00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 It's finally starting to feel like Samsung
00:08 has some serious competition in the foldable phone market.
00:12 And I've been lucky enough to spend the last week
00:14 with this, the Honor Magic VS,
00:16 a phone that is looking to dethrone
00:18 the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4
00:20 in the fight for the best book style foldable.
00:23 The VS does a lot of things right
00:27 and some things a little less right,
00:29 but the real question is, should Samsung be worried?
00:33 The Magic VS is impressively slim and light
00:38 considering it can open up to 7.9 inches.
00:42 And when it's shut, it's barely bigger
00:44 than any Pro Max or Ultra on the market.
00:47 The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is a lot thicker,
00:49 measuring 15.8 millimeters at its thickest point shut
00:53 when compared to the Magic VS's 12.9 millimeters.
00:57 Of course, some of that Z Fold thickness
00:59 is due to it not closing flush.
01:01 Whereas the Magic VS does close with no gap at the hinges
01:04 and a satisfying snap.
01:06 I've also fallen in love with this cyan finish
01:09 on the review sample I was sent.
01:10 Although the Magic VS will also be available in black
01:13 if you're after a more subtle look.
01:16 The gapless design, gearless hinge
01:18 and lightweight form factor
01:19 all add up to a seriously premium feeling device
01:22 in the hand and not too much bulk in the pocket.
01:27 Both interior and exterior displays
01:30 are HDR 10 plus OLED screens
01:32 and make watching movies and playing games
01:35 a great experience.
01:36 The exterior screen measures 6.45 inches
01:39 and has a dynamic refresh rate
01:41 that maxes out at 120 Hertz
01:43 and a peak brightness of 1200 nits.
01:46 The bezels on the front screen are pretty prevalent
01:49 and make the exterior phone experience
01:51 feel a little dated in 2023.
01:54 But it's more than functional for Twitter scrolling
01:56 and general phone usage on the move.
01:58 Of course, if you're watching movies or playing games
02:01 then you'll wanna be using that internal
02:02 7.9 inch OLED display.
02:05 It has a refresh rate of up to 90 Hertz
02:08 and a peak brightness of up to 800 nits.
02:10 So its specs are lagging behind its own exterior display
02:14 but the extra screen real estate
02:16 makes watching movies and multitasking an absolute joy.
02:20 And honestly, the crease down the middle
02:21 manages to completely camouflage itself in most situations.
02:25 It's certainly there when you're viewing it
02:26 from some extreme angles
02:28 and it's noticeable when running your finger over it
02:30 while scrolling away.
02:31 But it blends in so well
02:33 that I was genuinely surprised several times
02:35 while using the phone
02:36 as I expected to feel the crease under my finger
02:38 only to realize that the phone was in the wrong orientation
02:41 and that crease was actually running
02:43 in the opposite direction.
02:44 The Magic VS is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon
02:49 eight plus gen one chipset
02:51 and it seemed to run the device just fine
02:53 in my daily usage.
02:55 I never noticed any stuttering or lag when playing games
02:58 or multitasking with several apps open at once.
03:00 On Geekbench, which measures overall performance,
03:03 the Magic VS scored over 1600 in a single core test
03:07 and almost 4000 in a multi-core test.
03:09 Impressively, those are better scores
03:11 than the Galaxy Z Fold 4 produced
03:13 which runs on the same Snapdragon chipset.
03:15 And I saw similar results when I ran
03:17 our 3DMark Wildlife Extreme Unlimited graphics test
03:21 with the Honor VS narrowly beating the Galaxy Z Fold 4
03:25 but not being able to keep up with the top dogs
03:27 from Apple and Samsung.
03:28 The Honor Magic VS has a 50 megapixel ultra wide lens
03:36 that has a dedicated macro mode,
03:38 an eight megapixel three times optical zoom camera
03:41 and a 54 megapixel F1.9 main camera.
03:45 The cameras are totally fine if a little underwhelming.
03:48 Colors felt a little cool to me across the board
03:51 and it doesn't have the dynamic range
03:53 to keep up with the likes of the iPhone 14 Pro.
03:55 But the Magic VS is certainly capable
03:57 of taking social media worthy shots, even in low light.
04:01 I found the three times optical zoom surprisingly decent
04:04 and the system also features a 30 times digital zoom.
04:07 Although as with all digital zooms,
04:09 the less you actually use that, the better.
04:12 There's an aperture mode that allows you
04:13 to take portrait style shots of things as well as people.
04:17 And again, it works just fine.
04:19 Clearly defining the subject and adding some nice bokeh
04:22 to the background.
04:23 However, when compared directly to the iPhone 14 Pro,
04:26 it doesn't quite keep up,
04:27 creating a less pleasing bokeh effect on the lights
04:30 here in the background of this shot.
04:32 Both the exterior and internal screens
04:35 feature a 16 megapixel F2.45 selfie snapper.
04:39 And unfortunately, these really let the wire system down.
04:43 When taking selfies, I often found
04:45 that the auto focus couldn't keep up,
04:47 leading to blurry shots.
04:49 And while I don't usually mind the odd wrinkle
04:51 or imperfection getting smoothed out,
04:53 the default beauty mode goes way too far,
04:56 resulting in some super artificial feeling photos.
04:59 Video wise, you can shoot 4K up to 60 FPS
05:02 on the rear cameras and on the front facing selfie cameras,
05:06 you can shoot 1080P up to 30 FPS.
05:08 The VS comes boasting a massive 5,000 milliamp hour battery.
05:14 And in my experience, it was more than capable
05:16 of lasting a full day of decent use.
05:18 If you do find yourself running low though,
05:20 then there's a power saving mode
05:22 that should give you roughly 20% more juice in the tank.
05:25 And on the flip side,
05:26 if you're looking for even more performance
05:28 for some power gaming on the go,
05:29 then the Magic VS also has a performance mode
05:32 that optimizes settings to deliver maximum performance.
05:36 I threw the phone into performance mode
05:38 and ran the same Geekbench and wildlife graphics tests
05:40 as before and saw improvements,
05:43 but also definitely felt the device heat up.
05:46 So maybe use that sparingly.
05:48 Also now everybody please join me
05:50 in a round of applause for Honor
05:51 because the Magic VS not only comes
05:53 with a charger in the box,
05:55 but it's a 66 watt fast charger.
05:57 Very nice.
05:58 (crowd cheering)
05:59 No wireless charging is available on the VS,
06:02 but that wired fast charger should get you
06:05 from zero to 100% in just over 46 minutes,
06:08 according to Honor.
06:09 And now onto the elephant in the room,
06:13 price and availability.
06:15 The Honor Magic VS isn't cheap at 1600 euros.
06:19 And as of recording,
06:20 we don't have any word on availability,
06:22 either on release dates in Europe
06:24 or whether or not this device
06:26 will actually make it stateside.
06:27 So while this might not be your next phone,
06:30 it's an exciting device that should cause Samsung
06:33 to raise an eyebrow and consider how to improve
06:35 the fold's design and performance for the next generation.
06:38 If you like this video,
06:39 then you should check out our video review
06:41 of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra,
06:43 which you can find right now
06:45 on the Tom's Guide YouTube channel.
06:46 I'm Matt Phillips, and I'll see you on the next one.
06:48 (upbeat music)
06:51 (whooshing)
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