At the IFA 2023, Honor boasts that it has arrived in the “millimeter era”. After the Honor Magic V2 had broken the one-centimeter barrier, there is now a new, thinnest folding smartphone in the world – at least in the preview.
The Honor V Purse evokes memories of the Huawei Mate X when it is presented on the IFA stage: a folding screen that nestles around the smartphone housing – we’ve seen that before. While it looks similar, Honor’s approach is different. The company is positioning the concept smartphone as a fashion accessory, which – by the way – is also the thinnest foldable in the world.
The V Purse is a fashion statement
As the name suggests, the smartphone should imitate a handbag – and in the best case even replace it. Two models on stage, wearing the V Purse accessory, show what it looks like. The special thing about it: the smartphone is individually tailored to the outfits of the models. The screen, which spans the front and back, can display different animated designs. Honor has already used designers from all over the world – including big names from Burberry – to design creative patterns. Some of them even move to the rhythm of their own gait or react to touch. For example, there is a chain with pendants that swings as you walk. It sounds like a gimmick at first, but in this example the trailers can actually be tapped and small widgets open. The handbag has a bit of smartphone functionality as well.
The V Purse can be combined with different carrying straps and handles and thus adapted to your own preferences. Matching the styling as a handbag, the smartphone has a physical button that you press to release the display. Then it can be folded forward and Purse becomes a tablet.
Honor didn’t want to give us any details about the technology inside, since it’s still a concept. At least we learned at the presentation that the smartphone is currently the thinnest folding device in the world: less than 9 mm. This would make it even slimmer than the Magic V2, which at 9.9 mm when closed can keep up with many smartphones in the bar form factor – i.e.: iPhone 14 Pro, Galaxy S23 Ultra etc.
The thinnest folding smartphone to date is to come to Europe
The Honor Magic V2 is already available in China, but was announced at the IFA for the global market – but not before the beginning of 2024 at the earliest. The company did not want to confirm to TECHBOOK whether the launch is also planned in Germany. With a thickness of just under one centimeter, the V2 is significantly flatter than the main competitor, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 from Samsung, which is 13.4 millimeters.
Honor was able to achieve this through a new battery technology based on silicon-carbon composite. In contrast to conventional lithium-ion batteries, the energy density increases significantly. This allows Honor to install a 5000 milliampere hour (mAh) battery in the V2 despite the low overall height. Nevertheless, the smartphone does not have to do without a fast Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and external and internal display with 120 Hertz.