Honor has jumped onto the flip phone bandwagon, unveiling its inaugural clamshell-style phone on Thursday. The Magic V Flip, which launched first in its native China, is expected to receive a global release later this year. In China, it starts for 4,999 yuan, which converts to $689.
The standout feature of the Magic V Flip is its exceptionally large and bright cover screen: At 4 inches, it’s the world’s largest cover screen on a commercially sold flip phone. (The competing Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 has a 3.4-inch external display, while Motorola’s Razr Plus has a 3.6-inch outer panel.) It also has a peak brightness of 3,000 nits, making it the world’s brightest cover screen on a flip phone.
Read more: Samsung’s Flip Phone Highlights the Clamshell’s Comeback
Size isn’t everything, though, and we’ll have to test out how the company’s software takes advantage of the Magic V Flip’s large screen once an international version of the Magic V Flip is available. Honor says its cover screen, which has a nearly 16:9 aspect ratio, supports more than 40 apps. It has a split-screen mode on the outer screen with a long video area, a space for applications and a designated reminder zone, which Honor says displays the time and notifications. When you flip the phone, the Magic V Flip relies on a 6.8-inch internal display, which also has a brightness of 3000 nits.
As for the cameras, there’s a 50-megapixel selfie camera situated on the lower-left corner of the cover screen. On the back, a 50-megapixel main camera and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide round off the camera setup.
The battery type is another first for Honor. The Magic V Flip runs on a 4,800-mAh silicon carbon battery, making it the first commercially sold foldable phone to carry this newer type of battery. Honor says it can be replenished to 45% in 15 minutes with its 65-watt wired charger.
The use of silicon-carbon batteries in mobile phones is an emerging trend that’s drawn attention due to their potential advantages over lithium-ion batteries. Those benefits include a lower environmental impact and reduced risk of overheating. But the long-term reliability of silicon carbon batteries is still being researched, and adoption in the smartphone industry is still in its early stages.
Honor has clinched a number of notable firsts, but the Magic V Flip also comes with some tradeoffs, although they might not necessarily be noticeable in day-to-day use. Compared to some of its rivals, the Honor V Flip is lagging in terms of its processor and durability, at least on paper. The Magic V Flip runs on an older chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. This is a cut behind the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 on last year’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 and the same one that runs on the 2023’s Razr Plus, but we’re talking about a phone launching in 2024.
The Honor V Flip lacks an IP rating for water- and dust-resistance. The Galaxy Z Flip 5 has an IPX8 rating, while the Razr Plus an IP52 rating. These are important features as durability is among the key concerns from people considering adopting these pricey foldables.
