Samsung Galaxy foldable phones suddenly look a lot less appealing

Honor Magic VS foldable phone is lighter and cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Fold

(Image credit: Honor)

published 23 November 2022

Right now, Samsung makes the best foldable phones in the world – but it's about to get some serious competition from Honor. That's because Honor has announced that, unusually, its new folding flagship will be available outside China – including in Europe.

As Honor CEO George Zhao puts it: "The Honor Magic VS will be our very first foldable flagship to debut in overseas markets and we are confident that it will deliver huge advancements, transforming how people all around the world use their smartphones."

Pricing for the Honor foldable hasn't been announced yet but, as The Verge reports, the Chinese model starts at roughly $1,048 (£878) before tax, so it could conceivably undercut the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 by some way.

Honor Magic VS folding phone: what to expect

According to famous leakster Ice Universe, who's been on something of a winning streak lately, the Honor device will boast "the lightest internal folding screen, only 261g." The battery will be 5,000mAh to power the Snapdragon 8+ chip, it'll support pen input and "in terms of price wars, Chinese brand mobile phones can beat Samsung to the point where his mother doesn't even know him." It's a pretty horrible analogy but you get the point.

The Verge adds more: the folding mechanism is more sturdy than in the previous Magic V, and it should have a lifespan of up to ten years before the mechanism develops any issues. The interior screen is 7.9 inches with 90Hz and 2,272 x 1,984, and the external display is 6.45 inches with 120Hz and 2,560 x 1,080. There are three rear cameras: 4MP, 50MP ultrawide/macro and 8MP telephoto with optical zoom.

Honor has built its reputation on making flagship devices without flagship prices. If it does the same here this could be one of the best phones around, foldable or otherwise. And, putting it bluntly, it will make the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Flip seem less appealing if so, as the Honor device sounds like it will be cheaper and lighter. I can't wait to see it.

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Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).