The Honor Magic V5 is a truly 'thincredible' phone with an edge over the Galaxy Fold 7

Honor is clearly building decent momentum with its foldables; the Chinese manufacturer has taken a chunk out of Samsung's market share in key global markets. Although Honor doesn't have a presence in North America, it's doing well in other Western countries.

The Magic V5 aims to build on that foundation. The foldable is launching at a time when there are plenty of exciting devices in this category; Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7 has alluring upgrades, and the Vivo X Fold 5 is a standout all-rounder even though it's using older silicon. Google showcased the Pixel 10 Pro Fold as well, with that device debuting at the end of October.

Obviously, brands are intent on pushing foldables as a mainstream category, and having used the Z Fold 7 and X Fold 5 extensively over the last two months, it's evident that these devices are just as easy to use as regular phones. With the Magic V5 now making its global debut, let's see how it measures up to its rivals.

Honor Magic V5: Specs, pricing, and availability

Honor unveiled the Magic V5 in China back in July, and the device made its global debut at an event in London on August 28, 2025. It will be available in a 16GB/512GB configuration outside China.

The Magic V5 is sold in Ivory White, Black, Dawn Gold, and Reddish Brown color variants, and it costs £1,699 ($2,286) in the U.K. and €1,999 ($2,324) in other countries in the region. To put things into context, the 512GB model of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 costs £1,899 in the U.K.

Honor Magic V5: Design

• The Magic V5 isn't quite as thin or light as the Vivo X Fold 5 or Galaxy Z Fold 7, but it is still a sleek foldable.
• It has a new hinge that's among the best around, and there's no visible crease.

Honor says that the Magic V5 is the thinnest foldable around. However, my limited testing with the Hozo NeoRuler showed that Vivo's X Fold 5 is 1mm thinner, and the Z Fold 7 is 2mm thinner than the Magic V5. Honor's caveat is that the claim was made when the Magic V5 debuted in China in July, and given that the Z Fold 7 didn't launch until later in the month, it's continuing to use the claim in its marketing materials.

Regardless of the dubious proclamations around thinness, what's evident is that the Magic V5 is just as sleek as its immediate rivals. It feels like a regular phone when folded, and you get a decent 7.95-inch panel when unfolded. I like the design at the back; the gold variant looks exquisite, and the patterned design around the hinge makes the device look rather striking.

The Z Fold 7 also has decent presence, but the bold styling with the camera housing gives the Magic V5 an edge in this regard. The foldable has rounded edges and is good to hold while folded, and the hinge has smooth articulation and doesn't need much force to unlock. Similar to previous years, the hinge stays unlocked at various angles, and I use this feature quite a bit while taking photos.

There's no visible crease when using the device unfolded, and that's something Honor has excelled at over the last two years.

Another positive is that the foldable gets IP58 and IP59 ingress protection. This allows the device greater resilience against adverse weather, and gives Honor a distinct advantage over the Z Fold 7, which is limited to IP48.

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My Magic V5 unit weighs 226g, and that's 4g heavier than the Vivo X Fold 5 in spite of having a smaller 5820mAh battery. Then there's the camera module at the back; the octagonal island juts out considerably, and it roughly doubles the thickness of the device. With the camera island included, the Magic V5 comes in at 16.5mm, and that's considerably bulkier than the X Fold 5 (14.9mm) and Galaxy Z Fold 7 (14.7mm).

There are usability issues with the camera island as well. The sheer size of the module makes the Magic V5 wobble when using it on a table, and it's so frustrating that I wasn't able to use the device unfolded most of the time because of this limitation.

Other than that annoyance, the Magic V5 is good to use. It may not be the thinnest or lightest foldable around, but it's still a great overall showing, and it holds up well against the Z Fold 7 and X Fold 5.

Honor Magic V5: Displays

• Honor has the best cover and inner OLED panels of any foldable.
• Both panels get bright, and with 4,320Hz PWM dimming as standard, they're eye-friendly.

There's no question — the Magic V5 has the best OLED panels of any foldable I used yet. The 6.43-inch cover panel is narrower than what you get on the X Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 7, but that doesn't hinder usability in the least. Similarly, while the 7.95-inch inner panel is a little smaller than what you get on Vivo and Samsung's foldables, you don't notice a difference in regular use.

Both OLED panels go up to 120Hz and are a delight to use. Color vibrancy and contrast levels are excellent, and they're among the brightest panels of any foldable I used — I didn't see any issues even under harsh sunlight. There are other niceties; Honor has a dedicated ebook mode, and it turns the panel monochrome, turning the Magic V5 into the world's costliest e-reader. It's great to be able to read books on the inner panel, and this is a feature I enjoy quite a bit.

Honor also leads the industry with eye-care solutions, and the Magic V5 has a slew of offerings in this area; there's defocus eyecare, natural tone, hardware-assisted blue light protection, and a new toggle to adjust the level of PWM dimming. Both panels on the Magic V5 get 4,320Hz PWM dimming, and you can switch between that mode and 3,840Hz. This is where the Magic V5 has a clear advantage over Google and Samsung; the Pixel 10 Pro Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 7 don't have this feature.

Gaming is enjoyable on the inner panel, and the built-in audio is quite decent. There's plenty of customizability as well, and Honor clearly knows what it's doing in this category.

Honor Magic V5: Performance

• The Magic V5 is outstanding in daily use, and it holds up incredibly well even during gaming.
• The phone tends to get hotter than other foldables, but it isn't uncomfortable to use.

Just like Samsung, Honor went with the Snapdragon 8 Elite to power the Magic V5. The result is that the foldable is among the most fluid, and I didn't see any issues in daily use. It does a good job with sustained gaming as well, but the inherent foldable design doesn't allow extensive thermal management, so the device throttles earlier than the Magic 7 Pro and other regular phones.

That said, it does a much better job in this regard than last-gen foldables. Interestingly, the device posted lower scores than even the X Fold 5 in Geekbench's single and multi-core tests, but it delivered some of the best results of any device in 3DMark's demanding Solar Bay and Steel Nomad Light. It got hotter than Vivo and Samsung's foldables at 47 degrees, but it didn't get to a point where it was uncomfortable to hold.

I didn't see any issues while making calls or connecting to my home network, and the vibration motor picked up a much-needed upgrade this year. Honor's devices had a long-standing bug where the haptics glitched out constantly, and that thankfully isn't a problem on the Magic V5. However, you still don't get as much feedback in as many system events, and that's frustrating.

Honor Magic V5: Battery life

The Chinese model of the Magic V5 gets a 6,100mAh battery, but the global model is limited to 5,820mAh unit. Regardless, the device uses higher silicon content at 15%, and that allows it to last a smidgen longer than its rivals. I easily got a day's worth of heavy use from a full charge, and battery anxiety just isn't an issue with this phone — unlike the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

And when you need to charge the device, there's 66W fast charging. It takes just under 50 minutes to charge the Magic V5, with the phone getting to the 50% mark in just 18 minutes. The foldable uses Honor's custom E2 chip to deliver better longevity, and I didn't see any issues in this regard in the month I used the device.

Honor Magic V5: Cameras

• The foldable has one of the best cameras in this category.
• It takes standout photos in any lighting scenario, and Honor's image tuning is among the best in the industry.

The Magic V5 has a trio of cameras: a 50MP main camera with OIS, 64MP tele module with 3x optical zoom and OIS, and a 50MP wide-angle lens. There's a 20MP selfie camera underneath each panel, and it does 4K video.

Honor hasn't changed the interface too much, so you get the usual shooting modes and filters. There's 4K60 video with all the rear cameras, and you get a dedicated macro mode.

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The Magic V5 has ne of the best cameras of any foldable. I tend to prefer Vivo's image tuning, so the X Fold 5 still has an edge, but that's just a matter of preference — there's no doubt that the Magic V5 comes mighty close. The foldable takes wonderful photos in daylight scenarios, producing shots with good dynamic range and white balance. Colors aren't overly saturated, and it retains detail.

It does just as well in challenging situations, and even in conditions with little to no artificial lighting, the Magic V5 took detailed photos. The tele lens is fabulous in its own right, delivering usable shots at up to 10x, and leveraging AI to eke out clean photos beyond that. The wide-angle lens is also good, just not as noteworthy as the other two cameras.

Honor Magic V5: Software

• The Magic V5 still runs Android 15 out of the box, with no word on when Android 16 will be available.
• There are useful AI features and extensive utilities, but the UI is in need of an overhaul.

While Google and Samsung's latest phones have Android 16 pre-installed, that isn't the case on the Magic V5. The foldable comes with MagicOS 9.0.1 based on Android 15 instead, and that's annoying for many reasons. There's no telling when Android 16 will be rolled out to the phone, and it will count toward one of the seven guaranteed updates.

Then there's the interface itself. While Honor modernized the UI to an extent last year, MagicOS still has remnants of older builds, and these holdovers from nearly a decade ago make it look less cohesive than other Android skins.

Don't get me wrong; there's plenty of useful utilities and AI-assisted features available in the software, but the interface as a whole doesn't feel quite as modern or polished as its rivals. I'm not even comparing it to Google's efforts; Vivo, OnePlus, and OPPO's software is much better to use than what Honor is offering on the Magic V5.

Multitasking features are decent too; it's easy to launch split-screen mode, and you get a taskbar at the bottom. That said, there's no way to pin the taskbar — unlike other foldables — and Honor really needs to add a toggle to enable this.

What Honor does well is on-device AI; it has several tools aimed at image and video editing, real-time call translation, audio-to-text transcribing, and others that are highly useful. Honor collaborates heavily with Google in this area, and the results are much better than what you get on other Chinese phones — if anything, only the Pixel 10 Pro XL has a better AI suite.

The Magic V5 will get seven years of Android OS updates and security patches, just like Google's Pixel series and Samsung's Galaxy Z devices. This is great to see, and even though one update is wasted on bringing the device to Android 16 — what it should have launched with — but it will be relevant well into 2030.

Honor Magic V5: The competition

Vivo's X Fold 5 continues to be one of my favorite foldables of 2025, and although it doesn't differ too much to its predecessor, it combines a set of great cameras with useful software features and the best battery life of any device in this category. The hardware is a bit of a limitation as you don't get the latest silicon, but I didn't see any problems whatsoever. While it isn't available outside Asia, it's a good alternative to Samsung if you're in the region.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is also a decent choice if you're used to Samsung's software. The foldable has a thinner design, but the cameras aren't as good as the Magic V5, and the battery doesn't last anywhere as long.

Honor Magic V5: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if:

• You want a stylish foldable
• You need useful AI features
• You want powerful internals
• You need a foldable with amazing battery life

You shouldn't buy this if:

• You need the best software
• You need Android 16 out of the box

Having used the Magic V5 alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Vivo X Fold 5, it's clear that Honor nailed the brief this year. The Magic V5 holds its own against its immediate rivals, and it is just as sleek to hold and use. The absurdly-sized camera module tends to be a little annoying, but it's worth the inconvenience when you see just how good the cameras are on the device.

Honor has a definite edge over Samsung in key areas: the cameras are undoubtedly better than the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and the Magic V5 has much better battery life, and the OLED panels are brighter and have meaningful eye protection features.

The downside is that the MagicOS software still isn't quite as good as what you get on Samsung and Vivo foldables, and Honor really needs to overhaul the visuals and modernize the UI. That's not to say that the software is unusable; you get plenty of decent AI features and extensive customizability, it's just that the interface needs polish.

With other Chinese brands limiting their foldables to Asia, the Magic V5 is the sole contender to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 in vital western markets, and the fact that Honor is once again willing to undercut Samsung makes the Magic V5 even more enticing.