Honor is going straight after Samsung with its latest foldable, the Magic V5. It’s thinner, lighter, and packs a giant camera bump, but its software still leaves too much to be desired.
Design and Display
The Magic V5 is strikingly slim at just 8.9mm when closed, about the thickness of a USB-C port on each side. Folded up, it feels like a regular phone. Open it, and you get a mini tablet you can carry in your pocket.
It costs £1,699.99 (€1,999.99), slightly undercutting Samsung and Google’s rivals by up to £100, but still firmly in luxury territory. At 217–222g, it’s heavier than Samsung’s Fold 7 but lighter than most other foldables and comparable to a large standard phone.
The 6.43-inch outer OLED screen is bright and sharp, while the 7.95-inch inner folding display is even more impressive. The crease is still there but barely noticeable in use. Like all foldable screens, it’s softer than glass, so you’ll need to be careful, and it attracts fingerprints easily.
One big improvement: it’s water- and dust-resistant, a first for many foldables, which should help with durability.
Specs at a Glance
- Main screen: 7.95in OLED, 120Hz
- Cover screen: 6.43in OLED, 120Hz
- Processor: Snapdragon 8 Elite
- RAM: 16GB
- Storage: 512GB
- Cameras: 50MP main + 50MP ultrawide + 64MP 3x telephoto, two 20MP selfie cameras
- Connectivity: 5G, dual SIM + eSIM, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6
- Water resistance: IP58 / IP59
- Weight: 217–222g
Performance and Battery
Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite, the Magic V5 is fast and smooth. It handles demanding apps and games without overheating. Multitasking is solid too you can run up to four apps at once, fewer than Samsung’s Fold 7 but still useful.
The battery is the real star. Honor squeezed in a higher-capacity cell than most slab phones, giving it excellent stamina. With heavy tablet-style use on 5G, it lasts about 37 hours. With more balanced use, it can stretch into a third day.
Software
This is where things stumble. The Magic V5 runs MagicOS 9, based on Android 15 instead of the latest Android 16. Honor promises seven years of updates in Europe, which is excellent, but the software itself feels rough.
The split-screen multitasking is clever, letting you tuck one app partially off-screen for more room. But notifications often open in tiny floating windows, even when you’d prefer full screen. Unlike Samsung, it doesn’t fully take advantage of half-folded modes, and small bugs like Gmail’s unread messages being hard to spot quickly add up.
On a £1,700 phone, these quirks are hard to forgive.
Camera
The huge round camera bump on the back houses a capable triple-lens system. The 50MP main shooter delivers good results in most lighting, though softer indoors. The 50MP ultrawide is decent but shows some edge distortion. The 64MP telephoto is the highlight, with sharp 3x zoom shots and usable 6x in-sensor zoom. Digital zoom holds up well to about 20x before quality drops.
Selfies are fine, but you’ll get better results using the main camera with the cover screen as a viewfinder. The phone also packs plenty of modes, AI features, and reliable video capture. Overall, the camera is strong for a foldable, though not at the very top of the smartphone market.
Sustainability
Honor rates the battery for 1,200 full charge cycles while retaining at least 80% capacity. The phone is repairable through Honor, with screen replacements costing £200–£700 depending on which display is damaged. Buyers also get a free screen repair within the first year if purchased early.
The device uses some recycled plastic, and Honor offers trade-in and refurbished programs, but publishes limited environmental reports.
Price
- Honor Magic V5: £1,699.99 (€1,999.99)
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: from £1,799
- Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold: £1,749
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: £1,249
- Honor Magic 7 Pro: £1,099
Verdict
The Magic V5 shows how good Honor is at hardware. It’s slim, light, powerful, has excellent battery life, and a capable camera. But its software is still behind Samsung and Google, and at this price, the flaws are hard to overlook.
Pros: slim design, lightweight, strong performance, long battery life, good camera, water resistance.
Cons: very expensive, buggy software, fragile screen, costly repairs, weaker folding modes.
Samsung and Google finally have real competition in foldables, but unless Honor polishes its software, the Magic V5 won’t be the foldable to beat.
