Isn’t technology brilliant? Just a few years ago we were speculating that one day, our smartphones might be able to fold. Today, we have phones like the Honor Magic Vs foldable and are pinching ourselves to make sure we’re not dreaming. Today’s folding flagships are everything we wanted and so much more.
Folding phones have come a very long way in a very short space of time. The first commercially available folding OLED smartphone, the Royole Flexpal, didn’t even exist until 2018. Just five years later, though, and smartphone manufacturers have not only solved the tech’s teething troubles. They’ve created some of the best, most beautiful and most bendy phones we’ve ever seen.
So what makes a great folding phone?
Fold or flip: it’s all in the hinge
Today’s best folding phones tend to come in one of two flavorsAll of this for an incredible price: folding phones for the high-performance models and flip phones for lifestyle phones. Flip phones are all about slimline designs, whereas folding phones tend to be a little thicker so they can pack in cutting-edge camera tech and even bigger displays.
Whether you go for flip or fold, one of the most crucial components is the hinge. Get it wrong, as some early folding phones did, and your phone isn’t durable enough to handle years of folding and unfolding. Get it right, as phones such as the Honor Magic Vs do, and you’ve got the perfect mix of style, stamina and seamlessness.
A well-designed hinge mechanism, like the Magic one, feels almost supernatural in its smoothness. There’s no visible gap, for starters. And because the hinge in the Magic Vs has taken the number of structural components and reduced it from 92 to just 4, it’s much tougher and more durable too. It’s been tested for the equivalent of ten years of constant unfolding and folding. That’s nearly half a million folds and unfolds.
Size matters when you fold or unfold
Folding phones solve the number one problem with traditional phones: screens can be both too big and too small at the same time. Too small to show everything you want at the size you want it to be; too big to fit in your jeans pocket or a compartment in your bag, and too heavy too. With folding phones you can deliver the best of both worlds, super-light pocket rockets that unfold to be super-sized.
Take the HONOR, for example. The Magic Vs weighs just 267g and is just 12.9mm thin when folded, and yet HONOR has somehow managed to get a 6.45-inch external display in there with a 21:9 aspect ratio and 90% screen-to-body ratio. That’s a lot of screen for such a small device, and when you unfold it there’s a massive 7.9-inch display that’s bigger than many tablets.
The power you need for even the toughest days
That’s not all. The Magic Vs manages to cram in a battery with a whopping 5,000mAh to deliver incredible stamina even on the most demanding days. It’s the highest capacity battery you’ll find in any folding smartphone weighing under 270g, because packing so much power into such a small space is a triumph of clever engineering.
This is genuinely class-leading performance. When it’s folded, the HONOR Magic Vs delivers 2.9 times the battery life of the iPhone 14 Pro and 2.5 times the battery life of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4. And when it’s unfolded, the Magic Vs delivers a full extra hour of battery compared to Samsung’s most expensive folding phone.
No matter how big its battery or innovative its engineering, HONOR can’t make sure you always charge your device – but with 66W wired HONOR SuperCharge built in, the Magic Vs can go from flat to fully charged in just 46 minutes. That means there’s no need to delay your day if you forgot to charge your foldable.
Apps that flex just like your phone
Of course, there’s more to the best Android phones than their hardware. Software matters too. That’s why HONOR has been working closely with Android to provide best-in-class app adaptation for Android 13. For example, you can use WhatsApp in two chats at the same time with multiple windows via the Android App Extender. And there are stacks of apps with horizontal split screen support to take full advantage of the Magic Vs’s huge unfolded display.
HONOR hasn’t skimped on the performance either. Its HONOR Turbo X solution includes GPU Turbo X for smooth operation even under the heaviest load; OS Turbo X for silky-smooth system performance; and LINK Turbo X to get the best possible internet connection.
A sight for sore eyes
The best folding phones are devices you’ll want to use all day long, but only HONOR packs in advanced eye care features to ensure that your phone doesn’t give your eyes fatigue. HONOR’s industry-leading Dynamic Dimming technology uses dynamic light to mimic natural light levels in order to stimulate and increase blood circulation in your eye muscles for a more natural and more comfortable viewing experience.
And the HONOR Magic Vs also supports 1920Hz Pulse Width Modulation Dimming, which operates at the highest frequency ever seen in folding smartphones: it reduces screen flickering, reducing eye strain and keeping your eyes happy even in low light environments.
There’s more. Circadian Night Display subtly adjusts the display to match your circadian rhythms with warmer color temperatures at night, a feature that studies show deliver better quality sleep.
There's a lot to love about the HONOR Magic Vs, so make sure to register your interest on the HONOR site to find out when prices are announced in your region.
Click here to discover the HONOR Magic Vs, your new favorite folding phone.
