MobileManDan
Intro
Foldable phones are becoming more mainstream these days thanks to newer technology when it comes to battery, but more importantly the hinge and foldable glass to make the screen work. Honor recently had the V3 which set a benchmark for a lot of the competition to catch up with.
This is a review on the HONOR Magic V5 device which has just been announced and offers flagship specifications in a foldable device which if you pick a certain colour will be the thinnest foldable on the market.
At time of writing the review you can pick up an HONOR Magic V5 for £1,699.99 here in the UK.
My review was based on the HONOR Magic V5 which I had hands-on for 3 weeks before posting the review. This allows me to get a decent amount of hands on time to check out the camera as well as all the other specifications and AI features that the company have put in their latest devices, some of which I found very useful.
All opinions are solely based on my experience with the device and no one has seen any of the content before it’s gone live. Everyone gets to see at the same time as it is purely my opinion and my thoughts on my time with the phone without any influence.
Design
Looking at the front of the phone, it’s all screen with a 6.43 inch display with a 120hz refresh rate that makes it one of the best displays on the market and was a joy for watching videos or playing games as well as browsing your content,
HONOR have made their outer screen on foldable phones wider than the Galaxy Fold 6 which has a taller but narrower design, however this often felt quite cramped when using it and having a wider screen not only allowed more content, but also felt more natural and enjoyable to use instead of having to keep open the phone up all the time to use.
The actual display itself is fantastic. It offers bright colors, great contrast thanks to the LTPO OLED technology, for the techies out there it offers HDR10, Dolby Vision and has a maximum brightness of 5000 nits if needed making outdoor use a breeze.
Looking at the left hand side of the phone, you get a very strong and well designed hinge which is one of the best in the market and key to allowing the V5 to be so thin overall, any concerns with how many times the hinge will last opening and closing the screen can worry no more. HONOR have put this new hinge through countless strength tests and will easily last your whole lifetime using the phone
Over on the right side you have the volume up and down buttons which can also be used when the camera is open as a physical camera shutter button which was nice and often found help when taking photos.
Below this is the power button which also has a fingerprint reader built in, this was really fast and accurate and I find it hard to think of a time i went to unlock the phone and had any issues, the power button also is a way to open up Gemini, the AI assistant from Google that lets you do so much it could be a whole article on it’s own, but this comes with built in quick access by just holding the power key and speaking into the phone or even typing if you prefer.
Up at the top you get one of the dual microphones which allow you to record in stereo, but also use for noise cancellation when you’re in voice calls, you also get one of the dual set of speakers which when paired with the bottom speaker produces very loud and clear audio, it was definitely a joy to watch videos back or other content such as films or YouTube especially with the larger internal display.
Down at the bottom you get the two main microphones used for when in calls or recording video, you also get a loudspeaker which as mentioned before when you play back content on both the top and bottom speaker provides really clear crisp audio even at maximum volume.
You also get the SIM card tray and the V5 supports dual SIM having two physical SIM slots as well as also supporting eSIM should you prefer this method, there is no option for expandable memory, but with 512GB built in this should be plenty.
Lastly at the bottom is the USB C port and to show you how thin the phone really is when opened the phone is literally is super thin, as you can see by the pictures it really is as thin as the USB C port itself.
Over on the back you’ve got a nice smooth matte finish, as you can see by the pictures but there are other models out there with different options.
Whilst HONOR are boasting about having the thinnest foldable phone on the market at just 8.8mm when open (as long as you have the White model that is, the Black I have reviewed comes in at 9mm), they are not hiding away from the camera they have included with a massive module on the back sticking out to house the triple camera setup consisting of a 50 megapixel main sensor, a 50 megapixel ultra wide which is great for landscape photos, as well as a massive 64 megapixel telephoto lens for impressive zoom and portrait photos no matter the lighting you have.
The only other thing on the back is the traditional shiny HONOR logo which is near the bottom at the back so is out of the way.
Open the phone up and you get a super thin design with a large 7.95inch inner display using curved glass with a small hole for the internal 20 megapixel camera which is the same resolution and quality as the selfie shooter on the outside screen which was nice to see, especially when the competition often put a lower quality camera on the inside screen.
There is of course a slight crease where the screen folds, however it is far less noticeable than some other foldables and after a while you forget it is even there I found.
HONOR also go a step further using a anti reflective layer on top of the screen so you can use it much easier when outside or in bright sunlight, also bright indoor lighting is not a problem and it really does make a difference. On top of this is the 4320Hz PWM Dimming which they have had on a few of their older phones, this is to do with the screen refresh rate and how your eyes respond to it, some people have reported low Hz screens can even cause headaches and issues with bed time use, so HONOR have brought this to the Magic V5 to make it usable for everyone.
Software
The HONOR Magic V5 launches with their latest version of Magic OS, the name for the HONOR skin of Android which is based on Android 15, the company have also confirmed that the V5 will get upgraded to Android 16 some time in 2025 so you won’t be waiting until too long to get the latest version but this will count as 1 of the 7 software upgrades you will get.
MagicOS 9.0 adds some handy AI features into the software, some of which you see in their flagship HONOR Magic 7 Pro as well as on the recently announced HONOR 400 Series, this gives you tools such as Writing Tools, AI Recorder, AI Translation and even their new AI Deepfake Detection which is really key these days with so much AI generated content out there.
The camera area up top has been improved with software over time and lets you tap to open up content fully or hold on to it to open up top, this has been seen on other devices in the past but works really well on the latest Magic OS 9 and really adds a new quick way of dealing with quick settings such as skipping a track or keeping an eye on that timer you set. It acts like the Magic Capsule found on the Magic 7 Pro, although smaller as it is just the camera.
HONOR has done a good job on the software front with little bloatware and quick software updates such as to the latest Android 15 and the promise to upgrade to Android 16 in the following months.
There has also been a lot of deep integration with Google Gemini which is the Google AI software that replaces the older Google Assistant that has been around for years.
Gemini is going to be everywhere soon from your phone to smart speakers and even your car, Google are planning huge things for AI and with Gemini built into the V5 this will be key for letting you get things done quickly without needing to do all the work.
With 7 years of promised software updates and security patches you won’t have to worry about your expensive phone becoming out of date any time soon.
Performance
Performance is one of the key areas you’ll never have to worry about, especially with the top of the range processor paired with a large amount of RAM as well as optimised software.
With performance you get the top processor in the market right now which is the Snapdragon 8 Elite, this has more than enough performance for heavy multitasking and gaming plus comes with great battery performance too.
When it comes to the battery you get a 5820mAh non-removable cell is using new silicon carbon technology which means super high capacity without making the battery actually larger than needed, this helps keep the whole design super thin.
The recently announced Samsung Galaxy Fold 7 has a thin design but has a battery of 4400mAh which is considerably smaller than what the HONOR Magic V5 comes with.
Charging speeds are decent offering both 66W wired charging for quick charging when needed, although you don’t get a plug in the box at all, so if you want that quick charge you will need to purchase a separate charger.
You also get 50W Wireless charging here too, again not included in the box of course but can be picked up from a wide range of locations for very affordable prices these days.
I was easily able to get through a full day even with quite heavy use and the screen doing some 120hz gaming and watching plenty of videos back on various streaming services.
Storage wise you get 512GB built in which is not expandable with cards, instead you will have to use online storage such as Google One to expand, but 512GB should be plenty for most people, especially considering there are a lot of phones going on sale with 128GB storage.
All the models come with 16GB of RAM which is plenty enough when it comes to heavy multitasking and playing graphic heavy games.
On the networking side, you get all the usual things you would expect from a flagship smartphone such as Bluetooth, NFC for contactless payments Wi-Fi including Wi-Fi 7. For faster performance, you also get 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G which I was able to experience in my time with this phone. 5G speeds were great, often getting me in certain locations around 400 Mbps but when situations were just right I did hit 1Gbps, which considering this as a wireless connection was fantastic and allowed me to do a lot of my work on the move and not be tied down to a wired connection in an office or where there was Wi-Fi.
With dust and water proofing you have IP58 and IP59 rating which will be good enough for daily use even in the rain, just don’t plan on taking it swimming with you or try to fully submerge it to test that way.
Camera
The HONOR Magic V3 already had really impressive cameras both for selfie as well as on the back so there was very little the company needed to do to improve on this, apart from boosting the sensor to something like 200 megapixels like on some of their other phones there was nothing that needed to be changed, and even then, having crazy megapixels might look impressive on a spec sheet, but these days this does not change the overall photos you can get from the phone.
Instead HONOR decided to boost the ultra wide from 40 megapixels to 50 megapixels, and with the telephoto improved from 50 megapixels to 64 megapixels which was a nice upgrade.
The selfie cameras are both the same at 20 megapixels which delivers decent performance, a mixture of both internal and external selfie camera photos can be seen below.
In good lighting the photos it took were bright, clear and full of detail which was great, there are some AI settings you can play around with too which was fun to try but such as converting a still image into a quick few seconds video clip using AI which was fun to try although expect it will be something you try a few times and then forget about because there is so much else on offer here.
Selfie videos are decent too offering a maximum resolution for recording of 4K at 60fps on both the front facing outer screen as well as the front facing internal camera in the foldable display which was nice, in my testing both offered the same high quality sample which you can check out both below to see for yourself.
Honor has opted for a three-lens setup, featuring a main 50-megapixel camera, a 50- megapixel ultra wide and a 64-megapixel telephoto which also allows 3x optical zoom at high resolution.
In good lighting the captured photos seem decent packing a lot of details and colour which was good to see, it does not have the boosted contrast which Samsung seem to love doing in there photos that make greens really over the top which is a good thing although some people do like that style of photo.
Here are the photos taken using each of the three cameras so you can see what quality you can expect to see.
Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed my hands on time with the Honor Magic V5 during my 3 weeks with the device, there was a lot to enjoy using both hardware and software.
A lot has been mentioned in marketing having the thinnest foldable on the market, the V3 was already really thin but the Samsung Galaxy Fold 7 that recently went on sale took the spotlight off the V3 with being super thin and having a more usable outer screen than before.
Not wanting to be beaten, Honor launched the V5 with a super thin design but with a much larger battery which will mean you can use it a lot more before needing to charge.
Not a huge amount has changed from the older V3 model which launched last year, this was mainly because there was little the company had to change to keep up with it’s rivals, there has been a slight spec bump in two of the three cameras, a larger battery as well as the newer processor to name just a few key things that have changed.
Whilst Samsung will get a lot of attention due to it’s huge marketing budget and being pushed on TV a lot recently, HONOR have the advantage of a larger battery at a lower price with a stunning design and improved telephoto photography thanks to the better camera and AI helping too.
It’s great to see competition in the foldable market and will only help with future innovations down the years and will be interesting to see just where foldables go next because with both the Magic V3 and now the Magic V5 the bar has been set very high.
As mentioned before, my review device was loaned to me 3 weeks before launch in order to get my review ready for the device launch, this was more than enough time to check out the V5 and what it had to offer, and is it worth you spending your £1700 on.
If you are looking for a new foldable right now then definitely consider the Honor Magic V5 as it has a great set of specs with some handy AI tools and great software.
A big thank you to Honor for loaning me the device before launch to prepare this review.
| Design | ★★★★★ |
| Camera | ★★★★★ |
| Software | ★★★★ |
| Performance | ★★★★★ |
| Value For Money | ★★★★ |
