick and heavy) smartphone. But it also reflects the sometimes limited functionality of the larger inner display.
For the most part, this comes down to how inconsistently Android apps handle the larger inner display. Sometimes they work great. WhatsApp is an excellent example of an app that makes good use of the additional horizontal screen real estate, and like with other foldables, you can use the Magic VS while half folded, like a laptop, to watch YouTube on one half of the screen (even though its stereo speakers are a bit quiet).
However, the majority of apps I tested were more inconsistent. Many, like Twitter, simply expand to fill the extra screen real estate and end up looking like stretched phone apps. Others, like Instagram, Instapaper, Slack, and the companion app for my Tado smart heating system, have black bars on either side of the display to maintain a phone-like aspect ratio.
These are not issues exclusive to Honor’s phone. Samsung’s foldables also have similar problems, but it is an important consideration if you are thinking of investing in a foldable.
As a result, the larger inner display makes more sense for multitasking. You can put apps into split-screen mode by swiping a small line icon at the top of the screen to the left or right before selecting a second app from an app drawer that appears. It is also possible to open a third app as a floating window, but by that point, things can get quite crowded and the apps are difficult to use for more than a couple of seconds.
These multitasking moments were when the Magic VS made the most sense to me. It was when I could watch a YouTube video on the train while keeping WhatsApp open to respond to messages. Or when I was creating a weekly shopping list on one side of the screen while browsing recipes I might want to cook on the other. Or when I needed to download a receipt from my dentist to make a claim on my insurance via a website that was not optimized for mobile. I don’t need to tell you that large screens can be extremely handy.
That said, it is difficult to say whether these issues are the fault of Honor or the app developers. But this distinction could potentially be significant if developers choose to optimize their apps for the forthcoming Pixel Fold. All I can say for sure is that the device I used felt a bit rough around the edges.
Elsewhere, Honor’s MagicOS software has quirks that I have disliked in its previous phones and still dislike now. Sometimes I could customize and tweak things to my liking, such as replacing Honor’s SwiftKey keyboard with Gboard and manually exempting apps from its aggressive power-management options. There are also a lot of preinstalled apps that I removed, like Facebook and Booking.com. However, in other areas, Honor’s choices are more permanent, such as the lack of an option to enable an app drawer, leaving all your apps cluttering up your homescreen (although Honor’s global PR manager Bhavya Siddappa says the company plans to add an app drawer with a future software update).
I will say that it is good to see Honor offering more years of support for the Magic VS than in the past. Siddappa says the company plans to support the phone with two years of Android updates and four years of security patches for the foldable, although this still falls short of Samsung’s Z Fold 4 (which offers four years of Android updates and five years of security patches, respectively).
The battery life of the Honor Magic VS is good. I averaged around six and a half hours of screen-on time with the phone and routinely put it on to charge overnight with over 50 percent of its battery capacity remaining, even on a day with a lot of YouTube watching, social media, and some heavy WhatsApp usage. Sure, it doesn’t have the battery life of a tablet, but it is sufficient for a phone. The Magic VS can be charged quickly using a 66W charger that comes in the box (unlike Samsung’s Z Fold 4), but there is no wireless charging (also unlike Samsung’s Z Fold 4).
The Honor Magic VS has a total of five cameras. Three of them are built into that large rear camera bump (a 54-megapixel main, a 50-megapixel ultrawide, and an 8-megapixel telephoto with a 3x optical zoom), and there are also 16-megapixel selfie cameras on the cover and inner displays, both located within hole-punch notches. There are no under-display selfie cameras here, which, given their unreliable reputation, I am completely fine with.
Overall, however, the Magic VS’s camera performance is never outstanding. Yes, daylight photos are bright and colorful, but they can sometimes veer into overly processed territory. Take a look at the plants on the windowsill in the first image in the gallery above, and they are outlined with a strange bright line, making them look like an object you have selected in a video game. This is the most obvious example from my photos, but this tendency towards brightening and sharpening is present in most of them. That said, sometimes I like how the processing comes out when it is applied to people’s faces. Yes, it is arguably unnatural, but if I were to manually edit a photo, it is probably close to the look I would choose.
Shots with the ultrawide and telephoto are generally good as long as there is enough light, but I had a more inconsistent experience in low light. Here, the Honor Magic VS struggled to maintain detail with even its main camera, and it had an even bigger problem with its telephoto and ultrawide cameras. You can just about manage in still scenes, but as soon as there is any movement, there is a lot of blurriness to deal with. Video performance is okay, with the option to record in up to 4K at 60fps.
Despite having prices that put them in the same category as the most expensive flagship phones on the market, foldables rarely manage to compete with them in terms of camera performance. And this continues to be the case with the Honor Magic VS.
That’s not to say Honor hasn’t made some progress. I think the extent to which the phone is usable in its folded, smartphone-like form is impressive. I like that Honor is testing the phone to last more folding cycles, and if you are someone who is annoyed by the idea of a premium-priced phone not coming with a charger in the box, then you will like that there is one here.
I suspect there may be two types of people who might consider buying the Honor Magic VS. The first are those who definitely want a foldable and are considering saving some money by choosing the Magic VS over the Z Fold 4 (or, indeed, the upcoming Google Pixel Fold or Z Fold 5 that Samsung is expected to announce this summer). The second are people who would not normally consider buying a foldable but are tempted by the more affordable price of the Magic VS.
I would struggle to enthusiastically recommend the Honor Magic VS for either group. If you are already sold on the idea of a foldable, I think it makes sense to pay for the higher level of refinement of Samsung’s product. And if you haven’t been convinced by foldables in the past, I don’t think the Magic VS does enough to overcome their historical limitations to be convincing.
The Honor Magic VS might be a more affordable foldable option. But at £1,399, “more affordable” isn’t the strongest argument.
