Honor releases an official video teaser for its first foldable, the Magic V
Former Huawei sub-brand Honor has been on the rise ever since it was sold by Huawei allowing it to escape the restrictions that the U.S. placed on the latter Chinese manufacturer. As you know, Huawei is not allowed to access its U.S. supply chain which means no Google, and no GMS version of Android. A year later (to the exact day), the U.S. changed its export rules which prevents foundries using U.S. technology to build chips from shipping these components to Huawei.
To its credit, Huawei has still managed to develop and release three foldable phones (Mate X, Mate XS, Mate X2) over the last two years. Now, Honor is on the verge of introducing its own foldable next month, the Honor Magic V. As reported by Gizmochina, the company has released a teaser that shows off the upcoming phone revealing that it will use a form factor similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3.
Huawei's Magic V with have the same form factor as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3
The device will be equipped with a 6.5-inch cover screen and the Magic V folds inward like a book. According to the latest rumors, when unfolded it will reveal a large tablet-sized 8-inch display with a resolution of 2200 x 2480. The brand new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen. 1 (built by Samsung using its 4nm process node) is expected under the hood paired with 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage. The rumor mill says that the foldable will sport a 108MP camera that would most likely feature 9:1 pixel binning for sharp and bright pictures even when the environment isn't "picture-perfect."
The camera array should also include an ultra-wide camera and a telephoto camera. A 16MP front-facing selfie snapper is also expected to be on board, and a 4500mAh capacity battery could be in charge (no pun intended) of providing the foldable with juice.
Honor Magic V will be officially introduced next month
While not exactly an unbiased observer, Honor's CEO says that the Magic V will be the leading foldable in the market next year. What countries will compose those markets are unknown. Pricing is also unknown, although we should find out everything that we want to know about the Magic V next month.
Honor was number three in Chinese smartphone shipments last month and continues to have momentum
During the third quarter of this year, Honor was the third largest shipper of smartphones in China (behind Oppo and Vivo, numbers one and two respectively), and has been picking up momentum since being sold by Huawei. The biggest reason for wanting to escape Huawei's ownership was to get around the aforementioned export rule which left Huawei without cutting-edge chips. By divorcing itself from Huawei, Honor was able to use the 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G chipset.
With Huawei trying to keep its head above water, Honor has been scooping up some of the smartphone sales that might have normally gone to Huawei. Additionally, the U.S. handcuffs on Huawei have helped Apple tally a 62% year-over-year gain in Chinese iPhone shipments last quarter. Apple has picked up an 11% market share in the country. Still, Apple placed fifth in China during the three months that ended in September.
Ahead of Apple is Xiaomi. It's hard to see Oppo giving up the top spot in China for at least the next few months. Thanks to its merger with OnePlus, sales in China of the latter brand will be counted in Oppo's column. And with the OnePlus 10 series on the way, Oppo is going to be hard to top in its home country.
While Huawei has been given permission to receive shipments of the Snapdragon 888 from Qualcomm, this is a special variant of the SoC that does not include 5G connectivity. Earlier this year, Honor was able to use Google Mobile Services (GMS) for the first time in years with the release of the Honor 50 series. That really doesn't make a difference in China where most Google apps are banned by the CCP (Communist Chinese Party) anyway. But it does make a difference in global sales where the lack of Google apps can make or break sales.
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