At a look
Professional’s Score
Execs
- Glorious efficiency
- Characteristic-rich consumer expertise
- Probably the greatest digicam methods on a foldable
- Maintains stylus assist, not like rivals
Cons
- MagicOS gained’t be to everybody’s tastes
- Smaller major show than rivals
- Audio high quality might be higher
- Costly
Our Verdict
Supplied you may get on with Honor’s MagicOS consumer expertise and the mountain of options at your disposal, the Magic V5 is likely one of the best book-style foldables on all fronts, while additionally undercutting its hottest competitors on value.
Value When Reviewed
This worth will present the geolocated pricing textual content for product undefined
Greatest Pricing At this time
Greatest Costs At this time: Honor Magic V5
2025 has quick grow to be the fiercest 12 months for foldables but, with Oppo, Samsung and Google all serving up extremely robust entries of their respective book-style folding telephone lineups. However now it’s Honor’s flip, and the long-anticipated Magic V5 clearly has its sights set on foldable supremacy.
With a lot occurring within the foldable area this season, Honor has been eager to carry consideration; actively selling the Magic V5 within the months main as much as its launch, touting key options, revealing specs and even granting press and influencers impressively early entry to {hardware}. The telephone hit pre-order in China on 2 July, however nearly in every single place else, followers have been made to attend till now to get their arms on the most recent within the firm’s Magic V collection.
On the floor, the Magic V5 appears like probably the most uncompromising foldable of the 12 months, however having lived with the V5 for the previous couple of weeks, can it truly ship on varied lofty guarantees?
Design & Construct
- Declare to world’s thinnest “book-style” foldable at launch
- IP58 & IP59 licensed
- From 217 grams
One of the crucial contentious battles amongst this 12 months’s crop of book-style foldables has been as regards to thickness. The Oppo Discover N5 (pictured under, in black) touched down again in February, laying declare to the title of “world’s thinnest book-style foldable” with a profile of 4.21mm when open.
Honor wasn’t going to let that slide, nevertheless, with the Magic V5 and its promised record-breaking wafer-thin profile arriving a number of months later.
Honor serves up the Magic V5 in 4 colourways: Daybreak Gold, Reddish Brown, Ivory White (as seen above) and black, and having dealt with all of them, Daybreak Gold will get my vote as probably the most audacious, head-turning foldable end at the moment in the marketplace (carefully adopted by the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 in Blue Shadow). That magnificence is greater than pores and skin deep, too, with the end additionally affecting thickness.
In case you’re after the entry Honor’s put ahead because the world record-breaker, you’ll need the Ivory White mannequin; cited as measuring 8.88mm when closed and an insanely skinny 4.1mm when open. Nevertheless, the opposite finishes are nonetheless outlandishly svelte too, at 9mm when closed and 4.2mm when open.
You now not need to compromise on thickness to take pleasure in a foldable telephone
I’d chase away anybody planning on selecting the Magic V5 explicitly due to its declare to the title of “world’s thinnest”. Honor’s metrics don’t have in mind pre-fitted display protectors and digicam bumps, however even factoring these parts in, taking my very own set of digital callipers to Honor’s, Samsung’s and Oppo’s newest undermined the V5’s declare to the throne, if solely by a hair.
Even so, we’ve reached dimensions with book-style foldables that imply you now not need to compromise on thickness to take pleasure in a foldable telephone. Even with a case, they’re nonetheless thinner and fewer obtrusive within the pocket than my Mous case-clad Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely, and at between 217g and 222g, they weigh about as a lot, too.
Ergonomically, the Magic V5’s rounded edges set it aside from the flat surrounds of its most like-minded rivals, and although maybe a bit trickier to pry open in consequence, this distinction makes for a extra ergonomic, snug match within the hand.
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
By way of opening and shutting the V5, Honor’s additionally ensured the revised hinge mechanism is rated to resist as much as 500,000 rounds of being opened and closed, which equates to (as much as 10) years of use with out failure. What’s extra, an extra carbon fibre layer beneath the telephone’s major folding show helps cope with shock resistance from drops, too.
In follow, regardless of nearly a month of use, except for selecting lint out of the crease after being in my pocket for a very long time, the Magic V5 is decidedly freed from blemishes, from its display protector-laden outer show to its composite again.
I additionally have to commend Honor’s engineers for creating the primary foldable I’ve encountered that may truly detect overseas objects throughout the show space while you attempt to fold it closed, warning you to provide it a clear earlier than folding it away.
Not like the Z Fold 7’s offset vertical digicam setup, the again of the V5 performs host to a much more distinguished round module, spanning the whole lot of the telephone’s again (when closed).
On the one hand, it’s large and tends to catch in my pocket when placing the telephone away, however on the opposite, it makes for a helpful ledge in your finger, decreasing slippage (akin to a Popsocket), and renders the V5 extra steady (in comparison with the Fold 7) when positioned on a flat floor.
Only a week earlier than the Magic V5’s worldwide launch, Google pulled the wraps off the Pixel 10 Professional Fold, and it comes with a world-first of its personal; boasting spectacular IP68-certified safety towards mud and water ingress, out the field.
Whereas that is an simple achievement for a foldable, Honor was seemingly ready for such a problem, with the V5 sporting solely marginally lesser IP58 certification (indicating weaker resistance to mud and filth than the Pixel), but in addition IP59 certification.
As such, it’s outfitted towards extra intense water stress than some other foldable at the moment on the scene (for reference, the Z Fold 7 is barely rated with IP48 safety); getting splashed by a passing automotive or drenched on a log flume shouldn’t spell prompt demise for Honor’s newest in consequence.
Whatever the sturdiness guarantees the Honor Magic V5 makes, at this value level, it’s additionally price checking what Honor’s customer support is like in your area. Regardless of the model’s worldwide prevalence, Honor’s product assist community won’t be as strong as, say, Samsung’s. Simply one thing to contemplate.
Display & Audio system
- 6.43-inch 1-120Hz LTPO 2376×1060 AMOLED outer show
- 7.95-inch 1-120Hz LTPO AMOLED 2352×2172 major show
- Honor Magic-Pen stylus assist
For a telephone that touts spec superiority over its rivals in most areas, it’s a bit stunning that the Magic V5 has one of many smallest major folding shows in its class. Not by a lot admittedly (roughly 0.05 inches), however the panel’s smaller measurement and thicker bezels in comparison with the likes of the Z Fold 7 give the telephone a fractionally extra dated look when open.
On a technical stage, nevertheless, Honor has granted the Magic V5 a terrific pair of 120Hz OLED panels. Whereas I’d have appreciated higher outside visibility while testing through the British summer time months (the interior show has a panel-wide excessive brightness mode ceiling of 1300nits, whereas the exterior display reaches 1800nits in HBM), a peak 5000-nit restrict (on each shows) is virtually exceptional.
It’s about double the aforementioned Discover and Fold’s claimed thresholds, and grants the telephone outlandishly wealthy HDR visuals, making it best for having fun with films on the go.
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
Honor additionally clothes its telephones’ shows with a wealth of applied sciences and customisation choices, and the V5’s screens aren’t any totally different. I like the full-colour always-on show, while handy options like double-tap to wake are enabled by default too.
Honor staples akin to AI Defocus and 4320Hz PWM (pulse-width modulation) dimming are each current to scale back eye pressure and the danger of complications, plus the telephone boasts auto white steadiness adjustment and even a devoted monochromatic eBook Mode, (if it isn’t apparent, the V5’s type issue renders it excellent for ereading too).
Together with that carbon fibre layer, Honor has additionally utilized an ‘anti-scratch NanoCrystal defend’ to the telephone’s outer show, and ‘Honor Tremendous Armor’ to the principle folding panel, which the corporate claims grants 10x higher drop safety, 15x higher scratch resistance and 3x higher put on resistance than common glass. And as talked about earlier than, I’ve had little trigger for concern so far as common hardiness and resilience go.
Honor has granted the Magic V5 a terrific pair of 120Hz OLED panels
As for each foldable’s telltale crease, regardless of a diminished really feel under-finger, it’s about as seen because the one on its predecessor and no higher or worse than the competitors’s, however in on a regular basis use, I seldom thought of it.
Samsung’s newest book-style foldable sported fairly the glow-up when it debuted in July, boasting a considerably thinner profile (on common, round 25% thinner) than its predecessor, however one of many sacrifices Samsung felt as if it needed to make to attain this new silhouette was to ditch long-standing S Pen stylus assist. The Magic V5 makes no such compromise.
Regardless of hovering across the title of “world’s thinnest,” the Magic V5 retains the Honor Magic V3‘s Magic-Pencil stylus compatibility, so if that’s an important a part of the foldable expertise for you, it’s Honor, not Samsung, that you simply’ll wish to flip to this 12 months.
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
As for audio efficiency, regardless of the shape issue’s skinny nature not precisely lending itself to acoustic prowess, Honor’s completed an honest job with the sound output within the Magic V5. You’ll discover stereo speaker grilles positioned diagonally when the telephone is open, which provide respectable readability in any respect however the highest quantity ranges.
Unsurprisingly, the V5 is unlikely to be anybody’s go-to speaker for music playback, with a usually flat sound that might do with extra bass (if that’s bodily potential with a design just like the V5’s?). Stereo separation is surprisingly muddied, too, but it surely’s nonetheless completely serviceable audio within the flagship area.
Specs & Efficiency
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset (8-core variant)
- 16GB RAM & 512GB storage
- Storage-based RAM growth by an extra 16GB
Oppo’s Discover N5 was the primary book-style foldable to embrace Qualcomm’s newest and best Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which powers nearly all of 2025’s greatest telephones. Nevertheless, it wasn’t the identical model we’d seen on units up till this level.
Considered within the pursuit of higher thermal administration, the N5 sported a 7-core binned variant of the Elite, which means weaker CPU efficiency, which, though solely slight, is more durable to justify throughout these telephones’ ultra-high value vary.
As soon as once more, Honor refused to compromise with the Magic V5, which means you get that full-fat 8-core model of the Elite (similar to you’d discover within the Honor Magic 7 Pro), backed by 16GB of (LPDDR5X) RAM, which can be doubled by reassigning an additional 16GB of the phone’s 512GB of (UFS 4.0) storage, using the RAM Turbo feature.
In China, the Magic V5 can be had in 256GB and 1TB flavours too, but overseas, the company has kept things simple, with a single storage option.
Like a lot of Chinese phone makers, Honor ships its phones with a ‘default’ power profile and a ‘performance’ power profile. In the case of the Magic 7 Pro, for example, a difference in benchmark results between the two modes was present, but not major.
While the Magic V5 does indeed run on that 8-core Elite chip, going by its test scores, it looks like the phone prunes performance back compared to similarly-specced candy bar flagships, when using its default power profile, but fully opens the taps in ‘performance’ mode.
Honor Magic V5 benchmarks
Despite CPU scores closer to a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered phone in day-to-day use, you can switch to performance mode for the full might of the 8 Elite, explicitly when gaming (by way of the phone’s Game Manager feature) or all the time, by dipping into the Battery section of the Settings menu. As you might expect, keeping performance mode always on does burn through battery life faster.
In truth, I have no issue with this approach. The Magic V5 felt perfectly fast and fluid, comfortable with multi-window multitasking and serving up fast app load times, in the ‘default’ power profile; but it’s nice to know that my hands aren’t tied, should I feel the need for some extra grunt.
As for gaming, with performance mode set to auto-enable when I fired up Call of Duty: Mobile, I never noticed dropped frames at default graphical settings, even if the phone did get warm (but never hot) after about 15 minutes of constant gameplay.
Cameras
- 50Mp main, 50Mp ultrawide and 64Mp 3x telephoto sensors
- 20Mp selfie camera (on inner and outer screens)
- Up to 100x AI Super Zoom
The Honor Magic V5 makes a statement with its sizeable rear camera bump, which packs a trio of sensors, similarly to its predecessor. Despite seemingly using the same 50Mp main sensor as the Magic V3, the V5 gains a new, higher resolution ultrawide and telephoto sensors, once again paired with the ability to capture shots at up to 100x, meaning impressive versatility.
One of the big sticking points with the Magic V3‘s camera system was its lacklustre ultrawide, but the jump to new hardware, paired with whatever algorithms Honor has improved up results in far better performance this time around. There’s still an apparent jump in quality, colour accuracy and dynamic range between the ultrawide and main, but it’s far less pronounced than before, meaning greater image quality consistency across the V5’s rear cameras.
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
In side-by-side tests with the Z Fold 7’s rear trio of cameras, aside from shooting warmer and, surprisingly processing shots even more so than Samsung, Honor’s foldable camera system generally retains greater detail and does a better job of keeping bloom from light sources in check too.
Low light capture would be the area where I’d suggest Honor focuses on next, as while the Magic V5 proved competent enough, it’s the area where the biggest strides could be made.
One issue is Honor’s exposure times. Even with Night Mode enabled, the Magic V5 was one of the fastest to capture in low-light settings. On the one hand, if there is enough ambient light, you’re likely to get a sharper picture, but otherwise shots simply appear too dark and lack meaningful levels of detail compared to rivals that take more time.
One huge advantage that the foldable form factor does provide is the ability to more readily shoot selfies using the phone’s main sensor, and the gap in quality compared with selfies shot on the V5’s 20Mp in-display sensors is massive.
You can toggle the bokeh (background blur) when using the selfie cameras, or scale it when shooting selfies with the phone’s bigger sensors, but everything from blur quality to edge detection is so much better with the latter. In essence, take Zoom meetings and WhatsApp calls with those in-display snappers, but any other time you want your face in shot, flip to those back snappers.
The V5 also boasts two camera features you’ll most readily find on Google’s Pixels. Honor’s cribbed the Pixel 9 Pro Fold‘s ‘Made You Look’ abilty, which puts cute animated characters on the outer display when the phone is open, allowing you to better hold a child’s attention when snapping a pic, and that impressive-sounding 100x AI Super Zoom.
Even coming from the samples featured in the Honor Magic 7 Pro camera review nearer the start of the year, Honor appears to be constantly improving the imaging models the generative AI Super Zoom is applying to shots. Even so, having just experienced Google’s new 100x Pro Res Zoom on the Google Pixel 10 Pro for the first time, Honor needs to work harder on exposure and fine detail accuracy in its partially-generated high focal range zoom shots.
Battery Life & Charging
- 5820mAh (Si-C) battery
- 66W wired + 50W wireless charging
- 100% charge in 43 minutes (according to Honor)
Cutting-edge battery tech has been a key part of Honor’s flagship phone experience for a while now, and that’s just as true with the Magic V5. In China, if you opt for the full-fat 1TB model, you also get the largest capacity battery on any foldable to yet, at a whopping 6100mAh; trumping the Vivo X Fold 5’s 6000mAh cell.
Internationally, however, the V5 comes with a fractionally more modest 5820mAh power pack instead.
While the 6100mAh variant uses Honor’s latest silicon-carbon tech, the smaller cell relies on previous-generation parts. Don’t be disparaged, though. Looking at the wider foldable market, wherever the Magic V5 is in the world, it’s still equipped with one of the largest and fastest-charging battery setups around, made all the more impressive by that wafer-thin frame.
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
In testing, considering its battery capacity, the phone scored lower than I expected when using PCMark’s Work 3.0 Battery test (nine hours and one minute), but in real-world conditions (switching between the phone’s two screens) it delivered a respectable 8.25 hours of screen-on time on a single charge (for reference, the Oppo Find N5 scored 13:58, but in real-world use only managed 5.5 hours of screen-on time).
This equates to around a day and half of use, but even if you were to exclusively use the V5’s main near-8-inch display, it would still likely see you through to the end of a full day, without issue. Compare that to the Z Fold 7’s significantly smaller 4400mAh battery, which on occasion came close to dying after a day’s normal use; not to mention its slower 25W wired and 15W wireless charging.
Honor quotes an impressively fast 43 minutes for a full charge, when leveraging the Magic V5’s maximum 66W wired charging speed, and 50% charge in just 16 minutes. I didn’t hit these lofty figures, but I came close.
In testing, my Magic V5 hit 34% in 15 minutes and fully replenished after 53, but after multiple runs, I think I figured out why I wasn’t reaching Honor’s record.
Safely managing recharge speed and heat build-up is critical
With the more challenging thermal envelope a phone like the Magic V5 possesses, safely managing recharge speed and heat build-up is critical. To mitigate this, the Magic V5 is the first foldable I’ve encountered that actually asks (with an on-screen pop-up) to be charged whilst unfolded, as doing so expands its surface area, for greater heat dissipation, like a heatsink.
While I never performed a full charge test with the V5 open like this the entire time, quick refills proved more effective compared to when I typically charged the phone closed for the same period of time.
50W wireless charging is a nice inclusion too (again, all the more impressive, considering the V5’s thickness), although, depending on which market you’re in, you’ll have to buy an official power adapter and/or wireless charger separately.
Check out our rundown of the best battery life phones for more.
Software & Apps
- MagicOS 9.0.1 atop Android 15 (at launch)
- New multitasking UI in Multi-Flex mode
- 7 years OS + security update support
While Android 16 is now here – thanks to the arrival of the Pixel 10 series, just last week (at the time of writing) – Honor hasn’t yet had a chance to update the V5 to run on this fresh release. That said, when asked, the company confirmed that it’s working closely with Google on its updates.
With more modest devices – like the Honor 400 Pro – confirmed to be running Android 16 before the year’s end, it seems safe to assume that the V5 will receive a similar uplift by then, if not sooner. Honor also upped it software commitment back in March, meaning the V5 also benefits from the promise of 7 years of OS and security updates, which is amongst the best in the industry.
Out of the box, the Magic V5 sports the company’s latest MagicOS 9 user experience (version 9.0.1 at the time of writing), which comes with an increasingly familiar gamut of features, many of which are underpinned by – say it with me now – AI.
While I can’t say I love the look and feel of MagicOS as much as clean Pixel-flavoured Android, it does offer heaps of native customisation, and it’s dressed with an ever-increasing assortment of useful (and, admittedly, not so useful) everyday features.
The new Motion Sickness Relief tool adds dots around the edge of the screen that hold their position whilst your phone bounces around in your hands whilst on a train or in a car. These stabilised reference points apparently trick the brain, reducing the sense of motion and alleviating nausea, for those who remain dead-set on keeping eyes on their display whilst moving.
The experience of jumping between apps on the V5 feels totally seamless
Honor states that its tech is 85% effective against 360° motion sickness. It’s a great addition that I first encountered within iOS, but nonetheless appreciate Honor’s cribbed version here.
Magic Capsule is another iOS-like implementation of a persistent, dynamic notification, only appearing whilst you’re playing media, recording audio or have a timer running; granting quick access to the relevant controls, without having to swipe down into your notifications or go hunting for the related app itself.
One addition new the the V5 that Honor appears to have “borrowed” from Oppo/OnePlus this time, is what it calls Multi-Flex.
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
While you’ve been able to split-screen multitask on Honor phones for a while – running a third app within a floating window on more advanced models – just like Oppo’s/OnePlus’ Open Canvas, Multi-Flex allows for three full-screen apps to run side-by-side-by-side, shunting whichever app you’re using the least mostly off the edge of the screen.
Then, by tapping on the edge of the lesser-used app still peeking out, the UI will shift that app and the one next to it back onto the screen and move the app on the other end off to the other side. Multi-Flex, paired with Honor’s already varied and versatile multitasking experience, means the experience of jumping between apps on the V5 feels totally seamless.
A feature that’s becoming increasingly prevalent is various Android phone makers’ proprietary solutions for sharing to and from Android. For some reason, only Chinese companies seem to be jumping on this functionality so far, with the likes of Samsung, Sony, and other big names seemingly ignoring its potential.
As an Android phone user who defaults to an iPad for tablet usage, the Magic V5’s ability to wirelessly share files to and from iOS / iPadOS via Honor Connect is a hugely appreciated addition. In some markets, Honor also offers a macOS client for similar AirDrop-like convenience, but I apparently don’t live in a region where this client is supported… yet.
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
Honor has also poured time and energy into exclusive features like AI DeepFake detection – which is included on the V5 – as well as its own take on Google’s Circle to Search, called Magic Portal. Encircled text and on-screen media can instantly be shared to other Honor-specific apps and experiences, like Favourite Space, on top of being thrown into a Google Search or shared to the phone’s Gallery.
The company’s Magic Sidebar is also great at dynamically surfacing AI features like summarisation when browsing a web page or composition when writing a note, and it makes for a pretty friction-free reason to use such features, which I thought would otherwise go untouched.
Price & Availability
Despite launching in China already (and subsequently other APAC markets, like Malaysia), the Honor Magic V5’s full international roll-out hit on 28 August, with the single 512GB storage SKU coming in at £1699.99; just like the Magic V3 before it and the V2 before that (European pricing clocks in at €1999).
You can buy the Magic V5 directly from Honor in the UK, as well as carriers like EE, O2, Three, Vodafone and Tesco Mobile, and established retailers like Argos, Currys, Amazon UK and Very, starting August 29.
It’s most fierce competitor – the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 – starts at £100 more in the same market, but for that price you’re getting half as much storage and only 12GB of RAM (plus a gamut of other compromises that I’ll come to), the caveat being that Samsung is able to sell its next-gen foldable in the US, whilst Honor is not.
See more options in our guide to the best foldable phones you can buy.
Should you buy the Honor Magic V5?
Everything that was true of the Magic V3 is just as true of its successor. Honor has again proven its mastery of mobile engineering, and created one of the most technically capable devices out there; from hardware design to performance, battery tech to photographic ability. But just as what made the V3 so good has only been enhanced with the Magic V5, so too are the areas where Honor’s phones tend to falter.
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
Provided you’re comfortable getting to grips with some of the clunkier aspects of the phone’s MagicOS experience, and you don’t take umbrage with the assortment of features unashamedly lifted from other phone makers’ software experiences, the feature density and versatility served up by the Magic V5 is unprecedented.
After reviewing the Z Fold 7, we dubbed it ‘the best foldable phone’. But if, for whatever reason, you don’t like any aspect of Samsung’s take on a book-style foldable in 2025, you’ll be better served by the Honor Magic V5.
Specs
- MagicOS 9.0.1 atop Android 15 (at launch)
- 6.43-inch 1-120Hz 2616 x 1140 LTPO AMOLED outer display protected by Nanocrystal Glass
- 7.95-inch 1-120Hz 2480 x 2248 LTPO AMOLED main display
- Side-mounted capacitive fingerprint sensor
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset (8-core variant)
- 16GB RAM (LPDDR5X)
- China: 256GB, 512GB, 1TB | RoW: 512GB (UFS 4.0)
- Cameras:
- 50Mp ƒ/1.6 main sensor w/ OIS
- 50Mp ƒ/2.0 ultrawide
- 64Mp ƒ/2.5 3x telephoto w/ OIS
- 20Mp ƒ/2.2 selfie camera (both inner and main displays)
- Stereo speakers
- Dual-SIM
- Wi-Fi 5/6/7
- Bluetooth 6.0
- China: 6100mAh | RoW: 5820mAh battery
- 66W wired charging
- 50W wireless charging
- 156.8 x 74.3 x 8.8mm | 9.0mm (closed) | 156.8 x 145.9 x 4.1mm | 4.2mm (open)
- IP58 & IP59 certified
- 217g (Ivory White only), 222g (all other colourways)
- Colours: Dawn Gold, Reddish Brown, Ivory White, black