- I am currently at home sick
which means that you're gonna get an old-school video today
on something which is decidedly not old-school.
This, my friends,
is the HONOR Magic Vs, and of course,
huge shoutout to HONOR for not only sponsoring this video,
but more importantly giving me a very early hands-on
of this device.
Now, if you know anything about me,
you know that I am a big fan of foldable devices
whether they're small phones that get even smaller
or large phones that get even bigger.
There is a huge incentive, in my opinion,
to try something like a foldable
because it does give you so much more potential
with the device that you carry around with you every day.
Now, if you live in the US, there is exactly
one main brand who are selling the vast majority
of foldable devices.
And let me be very clear, they've been doing a decent job.
However, the problem is there's really not been a lot
of competition, which means that while things are improving,
the better the competition is,
I think it always pushes an industry forward.
And seeing what HONOR have done
with the Magic Vs gives me a lot of hope
for what we can expect to see going forward.
Not only do we have some real innovations
with this hinge tech
but we also have some incredibly nice design.
Like I'm telling you, this feels absolutely terrific.
Not even just the ID and the sort of the rounded edges
and the symmetrical design, like that all as important
but the thing to me that is the most important when it comes
to a larger format foldable display
is the weight and the feel in the hand.
If something is going to be very large,
very chunky and very heavy, I'm not going to carry it.
I always like the smallest, the lightest weight,
the easiest to carry.
And importantly, I don't want something that's gonna be huge
and uncomfortable as I'm sort of typing on it all day long.
And the Magic Vs is significantly lighter,
it's significantly thinner, and importantly,
with that whole symmetrical design,
it's very comfortable to hold in the hand.
You've also gotta make sure they can open
and close hundreds of thousands of times without giving out.
This one is rated for 400,000 folds,
but on top of that, you also just need to think
about the thickness and the weight.
Now, because this hinge is comprised of only four pieces,
yes, you heard me right, four pieces.
Actually an individually cast piece
which is the primary part of the hinge.
It is first of all, lighter weight, which is important.
It is also much thinner, but importantly,
instead of having to use the gears
and the very complicated mechanisms
that a traditional foldable would need,
it also means that you get an incredibly flat fold.
So, you're not getting that extra bulge on the outside
which pretty much all other foldables have
and that has some major advantages.
You can literally put a piece of paper in between the fold
of the Magic Vs and it will stay nice and tight.
I guarantee you, no other foldable that I've ever tried
comes even close to that.
What's also impressive about the hinge is that even
though it is so simple and it has so many features,
you still also do have the ability to use the phone
in a folded configuration, which for me, is a huge win
because not only can you use this as an impromptu tripod
or something, but also if you're sitting in bed
watching a video and you just set it down
and the phone will stand up by itself,
which I think is really nice.
If it didn't have that, I'd be sad.
'Cause honestly, that's one of my favorite parts
of a foldable device
is that you kind of have your sort of
a little built-in tripod.
Now, when holding the phone like this,
it looks like a standard smartphone,
and that's for good reason.
Unlike some other foldables which have sort of very tall,
skinny displays, this is a 21:9 display.
You've got yourself a 90% screen-to-body ratio,
1200 nits of brightness, 120 hertz refresh rate.
I mean it's pretty much exactly what you expect
on a very high-end phone, except that you can open it up
and then you get access to the entire inner display.
Now, this is where you're getting a 7.9 inch foldable
which is going to be running at 90 hertz.
And of course, this is what's going to give you
that tablet-like experience.
Now, outside of that, the specs are, of course,
what you would expect with something
which is a high-end flagship like this,
get yourself the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1.
And on top of that you also have a trio of cameras
around the back.
You got yourself a 54 megapixel main camera.
You also have a 50 megapixel ultra-wide and macro camera.
And on top of that you do have a 3x 8 megapixel telephoto.
There's also a 16 megapixel front-facing camera,
both on the external display
as well as on the internal display,
which I think is a legitimately useful thing.
You never know which posture
you're going be using the device in,
and that's really nice.
Can I just mention for a second,
folded this phone is only 12.9 millimeters thick,
which is hardly that much thicker
than a traditional flagship.
And on top of that, they're able to fit
a 5,000 milliampere-hour battery inside of the HONOR Vs.
Now specifically, when it comes to this device,
I've got a very early sample
so this is the, essentially, a final hardware.
However, the software is far from final,
so I'm not gonna be able to talk about that too much
although this will be launching in global markets
in Q1 where I'll hopefully be able to take a little bit
of a closer look.
The thing that I have a problem with sometimes
with some of the larger foldable devices
is that they have a lot of potential.
Like there's a lot of things you could do with them
but, for me, they often kind of run
into this sort of gray area
where, yes, I could do this on my phone slash open it up
into tablet mode but then a lot of times
I feel like there's no point.
Like I would rather just grab a laptop
or something else that gets, quote unquote, real work done.
And I think that is a key to selling someone
on a foldable device.
It's gotta give you, not only additional functionality,
but also it needs to do that in a comfortable way
where you don't feel like you're sacrificing.
You don't feel like after you've been texting
for 45 minutes, your wrists are ready to give up
because you've been holding 'em at a weird angle
or your palms are digging into the side of the device.
And that, I think, is where the hardware, at the very least,
has absolutely been a win with the Magic Vs.
I don't typically do videos like this,
and obviously, if I was not sick, I would be in the studio
having a great time joking and laughing
and all that kinda stuff, like we normally do.
But this felt like a good opportunity for me
to kinda make a little bit more of an old-school video.
Not only because I've got this phone early,
I've got it a few days early, I've gotta make sure
this video goes live in time.
But also foldables, to me, are something
that it's a really important kind of part of phones.
Like to me, foldables are where the most interesting
phones are right now.
And as someone who's been using a foldable phone every day
for over three years now,
I really care about this stuff, right?
It's not something that necessarily seems
super interesting to everyone.
A lot of people will be like, oh,
the durability this or that, or whatever the case is.
But believe me when I say that foldables
have come a long way over the last few years.
Yes, there were some examples of a certain phone
that was spectacularly not well designed at the beginning,
but things have come a long way.
And while, yes, there's still growing pains,
yes, there's still things that need to be worked out.
And yes, there's still are compromises when it comes
to a device such as the Magic Vs.
I mean, yes, it is an incredibly thin and lightweight device
but also it is still going to be a little bit thicker
and a little bit heavier
than a traditional smartphone, right?
But when you consider the trade-offs,
when you consider what you're getting with this,
where you get not only the external display,
but also, importantly,
you've got that massive 7.9 inch inner display,
that, I think, is where things
become a lot more interesting
when it comes to evaluating foldable devices.
Looking at this hardware gives me a lot of hope
because what we need in the foldable space
right now, is competition.
We need multiple companies all trying their best
to innovate, to improve,
and to push the entire space forward.
When it's only one company who's getting all the sales,
they can kind of do whatever they want.
But seeing things like this hinge
which is massively simplified and as far as I can tell,
simplify without really any downside,
it's thinner, it's lighter, it feels like it's better
across the board.
And importantly, there's no gap in the phone
which means that the foldable,
which is already thinner by itself,
is even thinner because you don't have to deal
with that little wedge on the end.
I've gotta give huge props to HONOR, and of course,
I've gotta give them a huge thank you
for not only sponsoring this video
but, importantly, giving me an early hands-on
of the Magic Vs.
Definitely be sure to go check it out,
at the link in the description.
And let me know, not only what do you think
about this old-school style of video
that I would maybe make more of in the future
but on top of that,
let me know what you think about the Magic Vs.
Now, if you excuse me,
I'm going to go not use any of the non-final software
I would never ever do that or anything, but, um,
you won't tell if I don't tell, right?