I held the world's thinnest foldable phone, and it made my iPhone 16 Pro Max feel outdated

The latest Honor Magic V3 is the best-designed foldable phone I’ve tested so far. At just 9.2mm thick when folded, it builds on the success of the Magic V2 and extends its lead over the Galaxy Z Fold 6. Having used both Samsung and Honor foldables, I can confidently say the Honor is far ahead regarding hardware.

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For reference, the Honor Magic V3 measures 9.2mm when closed and 4.4mm when unfolded. In comparison, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is 12.1mm folded and 5.6mm open, while Google’s new Pixel 9 Pro Fold is 10.5mm and 5.1mm. Both Samsung and Google have reduced the weight of their foldables to 239g and 257g, respectively, but Honor went even further, bringing the Magic V3 to just 226g — lighter than the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

After a week with the Honor Magic V3, it’s the closest foldable I’ve tested that has come to feel like a regular slab phone. It helps that the phone is more comfortable to hold because the corners are rounded, unlike the sharper edges of the Galaxy Z Fold 6. At no point did it feel like I was using a phone folded in half. Honor also tested the Magic V3 for IPX8 water resistance, meaning it can handle splashes, though it lacks dust resistance. Samsung remains the only brand offering a foldable with an IP rating for both standards.

The Honor Magic V3 features a 6.43-inch cover screen with a 20:9 aspect ratio, which is nearly identical to traditional slab phones. As a result, apps like Google Chrome and YouTube don’t require any special scaling, and you don’t get unwanted black bars on both the top and bottom of the screen.

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When unfolded, you get a 7.92-inch inner screen with a 9.78:9 aspect ratio that’s close to having two slab phones stacked side by side. Both displays offer a 120Hz refresh rate and are sharp, bright, and vivid. As someone who likes to read on foldables, I especially love what Honor has done with its phones because of the better PWM rate (for lesser eye strain) and the ebook mode, which turns it into a black-and-white display. 

However, while the hinge on the Honor Magic V3 is strong and feels sturdy, I prefer Samsung’s take on it. The Galaxy Z Fold 6’s hinge is more durable and feels like it can be folded hundreds, if not thousands, of times. It can also unfold to an extent after 120 degrees, while the Honor Magic V3 can’t. It expands automatically, no matter how little you open it, which can be an issue when using the phone at an angle.

As far as cameras go, the Honor Magic V3 sports a triple rear setup with a 50MP primary lens, a 50MP periscope lens with 3.5X optical zoom and up to 100X digital zoom, and a 40MP ultrawide-angle sensor. From my first impressions, the main lens is great for portrait shots, while the ultrawide, with its lack of detail and color, can be underwhelming. On the front, you get a 20MP selfie shooter under both displays.

Also: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 vs. OnePlus Open: Which foldable phone should you buy?

Honor’s new phone runs MagicOS 8 on top of Android 14. This is another area where Honor can improve because of the old-looking aesthetics. In some ways, the experience mimics that of other Chinese launchers like Xiaomi and Oppo. That’s not to say that all the features on the phone are unattractive.

First, Magic Portal becomes a floating file management system, so you can easily drag content from one app to another. You can, for example, pick a paragraph of text or a screenshot and drag and drop it into another app, like Docs. Secondly, I’ve enjoyed the ability to create expanded folders like the ones you can see in the above image. It makes my home screen look more organized. 

Also: I replaced my Pixel 9 Pro with Google’s $1,800 foldable for a week – and can’t go back

With the Magic V3, Honor has managed to pack a 5,150mAh battery inside the thin and light body, which is much more than Samsung’s (4,400mAh) and Google’s (4,650mAh) folding phones. The Honor also charges faster at 66W wired and 50W wireless. As for the rest of the specs, the phone fields a flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor paired with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. 

That’s all to say: the Honor Magic V3 is a wonderful piece of hardware that’s basically spoiled every other foldable phone for me. It’s more polished than ever before, though I wish the company refined its software experience more. While the device may not be readily available in the U.S., if ever, it gives us a glimpse at the potential future in which the foldable market can be headed. From just my initial hands-on time with the device, I’d say the future looks bright.