At the annual IFA 2023 event, Honor revealed its latest smartphone innovation – the Honor V Purse. This unique phone features a single display that folds outwards, which is different from the typical foldable phones that have two displays, with the larger one folding on the inside. Let’s take a closer look at its other features.
Honor V Purse: Price, Specifications
The Honor V Purse was unveiled as a prototype by the company, but Honor changed its mind and made it available in China for the public. The Honor V Purse comes in camellia gold, glacier blue, and elegant black shades. It carries a price tag of CNY 5999 (approx Rs 69,755) for 16GB + 256GB trim and CNY 6599 (approx Rs 75,343) for the top-end 16GB + 512GB model. The smartphone is available for limited pre-sale via HONOR China online store.
As for its specs, the Honot V Purse isn’t a flagship in terms of power. It is powered by the Snapdragon 778G chipset, which is more than 2 years old at this point. However, the display is what makes it unique. It has a 7.71-inch foldable OLED panel with 2160Hz high-frequency PWM dimming technology, 2,348 x 2,016 pixels of FHD+ resolution and a 10.5:9 aspect ratio. This panel turns into a 6.45” display (2,348 x 1,088 pixels resolution, 19.4:9) when in the folded state. It is a 10-bit panel with DCI-P3 colours, 1,600 nits peak brightness and a Refresh Rate of 90Hz.
It gets dual rear cameras, including a 50MP f/1.9 main sensor, plus a 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide angle sensor. Apart from that, selfies are handled by an 8MP f/2.0 front-facing sensor. The device is backed by a 4500mAh battery with 35W fast wired charging.
For connectivity, you get 5G SA/ NSA, Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 6 802.11 ax (2.4GHz and 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.2, GPS (L1 + L5 dual band), NFC, and a USB Type-C port. It further has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and dual stereo speakers.
Honor V Purse: Is it worth looking at?
The Honor V Purse is surely a head-turner if we talk of the design. This isn’t the first time we see an outward folding design, as Huawei has tried it before with the Mate Xs. However, it is a first from Honor, and the brand solely relies on the design factor to drive the phone sales.
In terms of power, you can see the device has specifications resembling a mid-range device. At such a price point, a load of flagships are available that have better specifications in almost every aspect in China.
Apart from that, we still aren’t sure how the device will handle daily usage with an exposed display such as this one, especially when it’s a foldable panel. Honor does claim that it achieved a five-star rating for impact resistance from the SGS body for the V Purse, but no matter the rating, we all know how scratch-prone the folding panels generally are.
So if you want your smartphone to be the most unique looking, the V Purse does stand out, but we don’t see it competing with the flagships out there, despite having a price tag of one.
As for the availability, an Honor spokesperson has confirmed to Android Authority that the device will land in Europe sometime next year. With Honor making a comeback in India, we can only hope the device will launch here in the country.
Honor Tech India CEO, Madhav Sheth confirm to us during an interview that the company will bring the Honor’s Number series, X series, and Magic series smartphones to India. However, only time will tell whether that stands true for the new Honor V Purse.