Honor unveils Magic 3 series, its first post-Huawei smartphones, all with 6.76-inch displays, Google services, up to 512GB and 12GB RAM, starting at €899
Jon Porter / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
Honor’s earlier Honor 10 was launched under Huawei at a €399 European starting price; Magic 3 marks a sharp repositioning toward a standalone premium line, with Google services central to its marketability. The subsequent €1,099 Magic 4 Pro and Magic V foldable launch show Honor extending that Magic branding into higher-priced flagship and new-form-factor devices.
Related coverage later places the line in Europe again with the €1,299 Magic 6 Pro, indicating that Magic 3 was an early step in a sustained premium-device strategy rather than a one-off separation product.
First-order effects
- Honor can immediately sell the Magic 3 series as a premium Android handset with Google services, while asking €899 and above for configurations with up to 512GB of storage and 12GB of RAM.
- Buyers seeking a post-Huawei Honor phone gain access to Google services across the entire Magic 3 range rather than having to trade premium hardware for a different software proposition.
Second-order effects
- Honor’s move forces its next Magic releases to compete on flagship specifications and pricing, a trajectory reflected in the later €1,099 Magic 4 Pro.
- The Magic brand becomes a platform for product expansion: the later Magic V carries it into foldables while retaining high-end memory configurations.
Third-order effects
- If Honor sustains the progression from Magic 3 through later Pro and foldable models, its separation from Huawei becomes an independent premium-brand strategy built around global Android compatibility and broader device categories.
- The widening gap from the earlier €399 Honor 10 to Magic-series flagship prices points to Honor pursuing higher-value devices rather than its former value-oriented positioning.
The trend: Honor is using the Magic line to establish a post-Huawei premium portfolio, pairing Google-enabled Android phones with progressively higher-priced flagship and foldable models.