If you’re looking for a tablet-style foldable phone, and don’t fancy going with the priceySamsung option, there are two options that stand out above the rest.
TheHonor Magic VSlaunched in China late last year, before making its global debut atMWC 2023.
It wasn’t the only flagship foldable to launch at the show, though, Tecno surprised us with a very attractive alternative carrying an appealing price tag.
So, which one should you get? Join us as we take a look at the pros and cons of each.
Tecno Phantom V Fold
We are extremely impressed with the Phantom V Fold, not only does it perform well and look great, but it does so as one of the cheapest tablet-style foldables on the market today.
Honor Magic Vs
Honor’s foldable flagship has powerful internals and two big, vibrant displays. It folds flush too, offering a very different experience to the Galaxy Z Fold.
Price and availability
Both of these smartphones significantly undercut the market leader on pricing, which is a bit part of their appeal. However, Tecno has the most aggressive pricing, with thePhantom V Foldcoming in at around €350 less than the Magic VS for the 12GB model with 256GB of storage.
There’s more to the story, though, as we’re not exactly sure which countries will be able to get their hands on the budget-friendly Tecno device. It’ll be launching in India, initially, and it remains to be seen which other countries will find this device on their shelves.
The Honor Magic VS, on the other hand, will be landing shortly in European countries such as Germany and the UK, as well as some regions in Latin America. As far as we can tell, neither device is likely to launch in the United States.
Both of these phones share similar dimensions while folded and unfolded, never more than a few millimetres apart. However, the Magic VS is a little lighter, and when we’re dealing with foldable phones, any saving in weight is a welcome one.
The Phantom V Fold has a distinct look, it has a recycled plastic back with a grippy and unusual texture. The Magic VS takes a more standard approach, with a glossy glass-backed design.
Both phones offer two colour variants for their global release, the V Fold comes in either black or white, while the Magic VS comes in cyan or black.
The Phantom has a large circular camera array on its rear and the Magic VS has a rectangular array on its left-hand side. Both models have a pretty significant camera bump, but the Phantom’s is centrally located, which means less rocking on your desk when the phone is folded.
Elsewhere, the designs are quite similar. Both have a fingerprint reader on the power button on the right-hand side of the phone, and both have speaker grilles on the top and bottom of the device (when folded),
The only noticeable difference is that Honor’s volume rocker is separated to the upper portion of the phone, whereas the Phantom’s volume rocker is placed next to the fingerprint reader. This doesn’t make much difference when the phones are folded, but when unfolded, it means that the Magic VS’s volume controls flip over to the left side.
Display and speakers
The Honor Magic VS and Phantom V Fold have similar-sized displays both inside and out, and they share very similar resolutions, too.
The V Fold has a 120Hzrefresh rateon both panels, but the Magic VS only has 120Hz on its outer display, with the inner display maxing out at 90Hz. In practice, both offer very smooth scrolling and feel very responsive, but the Tecno device has a definite edge.
The Magic VS has a brightness output of 1200 nits on its outer display, but the foldable screen can only reach 800 nits. This means that it’s great indoors, but in bright sunlight, the inner display can be hard to use due to the surface reflections of the folding screen.
The Phantom V Fold has a brightness of 1100 nits on both panels, so the outer display is slightly dimmer, but the interior screen is significantly brighter. In real-world conditions, you’re unlikely to notice the difference between 1100 and 1200 nits, so we’d say that Tecno has the more appealing screen configuration overall.
Neither phone comes with astylusin the box, but Honor has made it known that the device supports stylus input, while Tecno has yet to mention anything on the subject.
It’s also worth noting that the Tecno hinge does not allow for use at variable angles, instead springing the screen to always be completely folded or unfolded. The Magic VS can be used at various angles, though its software doesn’t take advantage of this feature as well as it could.
Performance and software
Both of these foldables run on 2022 flagship processors, the V Fold uses MediaTek’sDimensity 9000+and the Magic VS goes for Qualcomm’sSnapdragon 8+ Gen 1. There are newer, speedier, versions of each chip available now, but these were the fastest smartphone SoCs money could buy a few short months ago, and they’re still extremely capable today.
This means you may expect snappy day-to-day usage as well as the ability to max out the settings in your favouriteAndroid games, no matter which device you choose.
Both phones run proprietary operating systems that are based onAndroid 13. Each option has its own quirks, but for the most part, we found them to be stable, reliable and easy to use. The multitasking options for the main display are very similar across both devices, and it works pretty well.
The Honor OS doesn’t have an app drawer, which can be hard to get used to and it lacks a “flex mode” that can fully utilise a half-folded screen. The Phantom doesn’t have a flex mode either, but that’s forgivable since the screen isn’t designed to be used at such angles.
The Phantom V Fold has an Apple / Xiaomi style notification shade, where quick settings are separated out and accessed with a swipe down from the right. It also has no Google Discover feed, which is a feature that we missed from stock Android.
In either case, the quirks are easy to live with, but we’d say both options are a little behind Samsung in terms of functionality.
We haven’t had the chance to properly test the Magic VS’s cameras yet, but we’ve spent a good amount of time with the Phantom V Fold.
From looking at the specs, the results should be quite comparable. Both phones have a 50MP primary camera, along with a 50MP secondary camera.
The Phantom V Fold has a 50MP resolution on its 2x telephoto/portrait lens, whereas the Magic VS has a 50MP ultra-wide/macro camera. As for which is preferable, that all depends on the type of photos you like to take.
Of course, both phones have a third rear camera, too, but they have a dramatic dip in resolution and thus less detail in their images. The V Fold has a 13MP ultra-wide and the Magic VS has an 8MP 3x telephoto.
When it comes to selfie snaps, both phones have interior and exterior hole-punch cameras, as well as the ability to use the main camera for self-shooting. The Tecno has a clear advantage with a whopping 32MP resolution on its front-screen camera, while the Honor device has a 16MP snapper on each display.
In mobile photography, image processing plays a big part in how well your photos turn out, and we found that the Phantom V Fold lags behind the bigger brands in this regard. It’s possible that the Honor could do a better job with fewer megapixels, but we need to do more testing to find out - and we’ll update this article when we do.
Both the Honor Magic VS and Tecno Phantom V Fold are attractive and more affordable alternatives to theSamsung Galaxy Z Fold 4.
We think that the Phantom V Fold is the most compelling of the two options, mainly owing to its lower price and its brighter, faster, folding display.
However, it may be harder to purchase, depending on where it launches, which could be a big hurdle to overcome.
Plus, the Magic VS has advantages of its own. It’s lighter, which is a big deal for these chunky phones, and it can be used at variable angles - although the software could do more to utilise this feature. Maybe we’ll see that in future firmware.
Ultimately, both of these phones are good options if you want a tablet-style foldable, and which specs matter the most is entirely up to you and your needs.
