The best phones available for purchase today are not the same around the world, which is why I like to use this time of year to look back at some great devices that go unrecognized due to their limited releases. Living in the UK allows me to try out a wider variety of phones than the typical US customer has access to, and some of them are so good that I wish they were sold more widely.
This includes devices such as the Oppo Find X8 Pro for its competitively priced, ultra-grade specifications. or the Sony Xperia 1 VI‘s creative potential, or the cheap, cheerful and foldable Nubia Flip 5G. But all things considered, the phone I’ve missed most having in my pocket is the Honor Magic V3, a foldable phone that combines a tablet and a regular phone better than any other.
What makes the Honor Magic V3 so good?
Since its launch, and to this day, the Magic V3 has held the title of the world’s thinnest foldable phone, both folded and unfolded, and also weighs as one of the lightest on the market. That’s an impressive design achievement, and a practical one too, because when combined with the wide outer display, the foldable screen remains fully usable when folded. The large 8-inch interior display is also there to use, but only if you want full foldability, rather than a requirement if you want to do something serious.
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
Honor’s approach to AI is also quite smart. There is less focus on generating content and more on transforming or making existing material easier to interact with. The MagicPortal system makes it easy to grab a screenshot or piece of text from one app and pass it to another, while AI-powered photo editing and audio/text translation and transcription help with common creative and practical needs.
And the Magic V3 does all this while remaining well priced. It’s not as cheap as the OnePlus Open (which still sits at the top of the foldable phone pile), but it costs less than the Googling Pixel 9 Pro Fold or Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, two otherwise reliable choices.
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
There are good reasons why the Honor Magic V3 has not yet completely conquered a place on our website best foldable phones guide does. For example, there is no easy way to buy it in the US, as is the case with all Honor products. The camera quality, despite the combination of 50MP main, 40MP ultrawide and 50MP 3.5x telephoto on the rear, and 20MP selfie cameras inside and on the outside of the phone, isn’t quite on par with its rivals either.
Perhaps the most unfortunate factor is that Honor’s software update plan of three years of full updates and five years of security updates is much shorter than competing phones’ offerings, meaning you’ll run out of new software features faster than almost any other foldable phone that you could buy. this year. Not great for a premium product.
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
Despite these shortcomings, I still really like what Honor has accomplished here. The Magic V3 set the general standard for foldable phone building, and hopefully other companies will follow its lead in the future. And perhaps next year’s supposed Magic V4 will be able to break boundaries again.
Honorable mention — A foldable device for the future?
While the Honor Magic V3 is the phone I reviewed and liked most this year, it’s one I spent more time with, even though I didn’t fully test it. And that’s the Huawei MateXT.
(Image credit: Future)
This groundbreaking foldable device really impressed me during a short hands-on session I had a few months ago. It doesn’t feel like the first generation, despite being the first production dual-hinged folding trailer, or “triple folding” as they are colloquially known. Whether you use the phone fully open, partially open or fully folded, the interface easily adapts to the size of the screen currently available. You just have to adjust to the fact that the two hinges are moving in opposite directions.
I’m still not sure that a phone is so delicate or expensive, especially a phone made by the controversial people Huaweiis going to be a big seller for users outside of China. But I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that the rumors of a global release come true so we can fully test this phone’s potential and see if the high demand for the phone domestically translates into true global popularity. At the very least, it will give foldable manufacturers that sell in the West, such as Samsung, some motivation to complete their own triple foldable projects. Let’s hope the roughly $3,000 price tag will come down over the years.