Track Hyper | Future Without Boundaries: The Evolution of Honor's Foldable Screen

Author: Zhou Yuan / Wall Street News

On February 20, Li Kun, General Manager of Honor's flagship mobile phones, announced on Weibo that Honor will launch a new generation of large foldable screen phones in the first half of this year.

Currently, the product name of this foldable model from Honor is still unknown (rumored to be called Magic V4), but based on the core information revealed by Li Kun, Honor will continue to position itself with the label of "the lightest and thinnest in the industry." Coupled with the full-blooded Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor equipped in the new model, this marks Honor's entry into a new stage of "performance and thinness dual limits" in the foldable screen phone market.

Just as Honor previously pushed the entire foldable screen phone industry to focus on "lightness and thinness."

Behind this declaration is Honor's establishment of "thinness hegemony" through continuous iterations of three generations of products since the release of Magic V2 on July 12, 2023—first defining "thinness as the primary productivity of (foldable screen smartphones)," and then challenging the physical form boundaries between flat and foldable models. Honor continues to reconstruct the game rules of this high-end niche market through systematic technological innovation.

"Yao-style" Foldable Phone Innovation Paradigm

Honor's path to thinness is by no means a simple parameter competition, but rather a disruptive reconstruction based on underlying technological architecture, which can be called the "Yao-style" innovation paradigm.

To make the smartphone body thinner, the material issue must first be addressed.

Since Magic V2, Honor has introduced cutting-edge materials such as aerospace-grade magnesium alloy, self-developed shield steel, and titanium alloy 3D printed hinges into the consumer electronics field; the material iteration of Magic V3 has become aerospace special fiber with a strength of 5800MPa. This material can reduce the body thickness by 27%, while the body strength has increased by 150%.

The high strength of the Honor Magic V3 body allows it to withstand "accidental" drops at any angle without damage.

Secondly, structural engineering innovation must be promoted. The hinge system used in Honor's foldable screen phones has continuous evolution capabilities.

The titanium alloy hinge of Magic V2 reduced the axle cover width to 2.84mm, supporting 500,000 folds; the "Lu Ban architecture" of Magic V3 integrates 114 types of microstructures, compressing the closed thickness to 9.2mm, with a weight of only 226g, even lighter than some flat flagship models.

Thirdly, a leap in energy density must be achieved.

The Qinghai Lake battery technology, first launched in the Honor Magic 5 series, has undergone multiple upgrades and iterations. The Magic V3 is equipped with the third-generation Qinghai Lake battery using silicon-carbon anode materials, reducing the average battery thickness to 2.6mm (the physical thickness of the Type-C interface is only 2.5mm), creating necessary conditions for the extreme thinness of the demanding body.

Looking at the mass production and research and development path of Honor's foldable screen models, one can draw an evolutionary map of "from boundary breaker to definer."

On July 12, 2023, Honor released the Magic V2, achieving a groundbreaking breakthrough and successfully ushering in the "millimeter era" of foldable phones globally.

As a turning point in Honor's foldable screen technology route, the Magic V2, with a closed thickness of 9.9mm and a weight of 231g, has brought the feel of foldable screens closer to that of flat phones for the first time, and its pioneering value significance far exceeds the parameters themselves From a technical perspective, the Magic V2 has completed a paradigm shift: it pioneered the "comprehensive reconstruction" methodology, laying the foundation for subsequent technological iterations from device customization (such as ultra-thin VC cooling modules) to system-level integration (such as RF enhancement chips).

From this point on, Honor single-handedly pushed foldable smartphones from a niche market to the competitive battlefield of mainstream flagship devices.

What is the market acceptance of the Magic V2?

The statistical reports on the Chinese smartphone market for the third quarter of 2023 released by IDC and Counterpoint in October 2023 both show that the Magic V2 topped the sales chart for foldable screens (large foldables) in the Chinese market in Q3 2023, driving the penetration rate of foldable screens in China to surpass 1.5%.

On July 12, 2024, Honor released the Magic V3, breaking the physical boundaries between foldable and flat flagship models. Based on the Magic V2, the Magic V3 achieved a new industry record with a closed thickness of 9.2mm and an open thickness of 4.35mm.

Competitors: The Boundaries of Technological Imagination

So, what new breakthroughs can we expect from the upcoming Magic V4 (currently still an unofficial name)?

Li Kun stated, "The new generation of Honor's foldable phone will still maintain the industry's leading lightweight form while being equipped with a full-version chip, without any downgrades."

It can be inferred that the Honor Magic V4 will definitely be equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 5G SoC mobile platform, and will also use the fourth-generation Qinghai Lake battery and a new cooling architecture, aiming to reduce weight, thus enabling this generation of foldable phones to possess both "performance and lightweight dual extremes."

The materials used in the Magic V4 are also likely to evolve again, with new materials such as nano carbon fiber and liquid metal possibly being commercially used for the first time, which will further reduce the weight of the device while simultaneously enhancing its strength.

In terms of performance, Honor has just become the first in the industry to integrate the DeepSeek large model on the end side, and its platform-level AI capabilities will undoubtedly be included.

In fact, since entering the foldable phone market and continuously leading this high-end market segment, Honor has not only created ongoing value for end users but has also rapidly elevated the overall capability of China's high-end smartphone industry.

What is the relationship between the technical route taken by Honor's high-end flagship and its underlying logic and commercial value?

Firstly, Honor adheres to an innovation philosophy driven by user pain points.

Honor does not subscribe to the flashy thinking of "innovation for the sake of innovation," but continuously addresses the three core pain points of foldable smartphones: overall weight, reliability of the screen and body, and the ecological isolation of applications and experiences.

Through a threefold reduction in "materials-structure-battery," Honor successfully reduced the weight of foldable smartphones from over 300g in the early days to 229g, entering the "9mm era" in terms of thickness.

With a folding lifespan of 500,000 times and IPX8 waterproof ratings, Honor has alleviated end users' concerns about foldable phones being "fragile and expensive."

On a more critical application experience level, Honor's MagicOS achieves high synergy with AI across all scenarios, solving the matching problem of application adaptation and large-screen efficiency Secondly, establish the "breaking the wall effect" in the high-end market.

Honor's sustained high-intensity innovation capability demonstrated in its foldable screen series essentially represents a "flanking breakthrough" against the high-end barriers built by Apple.

At the same time, Honor has "torn off" the expensive label of foldable phones, with the Magic V2 starting at 8,999 yuan, directly entering the price range of the iPhone Pro Max. The differentiated experience of Honor's foldable phones, after addressing issues such as heaviness, reliability, and ecological fragmentation, is also very prominent.

Honor's emphasis on "thin and light is the primary productivity" through the Magic V2 and the subsequent Magic V3 and Magic V Purse has successfully completed the initial occupation of user mindset, while also triggering industry follow-up.

At the industrial chain level, Honor's technological breakthroughs in foldable phones have deeply driven the upgrade of the industrial chain.

For example, upstream material suppliers have seen a surge in demand for titanium alloys, rare earth magnesium alloys, etc., driving companies like BaoTi Co., Ltd. and Lichong Group to expand production; the penetration rate of precision processing technologies such as 3D printing and nano-injection molding among equipment manufacturers has increased, promoting the upgrade of China's precision manufacturing; joint research and development with ecological partners like BOE has led to the launch of the "Oasis Eye Protection Screen," driving the technological iteration of domestic OLEDs.

Looking back at the innovation journey of Honor's foldable screen models, it is not difficult to predict that the ultimate goal of foldable phones is to achieve "boundary-less": from the boundary-breaking of the Magic V2, the boundary-crossing of the Magic V3, to the redefinition of new products in 2025, Honor's foldable screen evolution history is essentially a revolution to "eliminate foldable screens."

When the experiential boundaries between foldable screens and flat phones are completely dissolved, smartphones will enter a "boundary-less era" of form freedom.

In this technological marathon, Honor has secured a leading position through systematic innovation; however, Honor's true competitor is, in fact, its own technological imagination