Honor has officially revealed all the details for its upcoming Magic V5 foldable that looks set to give the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 a serious run for its money.
The standout spec of this foldable is just how thin it is, and Honor even claims it’s the thinnest foldable on the market. The Magic V5 measures 4.1mm when open and 8.8mm when closed, which is thinner than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is rumoured to be and some of the other best foldable phones like the Oppo Find N5. Although only just.
You do have to ignore the phone’s rather hefty camera bump, which is not included in these measurements. That’s fair, as trying to cram all the high-end camera components required into a shell this small would seriously compromise the experience.
These measurements are also only for the white version of the phone, so it seems this model is using a slightly different coating to shave off an extra 1 mm of thickness.
Honor Magic V5 Specs and Features
Inside, there’s a huge 5820mAh silicon-carbon battery, 66w and 50w wireless charging and a camera setup that borrows a lot from the brand’s other phone series.
The camera setup is headlined by a 50MP f/1.6 main camera, a new 50MP ultra-wide camera and a 64MP telephoto camera. There are also dual 20MP selfie cameras on both the internal and external displays.
Speaking of those displays, the internal one is a 7.95-inch LTPO OLED with a 120Hz refresh rate and 2352 x 2172 resolution. The peak brightness is rated at an impressive 5000 nits, and it certainly looked impressive in person. The outer display has all the same specs, just at a smaller 6.43-inch size.
There’s an IP58 & IP59 certification for dust and water resistance, and the Magic V5 will be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage as standard.
Honor Magic V5 Price and Release Date
Honor has revealed three colour options for the Magic V5 – white and gold, beige, and black. However, this release is only for the Chinese version of the phone – and the software on the devices we tried out wasn’t final. Expect to see a wider release later this year, along with confirmed pricing.
The latter half of 2025 is shaping up to be a big one for foldable phones, with Samsung all set to unveil the Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7, along with a possible Fold Ultra for the first time.
Opinion
I got the chance to try the Honor Magic V5 before its unveiling, and it certainly lives up to its ‘thin’ billing. Even closed, the phone is noticably thinner that the iPhone 16 Pro I had with me to compare.
Whether or not it’s the thinnest foldable is irrelevant to me, and should be to anyone who wants to buy this, the fact is that foldables are now at a point where if you want to use them mostly like a standard smartphone, you can.
The screens are big and glorious, the finishes slightly too blingy for my taste but will likely appeal to many and there’s all the usual mod-cons included, like the flagship Qualcomm chip. Seriously, if Samsung doesn’t go big with the Z Fold 7, the foldable competition could be too fat ahead.
