Innovation with Foldables Continues as Honor Launches Magic V6 Internationally

This is poised to be a milestone year for foldable smartphones. There are endless rumours of Apple launching a folding iPhone later this year, I expect an update from Samsung in the coming weeks, Honor has internationally launched the Magic V6 and a slew of other foldables are set to release. This prompted me to take stock of the overall market and the manufacturers that have pushed innovation forward.

It’s hard to believe that it has been seven years since Huawei and Samsung went head-to-head at MWC 2019 and unveiled their first foldable smartphones. There had been speculation for nearly a decade that such products would hit the market, but it took far longer than expected for commercial devices to materialize. All non-Apple manufacturers were highly motivated to succeed in the foldable category, as it provided an opportunity to differentiate from the ubiquitous smartphone.

Honor embraced this challenge and delivered a series of game-changing foldables that were lighter, thinner and more durable. The phones also had better battery life and offered a design more akin to a “standard” smartphone, and many rivals have followed suit. These features played an important role in evolving foldables from a niche technology showcase into a meaningful product category.

The first step in Honor’s journey came in 2022, when it introduced the Magic V smartphone. The device featured what it called the “waterdrop hinge”, making it possible to build a thinner device and reduce the visible crease on the flexible display. Importantly, this device also had a wider cover display than other models.

The manufacturer has focused on thinness for foldables, first hitting the sub-10 mm milestone with the Magic V2. It has improved this over several generations, and the Magic V6 is just 8.75 mm thick. This set a benchmark for the industry. Notably, the Galaxy Z Fold7 was positioned as a significantly thinner evolution of Samsung’s foldable portfolio.

Durability is an area where all foldable-makers have raised the bar. Gone are the days of being almost afraid to use a foldable smartphone. Samsung has a strong reputation in this area, and we expect it was a major focus given the significant volume of devices it ships and the problems with its first product. It has been interesting to see Honor’s work on dust and water resistance. This started with the Magic V3 phone, which offered IPX8 water resistance. The Magic V6 took things to a new level, supporting an IP69 rating. This provides complete resistance against dust ingress, which had previously been unthinkable on a smartphone with a mechanical design and flexible display. It also offers a high degree of water resistance, making it capable of surviving prolonged submersion and high-pressure water jets — as shown below.

Battery technology is vital for all devices and is a top concern for consumers. Honor was the first smartphone-maker to adopt a silicon-carbon battery, initially in the Magic5 Pro, unveiled in February 2023. It quickly added this technology to its foldable line-up, creating thinner smartphones with higher battery capacity than its competition. Other Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, vivo and Oppo followed its lead, but big players such as Apple and Samsung have remained with lithium-ion battery technology.

I’m intrigued to see what other brands, particularly Apple and Samsung, do to compete with these advancements. As noted above, Samsung narrowed the gap with the Galaxy Z Fold7, but it has yet to adopt silicon-carbon technology or reach the durability levels of devices such as the Honor Magic V6. All eyes are now on Apple amid widespread rumours that it’ll release an ultrapremium foldable iPhone later this year. For both companies, there has been speculation that they’ll offer a wider foldable like Huawei’s Pura X Max, which has had a very promising start in China.

I’d bet that Honor is also cooking up plans for a wider foldable. In the meantime, I’ll be watching the international launch of the Magic V6 with interest to see how Honor capitalizes on the headline features of its latest foldable.