So far up until today, every single folding smartphone has had incredibly complex geared
hinge mechanisms. For example, if you remember when we took apart the Galaxy Fold 4, there are
a plethora of metal gears and moving parts that make things super complicated. At least that was
the case until today. Today Honor is debuting a brand new folding phone called the Honor
Magic Vs which has managed to reduce the internal hinge components from 92 down to 4. It also folds
completely flat with no gaps. Today we're going to find out how Honor accomplished this leap in
the evolution of folding phones, from the inside, taking this thing apart. Which means it's probably
not going to survive till the end of the video. We should have a moment of silence. That was enough.
Honor sent over this pre-production unit in anticipation of this global launch. Early
access to hardware is always appreciated. So huge thank you Honor for sponsoring
this video. And I really hope you didn't want this phone back. Let's get started.
[Intro]
The more I see these and the more I play with them, the more I think that my next phone will
be a folding phone. Unique, versatile, and finally, with this Honor Magic Vs,
the price is becoming far more palatable. The Magi Vs comes with a 66 watt fast charger,
which means the battery's probably a dual cell, one in each half of the phone.
It also comes with a cyan colored case which matches the phone. The one downside
of foldables is that if you want a case, things get complicated. Yeah, the case protects the
glass on one-fourth of the phone while open, and when it's closed only four of the eight corners
get a cushion. But some protection is better than no protection so I'm glad it's included.
One thing Honor has managed to do that Samsung has not figured out is getting
the phone to fold completely flat. Comparing the Magic Vs crease to the Galaxy Fold 4,
it's very easy to spot the difference. My flashlight shines very easily through the
phone. I believe that Samsung is trying to have a very gentle crease as to not damage
the inner display. But Samsung only rates their foldability to 200,000 bend while Honor says the
Vs can handle 400,000 – twice as long. It's more than 100 times a day for 10 years. Folding flat
also means that the Honor Vs is thinner than the Fold 4 and fits in your pocket better.
The front screen has a hole punch camera. The inner screen has a hole punch camera.
And then we have three main rear cameras protruding out the textured cyan colored
back glass that I'll talk more about once we get inside. I really am going to try to disassemble
this guy without committing any murder, but you know, sometimes accidents happen.
A little bit of heat helps soften the adhesive, if there is any. The bumpers I'm removing are
what allow the phone to completely shut with no gaps, while still protecting the large, soft inner
screen from getting pinched. It's like having a 7.9 inch tablet in your pants – a two for one. A
business screen on the front and entertainment screen in the middle. It's also surprising how
durable, yet extremely fragile the middle screen really is. Taking my razor and slicing through
the foamy adhesive while in the titanium backplate to the foam body doesn't cause any damage. I can
lift it up and peel it away in ways that would totally destroy a regular phone with no issues.
The titanium definitely helps. But as soon as we start removing the second half of the display,
out of the blue after stabbing it with a razor, it's game over in an instant. With those
protective bumpers gone the edge of the display is vulnerable. And a poke in the wrong spot means
it's curtains for the screen. The bumpers are very important. Pretty cool shade of green though.
For the internal spine of the screen where it curves, Honor has applied vertical metal
slats. The titatinus slats help keep the fold of the screen focused on one plane,
offering vertical support while still allowing the screen to move, and of course,
being lightweight. We also get our first look at one side of Honor's new hinge design. It looks a
tad more complicated than I was anticipating, but we'll be able to tell more about what's going on
when we have access to the other side. The phone is still working and can be 100% opperatied from
just the front screen, but everything's gotta come off if we're going to see what's inside.
The rear glass has a frosted texture which makes the blue pop and my suction cup pop off.
There are four wrap-around antenna lines that wrap around each half of the phone,
which are great for getting clear signal, as well as unintentionally providing me with a
soft point that I can use to slip my razor blade under the glass to pry it off...gently,
of course. While we have indeed killed the flexible screen...I say “we” because
we're all in this together now...there are still a lot of internal parts that
can be salvaged and used to repair other phones in the future as long as I'm gentle.
This front 6.4 inch screen has a more normal 21x9 aspect ratio,
making it slightly wider and more usable than other foldables. And now that the screen is off,
we can get to screwing. There are two screws holding down the screen ribbon cable bracket,
and once those are disconnected we find 45 more screws holding down the rest of the guts,
give or take. Honestly, I lost track around 36. One cool thing though is that the Magic Vs has
an incredibly reasonable amount of adhesive holding down the battery. Easily pry-able and
easily removable. I hope Samsung is taking notes. It's also easily the largest battery capacity that
we've ever seen in a folding phone, so far at least, with 5,000 milliamp hours of capacity.
14% more than the Galaxy Fold 4, but who's counting. I'll pop out the SIM card tray which
does have a red rubber ring around the opening. No expandable storage though unfortunately.
I'll pull out the secondary board which is mostly used to connect all parts from this half of the
phone with the other half of the phone. We have the internal screen 16 megapixel selfie camera
on this side. Along with some waterproofing mesh over the loudspeaker opening. The Honor Magic Vs
does not have an official water resistance rating, but it is nice to see that there are protections
in place. Taking a look at the left half of the phone, we have a lot more ribbon connections,
which I can unclip like little Legos. We also now have access to the main rear cameras,
the bottom of which is the 50 megapixel ultrawide which doubles as a macro camera.
It doesn't have OIS. We have the 8 megapixel 3x telephoto camera which does have OIS. And
then we have the 54 megapixel main camera which has EIS, or electronic image stabilization. Then
again another 16 megapixel selfie camera for the front screen. There are 5 cameras total.
The motherboard comes out next. It has some thermal goop on the back which helps transfer heat
from the processor to the magnesium alloy metal of the phone. Speaking of which, I think it's time we
dissect the hinge to see what Honor is talking about with this new simpler design. To remove
the hinge support structure we have 15 screws. We also have to pop out the waterproofing dust caps
on each side for the pass through ribbons. The right side has a cool green waterproofing gasket.
And the left side has a red rubber gasket. It's feeling like Christmas up in here. Also, forgot
to mention the rectangular vibrator that sits in the lower end of the back half of the phone.
And finally, the hinge is free. This is where all the magic happens inside of the Magic Vs.
I've been waiting all video to say that. I'll remove three more itty bitty screws so we can
pop off the metal spine since we want full access to the kinetics. What differentiates
this folding phone hinge from other folding phone hinges is the simplicity. The Magic Vs
hinge is gearless. Instead of having 92 different support structure components to stiffen the sides,
Honor has been able to singularly cast these metal components into the black aerospace grade plastic,
eliminating 92 other small parts in the process. The four structural components are the two black
pieces and both halves of the center hinge. You can see where the metal pins poke through the
casting holding them in place. The single casting eliminates the need to have all kinds of junction
points in the hinge holding components together, and with less parts ends up being 62% lighter than
last year's. Most importantly, casting the metal components together leaves this with just four
components in the final assembly, which makes the Honor Magic Vs cheaper to assemble. Springs
are what keep the phone in the open and closed positions. Looks like a high-tech
suspension system, compressing under load while the phone travels into its closed position and
again compressing as the hinge travels into its unlocked open position while keeping
the force of the folding evenly distributed. Springs are cool. It's also interesting to see
the laser weld tacks that keep the screws from accidentally backing out over time.
The Magic Vs definitely has a new take on folding phone hardware. I like seeing the
innovation, and the more companies keep improving in specs and cost,
the better it gets for all of us as consumers. Nice work, Honor. Rumor is Honor is going to
have some big announcements at the Mobile World Congress this year. I'll leave a link
down in the description so you can check that out, as well as where you can find the current
pricing on the Magic Vs. Pretty cool of Honor to let us get an early look at what's inside.
Will your next smartphone be foldable? Let me know down in the comments. And like always,
thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.