Oh hey, Honor’s got a foldable smartphone now, too! Honor, the definitely-not-part-of-Huawei company now aligned with Google Mobile Services again, has revealed the Honor Magic V, a foldable set for a 2022 launch. 

• That’s not a lot to say: it’s in the works, it looks like it folds more like a Samsung Galaxy Z than a flip phone
• And it’s coming “soon,” with no further details.

We might know some bits and pieces, though: 

• A July 2021 report by The Elec reported that an upcoming Honor foldable will have an 8.03-inch foldable screen with ultra-thin glass and a 6.45-inch external display.
• Honor does try and reach a younger target market, which makes a highly-expensive foldable unlikely, as CEO George Zhao told CNET back in 2019.
• …and that’s about all we know, other than a China-first launch.

Other speculation:

• Will this make it outside of China? My colleague Hadlee and I have been debating all morning. 
• My argument is that Honor went to all the trouble of separating from Huawei to be able to sell its phones with Google Mobile Services to Europe and Asia and so on, so… if I had to bet on it, I’d say it’s coming outside of China.
• Hadlee Simons said that he thinks Honor will follow Xiaomi and Oppo, with, at best, a slow wider release: “Xiaomi, Huawei, and Oppo all announced or launched foldables in 2021. But the problem is that none of these foldables launched outside China (although Oppo says the Find N is coming to Europe at an indeterminate point). There’s clearly a trend here, and Honor didn’t only announce the device on Weibo, unlike others. But I won’t be surprised if Honor’s Magic V follows this path too.”
• One other bit of speculation: Qualcomm did list Honor as one of the first manufacturers to use its new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip so maybe that’ll emerge here as the SoC on board?

🔥 Stop press: There’s an “official” marketing promo image for the Samsung Galaxy S22 now out (Android Authority).

👉 What was the best phone of 2021? Vote on the final four for Readers’ Choice: Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max vs Google Pixel 6 vs Google Pixel 6 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (Android Authority).

📸 2021 smartphone mega shootout: This year’s best camera phones tested (Android Authority).

👀 Our first look at the OSOM OV1, from the brains behind the Essential Phone (Android Authority).

⌚ Google’s Pixel Watch might usher in a revamped Assistant, forego Qualcomm chip (Android Authority).

🐅 Google’s Android 12 Go brings privacy and speed boosts to low-power phones: faster app launches, longer battery life, and more privacy controls (Android Authority).

🖥️ LG has a pretty wild new monitor or two: one with a unique 16:18 vertical aspect ratio and I’m here for it (Gizmodo).

⛔ Uh oh: A bunch of companies, including Amazon, Meta, T-Mobile, plus a bunch of press outlets including The Verge and TechCrunch and more have dropped out of CES 2022 (Engadget).

📈 TikTok saw more traffic than Google in 2021 and that fact is hurting people’s brains (Cloudflare).

🔭 The James Webb Telescope is now launching on Christmas Day due to weather (blogs.nasa.gov).

🌶 Growing peppers on the ISS is just the start of space farming (Wired).

😇 Ok this is something very different: “Why is Lucifer always shown as an ugly demon even though the Bible says he is the prettiest angel?” (r/nostupidquestions).

Oh dear, oh no, the number of reviews of Yankee candles saying they have no smell is rising again, as @drewtoothpaste noted and Nick Beauchamp tweeted in response:

• Plus, as a percentage of all reviews, here.
• In case you missed the reasons why, it’s all very Covid-adjacent stuff (WashPo).

Stay safe out there,

Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor