Phones
Honor Magic V3 is here to rival Galaxy Z Fold 6 with thinner design, nice specs
Samsung announced its most anticipated foldable phones on July 10 in Paris. Yesterday, Honor launched the new Magic V3, which challenges the Galaxy Z Fold 6 with a thinner design and some cool specs. The new Honor foldable is considerably thin compared to the phones available.
Honor’s new Magic V3 measures 9.2mm (camera bump not included) in its folded state. It goes further slimmer to 4.35mm when you unfold its 7.92-inch main screen. Oops, there’s a clearly visible hole for the camera on the inner display, with Galaxy Z Fold 6 featuring UDC for years.
The Chinese vendor managed to make its new foldable slimmer with an upgraded hinge of 2.84mm thickness. It won’t break before 500,000 folds while the frame is made from 7-series aluminum alloy. It’s the most highlighting spec that makes it superior to its Samsung counterpart.
Samsung reduced the weight of the Z Fold 6 to 239 grams but the Magic V3 weighs just 226 grams. Honor also brought IPX8 water resistance to the Magic V3, making it the first in the lineup to feature official protection against water insertion.
Galaxy Z Fold 6 packs a 4400mAh battery, but Honor’s Magic V3 has an edge here too. It boasts a 5150mAh silicon-carbon battery with 66W wired and 50W wireless charging. Both devices use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, offering robust performance and efficiency.
Honor Magic V3 comes with a 6.43-inch LTPO cover screen with FHD+ resolution. It’s also rated for 2,500 nits peak brightness and supports stylus input. Notably, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 also supports S Pen input but on the inner panel only with a special pen crafted by Samsung.
In terms of optics, the Magic V3 features a 50MP primary with OIS, a 50MP Periscope with 3.5x optical zoom, and a 40MP ultrawide camera. The cover and main screens also house 20MP front-facing cameras. It lacks under-display camera technology which arrived 3rd time on a Samsung Fold.
Samsung’s next Galaxy S Ultra will launch early next year. The flagship will compete with Apple’s upcoming iPhone Pro Max. Pre-launch mockup shows a design comparison between Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Apple iPhone 16 Pro is not getting any major design revamp. On the flip side, Samsung is said to be bringing a bold design change to the Galaxy S25 Ultra. iPhone’s design is almost confirmed while the S25 Ultra remains to be solidified.
iPhone 16 Pro Max would get a triple rear camera setup in the same design island. An LED flash and LiDar sensor are accompanied by the camera sensors. On the front, Apple could be bringing the same pill shape cutout from the iPhone 14 Pro.
Samsung is replacing sharp corners with slightly rounded ones for easier handling. The phone will still feature an S Pen compartment to keep the Note’s legacy alive. Symmetrical bezels will offer a true flagship appearance from the front.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra will have a pretty modern punch-hole display. The display cutout for the selfie camera will be quite smaller than its main competitors. The back panel and camera housing are not showcased in the mockup image.
Not only design, Samsung’s flagship could outpace Apple in terms of performance too. Qualcomm is about to introduce its Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. This chipset boasts a new Oryon central processing unit, which unlocks a robust performance boost.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra will get at least two camera sensor upgrades. There will be a 50-megapixel ultrawide and a 50-megapixel 3x Telephoto. Both sensors will join the 200-megapixel primary and 50-megapixel 5x (optical zoom )Periscope.
Apple’s event taking place in September, while Samsung could hold it in January next year. There’s a long gap between both premium launch events. We are looking forward to witnessing significant technological innovations in the next few months.
Google officially launched the Zoom Enhance feature with the Pixel 9 Pro series. It fine-tune details for high-quality, post-capture zoom results. The Zoom Enhance is also rolling out to Google’s Pixel 8 Pro, released last year.
The new Zoom Enhance intelligently fills in the gaps between pixels and predicts fine details for high-quality, post-capture zoom results. Pixel 8 Pro is getting Zoom Enhance and will come with Pixel 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL, and 9 Pro Fold pre-installed.
During the Pixel 8 Pro launch, Google teased this intelligent feature. The company has taken a long time to develop this functionality. However, it’s finally making its way to the eligible smartphone to upgrade photography capabilities.
Using artificial intelligence, Zoom Enhance increases image quality at higher zoom levels. The company notes that “Zoom Enhance intelligently fills in the gaps between pixels and predicts fine details for high-quality, post-capture zoom results.”
Similar to Magic Editor, Zoom Enhance will be made available within Google Photos. Once triggered, the function begins processing the image. It ultimately delivers a cleaned image that was already zoomed up to a level of slight blur.
The feature joins a slew of new camera tricks debuted with Pixel 9 series including Add Me, Reimagine in Magic Editor, and more. This time, all of the new features will be available when the phones ship rather than arriving with Feature Drop.
Samsung dominated the foldable panel market in the second quarter. The early launch of its new foldable phones pushed Samsung’s tally in the market share. Analysts report that Q2’24 to be the peak quarter of this year’s panel shipments.
According to DisplaySupplyChain, foldable panel shipments reached a new high in Q2’24 rising 151% Q/Q and 126% Y/Y to 9.8M panels. The outlet is crediting Samsung’s new foldable phones that were launched earlier than usual.
The South Korean display manufacturer dominated Q2’24 foldable panel procurement in Q2’24 with a 48% share followed by Huawei at 29%, reversing positions vs Q1’24 when Huawei held a 53% to 21% advantage.
Samsung accounted for the top two models in Q2’24 on panel procurement basis followed by two models from Huawei and one model from Honor. However, Q3’24 foldable panel shipments are expected to fall 30% Q/Q and 21% Y/Y to 6.9M.
The company regained the number 1 position in foldable panel market with a 53% to 27% advantage over BOE in Q2’24 after trailing BOE in Q1’24 at 29% to 48%. In the third quarter, Samsung could gain share in Q3’24 to 49% with Huawei slipping to 16%.
Samsung’s share is expected to rise slightly to 49% with Huawei’s share falling to 16%. The Galaxy Z Flip 6 is expected to remain the #1 model on a panel procurement basis with a 32% share followed by the Z Fold 6 at 13%.