There’s a clear divide when it comes to foldable phones: more compact flip models are often marketed as trendy fashion accessories, while larger book-style foldables are aimed at power users who need space for multitasking on the go . Honor decided to try to blend style and productivity with its V Purse and we finally got to spend some time with the device to see how it performs in everyday life.
Honor CEO George Zhao has described the V Purse as a “phy-digital fashion statement” since its unveiling: a digital purse with interchangeable straps that is also a large foldable screen with a spacious 7-inch wraparound AMOLED screen. 71 inches. It was only supposed to be a concept device until Honor decided to launch the V Purse in China.
Unpacking
Honor V Purse comes in a large box that houses the phone with the display open. There’s a 35W charging brick, a USB-C to USB-A cable for charging, and a SIM ejector pin. Honor also sent us its accessory strap that attaches to the phone’s frame on the right side and lets you literally wear it around your shoulder like a bag.
Granted, this reviewer used the phone without the chain attachment as it didn’t fit his personal style, but there are plenty of users out there who already carry their bar phones on their shoulders with similar cases.
Project
The most notable feature of the V Purse is its size. When folded, it stands 156.5mm tall and 74.7mm wide while measuring 8.6mm at its thickest point and weighs just 214 grams. For reference, a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra measures 163.4 x 78.1 x 8.9mm and weighs 234g, while an iPhone 15 Pro Max measures 159.9 x 76.7 x 8.3mm and weighs 221g. This means the V Purse will take up less space and weight in your pocket than a flagship bar phone, while offering a massive 7.71-inch OLED screen at the push of a button.
The Honor V Purse is also the “world’s thinnest foldable” measuring just 4.3mm when unfolded, which seems dangerously thin but makes it even easier to hold one-handed and also makes the phone much easier to to carry.
The Honor V bag is remarkably slim
Honor V Purse features an outward folding design that wraps the screen around the back of the device. This is a less common choice for foldables these days with Huawei releasing its latest outward folding Mate Xs 2 in 2022. You get a 6.45-inch screen when the device is folded with a 19 aspect ratio, 4:9 like a regular bar phone which makes typing and general use less cumbersome than most large foldable phones.
When you need more screen space, open the screen via the folding mechanism and dedicated release button. It is located on the back side of the device, just below the cameras and LED flash. The release mechanism seems solid and we have no concerns about its longevity.
You will then be greeted by the full 7.71-inch screen with a resolution of 2,348 x 2,016 px and a 10.5:9 aspect ratio, with 90 Hz refresh and with a peak brightness of 1,600 nits.
The display is gorgeous, offering enough resolution, color accuracy, and brightness to make your content as immersive as possible for a smartphone. The main concern with outward folding phones is the fact that their screen is always exposed and this is particularly worrying in this case as the V Purse is also positioned as a fashion accessory which increases the chances of the screen coming into contact with hard objects and surfaces. On the plus side, the display crease is much less prominent than on inward-folding phones, making for a more immersive viewing experience.
Another design feature of the V Purse is that it is more ergonomic for reading thanks to the bulge on the side that serves as a natural resting position for the hand. This makes reading on the V Purse much more comfortable than its inward-folding competitors.
Software and performance
Honor V Purse runs on MagicOS 7.2 based on Android 13. The interface will be familiar to you if you have been using Honor smartphones in the last couple of years. MagicOS is a heavily modified Android skin with a distinct look. You get full support for Google apps, no app drawer, and a host of home screen and lock screen customization options.
Magic Wallet is one of the key software additions for V Purse. It allows the back of the screen to display a custom AOD wallpaper with a total of 47 options to choose from and the ability to add images from your gallery. Some of Honor’s designs are interactive and carry moving pieces that simulate the kinds of items you’d find in a real bag like makeup and jewelry.
You can also add a text message to the side of your device for an added touch of personality. Magic Wallet works via a triple tap on the secondary portion of the screen or via a widget shortcut on the home screen. It can also be triggered to stay on for up to 30 minutes, which will be extremely taxing on the battery.
The Honor V bag as a bag
Large folders let you group apps on your home screen and launch them directly with a single tap. You also get support for Honor’s Yoyo assistant and Multi dock which allows for faster app switching. Honor has made a point of optimizing the UI for the larger screen with the ability to resize all Android apps to fit the large screen in tablet mode.
Honor V Purse home screen, Settings menu, dual-app multitasking and Magic Wallet
The settings app features a dual pane, and you can conveniently resize apps in pop-up windows or place them next to each other. While you can use two apps side by side, you can’t have two instances of the same app, which is a potential area for improvement.
Overall, the software optimizations on the Magic V Purse are a bit behind those of the Samsung and Oppo foldables. We’d like to see an app dock, the ability to run multiple instances of the same app, and some sort of fast scaling option for multitasking with more than two apps at a time.
Honor V Purse is one of the rare cases where a foldable device is not paired with a flagship chipset. The Snapdragon 778G is a 2021 upper-midrange chip that’s not the kind of SoC you’d normally find inside a foldable phone. We can believe that a concept phone like this doesn’t need a flagship chip and an argument can be made that the 778G is a good choice when it comes to heat dissipation and CPU and GPU stability. Honor has opted for 16GB of RAM as standard which should leave some headroom for multi-tasking.
Honor V Fold brings a Snapdrgaon 778G SoC along with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage
Unfortunately, our Honor V Purse review unit didn’t allow us to install benchmarking apps, so we couldn’t test its performance with our usual battery of tests. We can only comment on the user experience which is smooth and snappy in general use. We didn’t experience any apparent lag when navigating the UI and switching between apps. The Snapdragon 778G is a capable chip with enough power for most tasks, including gaming with high-quality graphics. The phone never felt warm to the touch even during the most demanding tasks, which is impressive given its slim profile.
Camera
Honor has opted for a 50MP main camera featuring a Sony IMX800 sensor with f/1.9 aperture and capable of producing shots at 12.5MP resolution by default. The main camera is joined by a 12MP ultrawide lens with f/2.2 aperture. Equipped with these two sensors, the V Purse covers a 0.6x, 1x and 2x zoom range with a 2x crop option on the main sensor. Unfortunately, neither shooter offers OIS.
Main camera
The images from the main camera offer good details even if the color rendition leaves something to be desired. In some cases you may notice that the greens look washed out.
2x shots are comparable to regular 1x shots in terms of detail and color rendition.
2x main camera
The 12MP ultrawide lens offers less detail and takes a step back in color reproduction. Daylight shots on a typically dull January day look muted and leave a lot to be desired in both detail and vibrancy.
Ultrawide camera
When the device is folded you can use the back of the screen as a viewfinder for selfies with the main or ultrawide cams. Alternatively, the back can act as a live mirror for the person being photographed.
Selfies on the 8MP front lens offer good contrast and decent color reproduction. There is enough detail and the skin tones look realistic.
Selfies
Battery and charging speed
Honor has fitted a 4,500mAh battery inside the V Purse which, paired with the 90Hz refresh rate screen and mid-range chipset, would suggest a score comparable to some of the other popular big-screen foldables like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5, OnePlus Open and Oppo Find N3. In this case this was not the case, as the V Purse earned a 8:08 hours rating in our active usage score that sits below the competition.
Charging times weren’t particularly impressive with the V Purse either 66 minutes for a full charge. For our test we used Honor’s included 35W SuperCharge adapter. The phone managed a charge of between 0 and 32%. 15 minutes and after that it was sitting at 60%. 30 minutes accurate. The phone remained relatively cool and did not exceed 34° during peak charging.
Conclusion
Honor V Purse is not your typical foldable phone. It folds outward, doubles as a clutch, and works with mid-range hardware. It certainly stands out from the crowd of foldables due to its extravagant design. Specs were never the driving factor here and if you look at the V Purse on paper it might look like a mid-range model disguised as a flagship foldable. As we found out, that’s not exactly the case thanks to the premium build, great screen, and stable performance provided by the Snapdragon 778G paired with 16GB of RAM.
The 7.71-inch AMOLED screen is excellent for media consumption and gets very bright without having annoying creases like some other high-end foldables. The build quality leaves little to be desired, although durability is a question mark given that the screen is always exposed to the elements. As it stands, Honor V Purse represents a link between fashion and technology with the former playing a more obvious role than the latter.
We’ve been expecting more affordable foldable phones with toned-down specs for a while now, and if the V Purse is any indication, it can be done. However, with his CNY 6,000 ($840/€775) starting price and Chinese exclusivity, the Honor V Purse won’t catch many eyes outside its home market.
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