A spec war is underway among phone manufacturers, all competing to claim the title of the world’s thinnest foldable. Companies are battling over fractions of millimeters to boast about their device’s thickness. On a theoretical basis, Honor is currently winning this race with its Magic V5 foldable, which measures just 8.8mm when folded. The reason this is theoretical is due to a significant, camera-bump-sized caveat.
The thin frame of the Honor Magic V5 looks and feels great as long as you hold it with your fingers wrapped around the bottom half of the phone. However, if your fingers brush against the massive camera bump, the phone can feel uncomfortable to hold. This peculiarity took a few days to adjust to.
When laid on a table, the phone creates a slant. This is acceptable when the device is folded, but in its unfolded state, it creates a noticeable and unpleasant wobble. In that unfolded state, the frame is an impressively slim 4.1mm thick. This is one millimeter less than Oppo’s Find N5 but 0.5mm more than Huawei’s triple-folding phone.
Apart from these design quirks, the phone is a solid piece of hardware. It is powered by the top-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. The front display is a 6.43-inch screen with a 2376 x 1060 resolution, and the main unfolded display is a 7.95-inch screen with 2172 x 2352 pixels. Honor states it uses a carbon fiber reinforced inner panel for better fall protection and has applied an anti-scratch material to the display. So far, there are no notable scratches on either screen.
The screen is very bright with a peak brightness of 5,000 nits. Reading articles, PDFs, and long emails on the unfolded screen is enjoyable, and playing games like NYT Puzzles became a favorite activity. Both displays support LTPO, allowing the refresh rate to dynamically switch from 1Hz to 120Hz, which makes navigation and scrolling a breeze. Most apps adjusted well to both screens, though some, like Diablo Immortal, had resolution issues on the unfolded display, making the cover screen preferable for gaming.
The device has a sturdy build with IP58 and IP59 ratings for dust and water resistance. The folding hinge, which uses the second-gen Honor Super Steel mechanism, felt solid during a week of usage. The foldable is equipped with a massive 5,820mAh silicone carbon battery that easily gets you through a full day of use, including some gaming. It supports 66W wired charging and 50W wireless charging, though you need Honor’s proprietary chargers for the fastest speeds; a 66W charger is included in the box. Honor claims you can charge from 0 to 50% in just 16 minutes and reach 100% in 43 minutes with the wired charger. Even if the phone doesn’t hit those exact numbers, you can quickly get enough battery for several hours of use.
The Honor Magic V5’s camera casing hosts three sensors: a 50-megapixel main camera with an f/1.6 aperture, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera, and a 64-megapixel telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom. The phone also has a pair of 20-megapixel selfie cameras for both the inner and outer screens.
The phone takes good photos in all conditions, capturing details well with largely good color accuracy. However, in some conditions, the phone’s computational algorithm appeared to boost reds. The camera has a pretty good super macro mode that lets you take detailed close-up photos of objects like flowers.
Since all companies have access to AI image models, many are introducing a super zoom mode that uses generative AI to fill in details. Honor’s 100x zoom technology is good enough to capture text at a distance and have AI clear it up. However, when capturing different objects, the AI-processed version often looked very artificial and AI-generated. This was not the case when testing the Pixel 10 Pro’s 100x Zoom.
Like most phones made in China, this device includes numerous AI-powered beauty features that can smoothen skin, adjust nose and face size, and brighten pictures. These features can be quickly turned off with a toggle. Honor has also included a suite of AI editing tools. An AI eraser lets you draw on objects to remove them, with options to remove passersby and reflections. The first option does not always work well, sometimes removing important elements from a photo incorrectly.
The phone has an AI cutout tool that allows you to select an object from a photo and move it within the frame, using generative AI to fill the gap. This is also not perfect and can leave artifacts like shadows, clearly indicating something was moved. Other tools include AI upscaling and AI outpainting. Furthermore, an image-to-video function in the photo app allows for three video generations per 30 days using Google’s Veo2 model. The output, however, is not great and often feels uncanny compared to the original image.
Honor is using its MagicOS 9, based on Android 15, with this device. The software is not cluttered, but pre-installed apps for smart home devices and the myHonor community app feel unnecessary. An Honor Health app connects to smart health devices and includes pre-loaded exercise content. MagicOS handles media exchange with both Android and Apple devices well. A Workstation app for macOS makes it easy to send photos, videos, and documents to a Mac.
The company released a neat on-device call translation feature that lets you download a translation model for local data processing. It currently supports six languages: Chinese, English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian. In testing with a French-speaking friend, the results were very good. Unlike Pixel’s feature, which retains your voice, this one lets you choose between a male or female voice for the translation.
Honor is releasing the Magic V5 in Europe, APAC, and the Middle East. In the UK and Europe, the Magic V5 will have a starting price of £1,699.99 or €1,999 for the 512GB version. This gives consumers an option to try a foldable at a price £200 cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7. While this might not challenge Samsung’s top spot in the foldable market, it could help Honor’s growth numbers.