China's Honor launches new challenge to Samsung with thin foldable smartphone and a big battery

3 weeks ago 16

Honor launched the Honor Magic V5 connected Wednesday July 2, arsenic it looks to situation Samsung successful the foldable space.

Honor

Honor connected Wednesday touted the slimness and artillery capableness of its recently launched bladed foldable phone, arsenic it lays down a caller situation to marketplace person Samsung.

The Honor Magic V5 goes volition initially spell connected merchantability successful China, but the Chinese tech steadfast volition apt bring the instrumentality to planetary markets aboriginal this year.

The company, which spun disconnected from Chinese tech elephantine Huawei successful 2020, is looking to basal retired from rivals with cardinal features of the Magic V5, similar artificial intelligence, artillery and size.

Honor said the Magic V5 is 8.8 mm to 9mm erstwhile folded, depending connected the colour choice. The phone's predecessor, the Magic V3 — Honor skipped the Magic V4 sanction — was 9.2 mm erstwhile folded. Honor said the Magic V5 weighs 217 grams to 222 grams, again, depending connected the colour model. The erstwhile mentation was 226 grams.

In China, Honor volition motorboat a peculiar 1 terabyte retention size mentation of the Magic V5, which it says volition person a artillery capableness of much than 6000 milliampere-hour — among the highest for foldable phones.

Honor has tried hard to tout these features, arsenic contention successful foldables ramps up, adjacent arsenic these types of devices person a precise tiny stock of the wide smartphone market.

Honor vs. Samsung

Foldables represented little than 2% of the wide smartphone marketplace successful 2024, according to International Data Corporation. Samsung was the biggest subordinate with 34% marketplace stock followed by Huawei with conscionable nether 24%, IDC added. Honor took the 4th spot with a astir 11% share.

Honor is looking to get a caput commencement connected Samsung, which has its ain foldable motorboat adjacent week connected July 9.

Francisco Jeronimo, a vice president astatine the International Data Corporation, said the Magic V5 is simply a beardown offering from Honor.

"This is the imagination foldable smartphone that immoderate idiosyncratic who is funny successful this class volition deliberation of," Jeronimo told CNBC, pointing to features specified arsenic the battery.

"This telephone continues to propulsion the barroom forward, and it volition situation Samsung arsenic they are astir to motorboat their seventh procreation of foldable phones," helium added.

The thinness of a foldable telephone has go a battleground for smartphone makers to entreaty to consumers who privation the ample surface size the instrumentality has to connection without other weight.

At its lawsuit adjacent week, Samsung is expected to merchandise a foldable that is thinner than its predecessor and could travel adjacent to challenging Honor's offering by mode of size, analysts said. If that happens, past Honor volition beryllium facing much competition, particularly against Samsung, which has a bigger planetary footprint.

"The biggest situation for Honor is the marque equity and organisation scope vs Samsung, wherever the Korean vendor has the edge," Neil Shah, co-founder of Counterpoint Research, told CNBC.

Honor's propulsion into planetary markets beyond China is still reasonably young, with the institution looking to physique up its brand.

"Further, if Samsung catches up with a thinner form-factor successful upcoming iterations, arsenic it has been the existent pioneer successful foldables with its vertical integration expertise from displays to batteries, the differentiating origin mightiness constrictive for Honor," Shah added.

Vertical integration refers to erstwhile a institution owns respective parts of a product's proviso chain. Samsung has a show and artillery concern which provides the components for its foldables.

Honor talks up AI

Smartphone players, including Honor, person besides looked to basal retired via the AI features disposable connected their device.

In March, Honor pledged a $10 cardinal concern successful AI implicit the adjacent 5 years, with portion of that going toward the improvement of next-generation agents that are seen arsenic much precocious idiosyncratic assistants.

Honor said its AI assistant Yoyo tin interact with different AI models, specified arsenic those created by DeepSeek and Alibaba successful China, to make presumption decks.

The institution besides flagged its AI cause tin hail a taxi thrust crossed aggregate apps successful China, automatically accepting the quickest thrust to arrive? and cancelling the rest.

Read Entire Article