Honor's Magic Vs Foldable Gets New Global Launch Pricing

Chinese smartphone brands seem to be dominating the scenes at MWC 2023. One day after Xiaomi launched a plethora of devices — including smartphones, wireless earbuds, and an electric scooter — it was the turn of former Huawei sub-brand Honor to announce its refreshed product lineup. 

The newly launched handsets from Honor include two devices from the company's flagship Honor 5 lineup — the Honor Magic 5 Pro — as well as it's less expensive sibling, the Honor Magic 5. In addition to these two devices, the company also announced an even cheaper device called the Honor Magic 5 Lite, which will only be launched in select European markets.

The Honor Magic 5 Pro is a true flagship smartphone powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. It packs a formidable triple camera setup that uses three 50MP sensors for the primary, ultra-wide, and telephoto cameras. 

Powering all this potent hardware is a massive 5,000 mAh battery that supports 66W wired and 50W wireless charging. The less expensive device, the Honor Magic 5, is also powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, but skimps on certain camera features — besides getting a non-curved display.

In addition to these new smartphones, Honor also chose MWC to announce the wider availability of its second-generation foldable smartphone, the Honor Magic Vs. Honor originally announced this new smartphone back in November 2022 as a China-only smartphone. Nearly three months later, the device seems to be finally ready to make its global debut.

When Honor first announced the Honor Magic Vs a few months ago, it received widespread acclaim for its polished looks and great hardware specs. Besides eliminating the noticeable crease that has become the hallmark of foldable smartphones today, Honor also claims that the Honor Magic Vs' hinge mechanism is sturdier than ever before. 

The phone was also notable for its 21:9, 6.45-inch external display, with an excellent 90% screen-body ratio. The primary OLED display — at 7.9-inches — is nearly tablet-sized and boasts a resolution of 2272x1984 pixels.

Built around our super light hinge, the #HONORMagicVs is a next generation foldable smartphone. With a long-lasting battery and innovative technology all built into a super slim body, this is the foldable smartphone of your dreams. #UnleashthePowerofMagic #HONORMWC2023 #MWC23 pic.twitter.com/vozyYR7875

— HONOR (@Honorglobal) February 27, 2023

Being slightly older than the new Magic 5 series devices, the Magic Vs uses last year's Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip from Qualcomm. The camera setup on the phone includes a 54MP Main Camera, a 50MP Ultra-Wide camera, and an 8MP telephoto camera that supports 3X Optical Zoom. In addition to these, the device also gets a 16MP front-facing camera for selfies. 

The Honor Magic Vs gets a large 5,000 mAh battery that supports the company's proprietary 66W fast charging. Unfortunately, the device does not support wireless charging. At launch, the phone runs Honor's MagicOS 7.1, which is based on Android 13.

Those intending to buy these new Honor products will need to wait until Q2 2023 to get their hands on one. Pricing for the Honor Magic 5 starts at 899 euros ($952) for the base variant (8GB+256GB), while the Honor Magic 5 Pro will set users back by 1199 euros ($1,270) for the 12GB+512GB version. As for the foldable Honor Magic Vs, this phone has been priced at 1599 euros ($1694), and comes in a single 12GB+512GB option.