Honor’s V Purse is a fashion-inspired foldable idea telephone

The V Purse is a brand new idea telephone from Honor that asks “what if foldables had been extra like style equipment?” The corporate confirmed off the machine throughout a presentation at IFA 2023 alongside the Honor Magic V2, its newest foldable telephone introduced in China earlier this 12 months.

The V Purse is an illustration of what’s doable for folding gadgets, and Honor hasn’t mentioned if it’ll ever be launched it as a product. Conversely, the corporate says it plans to launch the Magic V2 globally no later than Q1 subsequent 12 months, CNBC reviews, however has but to formally announce pricing outdoors China.

There are two key components to the V Purse’s design. First is a sequence of interchangeable straps and chains that clip on to the foldable and permit it to be carried like a handbag or purse. The second is the way in which it makes use of its outward-facing show to point out a sequence of wallpapers designed to imitate totally different purse types. It’s mainly the other strategy to what Louis Vuitton did in 2019.

I’ll say that I feel the attachable straps aren’t a horrible concept. Accent producers like Bandolier have confirmed that loads of individuals are taken with attaching them to their present telephones as a handy strategy to carry them round — without having to purchase a wholly new telephone.

Having the V Purse’s foldable show on the unprotected outdoors relatively than the within of the machine is a daring alternative. Clearly the truth that you possibly can see the display always is the entire level of the machine; Honor desires to make use of it to point out off its always-on show designs. The corporate says it’s labored with a sequence of style designers and artists to contribute totally different themes for the machine, and has mentioned it desires to open up an API sooner or later to permit anybody to make their very own. These designs can react to your contact in addition to the motion of the telephone.

The V Purse has a small button to unclip and unfold the show, and Honor says the machine is lower than 9mm thick when folded.

However an outward-facing show comes with apparent sturdiness trade-offs. Folding telephone screens are smooth and fragile, which is why they’re usually hidden safely contained in the gadgets. Honor’s former father or mother firm Huawei put its foldable screens on the surface for its early foldable telephones, however fairly quickly it began placing them on the within like everybody else. The chance of scratching or scuffing the fragile show is excessive, even when Honor says the V Purse’s hinge is rated to outlive the identical 400,000 folds because the Magic V2. 

That mentioned, these issues are tutorial till Honor says it’s really going to promote the V Purse publicly. Given our expertise with earlier idea gadgets like this, we may be ready a really very long time.