The Honor Magic V3 is an impressive foldable smartphone, which is mainly attributed to its incredibly slim design. Measuring only 9.2mm thin when folded – and getting down to a scant 4.35mm when it’s opened up – this is easily one of the thinnest (if not the thinnest) foldable phones in the market now.

However, the slim design of the Magic V3 does not come without faults, and the overall user experience of the phone could be improved too. But as a whole, there is no denying that this is Honor’s most refined smartphone yet, and it is priced quite competitively too.

What It Is

Hardware wise, the Magic V3 is certainly a high-end flagship smartphone through and through. There’s the fast Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, bright and vibrant OLED panels with 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, and a reasonably sophisticated triple camera system with three different focal lengths.

On top of that, the Magic V3 is IPX8-rated too, which is an improvement over its predecessor that had no IP rating at all. Overall, the foldable phone looks great on paper with good value for money too, but its user experience does need some improvements here and there – I’ll elaborate more further down the review.

The Good Stuff

The thin profile of the Honor Magic V3 truly is the highlight of the foldable phone. Whenever I have the device with me at social gatherings, my friends and families were intrigued by the sheer thinness of the phone. Thanks to its thin profile and very usable 6.43-inch 2376 x 1060 OLED cover screen, I can comfortably use the phone when it’s folded too; this is my personal favourite aspect of the phone.

When unfolded, the Magic V3 offers an expansive 7.92-inch 2344 x 2156 OLED panel, and the extra screen real estate makes it great for content consumption. Whether I’m watching my favourite series on Netflix or reading up an article while a YouTube video is playing in PiP mode, the foldable phone can do it all seamlessly. I absolutely love the convenience of having a larger display whenever I need it.

In terms of display quality, both the primary and cover screens offer punchy colours with wide viewing angles and deep, true blacks; winning qualities of an OLED panel. The 120Hz adaptive refresh rate also helps with motion clarity, especially in mobile gaming.

Speaking of which, I really enjoy gaming on the Magic V3. While the inner screen’s rather square aspect ratio doesn’t play well with certain games, I still find it very enjoyable to game on. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is also fast enough to provide consistent 60fps in demanding titles like Zenless Zone Zero, though I did notice some stuttering in longer gaming sessions.

Gaming aside, there are also the Magic V3’s slew of AI-powered features. These include AI Eraser to remove unwanted subjects in a picture; Voice-to-Text transcription capability; and my personal favourite feature, Face-to-Face Translation.

In reality, Face-to-Face Translation is very similar in practice to Samsung’s Galaxy AI; more specifically, the Interpreter app. As its name suggests, I can have a conversation with another person in a different language using the feature to perform real-time translation. I can even have the translated text appear on the cover screen for a more seamless experience.

The best part is, it supports Bahasa Malaysia; Samsung has yet to support our national language with its own translation app. But to Samsung’s credit, the Korean company’s Interpreter app does work offline, while Honor’s Face-to-Face Translation relies on Google Cloud AI, so it needs internet connectivity to function.

Last but not least is battery life, and in this regard, the Magic V3’s 5,150mAh battery can comfortably provide all-day battery life. On average, I can get between five to six hours of screen on time, depending on how much I use the larger primary display. Although this is by no means amazing battery life, it’s good enough for a foldable phone this size.

The Bad Stuff

As impressive as the slim profile of the Magic V3 is, the thin frame of the phone does sacrifice good ergonomics. The skinny sides, paired with the fact that the phone’s frame and back panel are slippery, make it harder than it should be to comfortably unfold the phone. In fact, my thumb actually slipped on several occasions as I try to open up the phone, and I ended up peeling some parts of the cover screen’s protective film.

And then there’s the camera performance of the Magic V3, which is decidedly middling. It is not bad per se, but for a flagship smartphone that costs RM6,999, I do expect the triple camera system to perform better. Yes, the 50MP primary camera can take great-looking shots, but I can’t say the same for the 40MP ultra-wide sensor and 50MP telephoto lens.

Of course, under ideal lighting, all three camera sensors perform admirably; it’s only when the sun sets that the quality disparity is especially evident. Detail preservation takes a hit, noise control isn’t as good, and dynamic range suffers as well. Judge for yourself with these sample shots:

Again, the Magic V3 does not have “bad” camera performance; it just doesn’t quite meet expectations for a phone that sits at this price point, in my opinion. As a consolation, at least the camera system offers three different focal lengths, making it a versatile setup.

Is It Worth It?

In more ways than one, yes! Besides the fact that the Honor Magic V3 is a very, very slim foldable smartphone with fast performance and bright displays, its RM6,999 price tag also undercuts its main competition, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 by quite a bit. The latter is priced at RM7,899 for the same 12GB + 512GB model – that’s almost a RM1,000 difference.

Granted, each phone does have their own pros and cons. In the case of the Magic V3, it doesn’t have the best ergonomics with slightly underwhelming camera performance, though the phone does have an incredibly thin profile with great value for money. These can be reasons enough for folks to grab Honor’s latest and greatest foldable smartphone.