Honor revealed its new Magic V2 foldable phone concept at IFA 2023 last week as well as a new “phone to purse” concept with the Honor V Purse.
During the keynote session “Unfold Tomorrow” delivered by Honor’s CEO George Zhap, he outlined the company’s vision for making foldable phones mainstream. The latest in this space is the Magic V2, a light and slim foldable phone. Most interesting, however, was the reveal of the Honor V Purse, a new concept that reimagines a foldable phone as a wearable, fashionable purse.
“Honor’s foldable smartphones have come a long way, with each iteration showcasing remarkable advancements in design, functionality and durability,” says Zhao. “Not only that, but with our phone to purse concept brought to life through the Honor V Purse, we are exploring sustainable solutions that leverage emerging foldable technology to empower creativity and shape tomorrow’s lifestyle.”
The Honor V Purse hopes to usher in a new category of fashionable consumer goods that can be used for self-expression. It is less than 9mm when folded and transforms into a foldable phone. It uses always-on displays (AODs) that mimic a handbag design, including chains, feathers, and tassels that react and sway with the phone as it moves. Use it with a variety of interchangeable straps and chains, which clip onto a hinge so the phone can be worn over the shoulder like a standard purse or handbag.
Engineered with sustainability in mind, the Honor V Purse is made using sustainably sourced materials like vegan leather for its straps. The idea, says Honor, is also to help people cut down on the consumption of fast fashion.
Honor has teamed up with top cultural tastemakers from across its Honor Talents Global Design Awards platform, including Burberry menswear design director Bram Van Diepen, contemporary artist Yunuene Esparza, dean of the China Academy of Art International College Yuan Youmin, and interdisciplinary artist Xiao Hui Wang, to design a series of custom AODs for the device. In the next phase of the program, by opening up the API interface that allows designers to call sensors like gyroscope, touch or ambient light sensor, Honor will invite emerging talents from around the world to come up with their own designs, reflecting the latest design trends inspirations, to reshape the lifestyle.
During IFA 2023, Honor also showcased its new flagship foldable smartphone, the Honor Magic V2, for the first time ever at a global event. The Honor Magic V2 is the lightest and thinnest inward foldable smartphone that Honor has introduced to date, weighing only 231g and measuring just 9.9mm thick when folded. It features a new generation of Silicon-Carbon-Dual-Battery with an average thickness of just 2.72mm, which achieves a high capacity of up to 5,000mAh in the space of a thin and light foldable flagship body.
In addition to the thin and lightweight, the Honor Magic V2 features a first-of-its-kind Super-light Titanium Hinge and a new Honor’s proprietary steel, providing added robustness and durability to the hinge mechanism. The Honor Magic V2 also earns the coveted durability certification from SGS, by enabling the hinge to withstand more than 400,000 folds, ensuring a lifespan of up to 10 years for folding 100 times a day.
The Honor Magic V2 features a triple rear camera setup that includes a 50MP main camera (f/1.9), a 50MP ultra-wide camera (f/2.0), and a 20MP telephoto camera (f/2.4). The front-facing dual camera setup features two 16MP cameras (f/2.2).
The Honor Magic V2 also supports 3840Hz PWM dimming technology to minimize eye strain, ensuring comfortable viewing even during extended use.
The phone also supports new interactive experiences like hovering photography and other hovering experiences, like meetings and entertainment. For the first time, the Honor Magic V2 supports the Parallel Space, which not only allows work and life data to be stored separately and data to be securely isolated, but also makes it possible to independently operate dual-space apps in parallel, much like a second phone was inserted into the foldable phone.
Completing its product updates, Honor also announced that the Honor 90 has won the coveted Best Buy Smartphone 2023-2024 from the Expert Imaging and Sound Association (EISA). Celebrating the win, Honor is launching on-trend Peacock Blue colourway for the Honor 90 globally.