HONOR Magic V5, the thinnest foldable phone in the world. Even when unfolded, it’s still the second thinnest among all smartphones. Honestly, this isn’t much of a surprise—the HONOR Magic V3 also held the title of thinnest foldable at one point. They’ve simply outdone their own past achievements.
We were fortunate enough to get our hands on the global version of this phone ahead of its release. After using it for a while, I have some thoughts to share beyond just the standard test results. Let’s start with this bulge camera module.
Camera
Maybe the body is too thin, or the camera system is too powerful—either way, the camera bump is more pronounced than I expected. But I’m not complaining; some flagship phones are much worse. And I do enjoy the benefits of a larger camera.
First up is the telephoto camera. It uses an older sensor and has a shorter focal length compared to last gen, but the sensor size has actually increased. So much better than the poor 3x telephoto of the Z Fold 7. I like this focal length—it’s one I use often in everyday shooting. Plus, its 64MP resolution without the 2×2 OCL technology gives it an edge in detail retention, outperforming most other phones in most scenarios.
HONOR is so confident in its quality that it doesn’t use AI upscaling for zoom levels under 15×. Even beyond 15×, the AI enhancement doesn’t make photos look overly processed. It doesn’t add fake details, which is great for those who dislike heavy AI intervention.
The ultra-wide camera now has an even wider field of view. I’ve always maintained in my reviews: An ultra-wide camera must be truly wide, or it’s pointless. HONOR clearly took my advice. Even though this camera still has flaws—like persistent purple fringing and mediocre low-light detail—I still love the dramatic perspective it offers.
Magic V5’s default color profile is **Vibrant**, but you can switch between two other modes depending on the scene. My favorite is **Authentic mode**, with its high-contrast, cinematic look. As for video recording, there’s little to criticize. You can freely switch between lenses even at **4K 60fps**, and stabilization is solid. The Pro mode even includes a **LOG profile**, showing this phone’s high ceiling for videography. The only nitpick is that sometimes focus hunting in low light.
Compared to the rear camera, the front cameras aren’t as impressive. They max out at **4K 30fps**, and noise is noticeable in dim lighting. But hey, as long as they don’t ruin your Zoom meetings, the image quality is acceptable—which is probably what HONOR intended.
Design & Experience
Maybe you don’t care about the cameras, but you’re definitely here for the paper-thin body. This is an HK$5 coin, 3.3mm thick. Place it next to the Magic V5, and you’ll see just how absurdly thin this phone is. The slimness is even more apparent when folded. Here’s an iPhone 16 Pro, 8.25mm thick, and the Magic V5 next to it doesn’t look much thicker.
I know, the Z Fold 7 is just as thin. In order to slim it down, Samsung chose not to increase the battery capacity. How about Magic V5？What did HONOR sacrifice to achieve this thinness? Nothing. Nothing compromises. Even the battery got bigger. Except for a slightly lower dust-resistance rating, it’s just like a normal flagship phone. You can’t use weight or thickness as an excuse to avoid using it anymore.
Now, the biggest pain point of foldables: the inner screen experience. Like all foldables, the Magic V5 still hasn’t solved it. It can’t fill the entire screen with videos, and apps not optimized for foldables look awkward. But HONOR still tries to solve these problems the way they do.
For example, the split-screen and multi-window UI is excellent. You think you want this window to be bigger, no problem. That window gets bigger too, no problem. Unlike other brands that have 4 small 1 big multi windows, HONOR wants to let users decide the size of each app. Even if you want to swap the position of the apps or the orientation of the arrangement, you can do it on Magic V5. Together with this small, flexible floating window, you can keep up to 4 apps in the foreground.
The USB is a 3.2 Gen 1 port; of course, it supports video output. And there’s a **PC mode**—though there’s a bug when connecting to ultrawide monitors, the image stretches. But the 16:9 monitors don’t have this problem. Hopefully, this gets fixed in the final software.
Although the Magic V5 can be used like a laptop, by simply unfolding it in half to allow the bottom half to become a keyboard or touchpad. But I’m not a big fan of doing that. In addition to being cut in half because of the display, the outer screen is also susceptible to scratches from desk dust. The keyboard is too small and there’s no way to type with both hands, so if you really want to use it for the office, you’ll have to connect a Bluetooth keyboard at least.
Display
I put the Magic V5 display specs here. As you can see, they are **top-tier across the board**, especially the **PWM dimming frequency**—HONOR remains the only brand pushing ultra-high-frequency PWM for eye comfort. I have to say, their phones have always been the best in the eye care department.
Both the inner and outer screens support a stylus. Just the stylus is something you need to buy separately. As for the crease, after about a month of use, it’s about what you’d expect from an average foldable phone. It has indeed become more noticeable compared to when it was first unboxed, but when viewed straight on, there’s still no visible change.
Bonus: The Magic V5 has **AI-powered foreign object detection**. If anything larger than 0.8mm is on the inner screen, it’ll warn you on the outer screen. Finally, AI does something useful.
Performance
Magic V5 is a foldable phone with a Snapdragon 8 Elite. Peak performance is certainly much better than those phones with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, or 8 Elite with one less P-core. It’s not much different from that custom overclocked 8 Elite from the Z Fold 7. But after all, the Magic V5 is still a foldable phone, and combined with its ultra-thin body, gaming performance wouldn’t be great—and Genshin Impact’s frame rate graph confirms it.
Not only does the frame rate quickly lock at 45, but by the end, it shows a tendency to drop further. With the cooling system overloaded, the body temperature reaches nearly 50°C. Fortunately, since my hands grip the lower half, it doesn’t feel too hot during gameplay. So, is the Magic V5 bad for gaming? Not really. Fold it, and magic happens—gaming on the outer screen actually provides a better experience. Smoother, more stable, and cooler. But why? We find this is due to different rendering resolutions between screens.
The inner screen renders twice the resolution of the outer screen, doubling GPU load. Simply put, gaming on the inner screen is like running two identical games simultaneously. Therefore, the correct way to game on the Magic V5 is: for light games, use the inner screen for a larger display and better graphics; for demanding games, use the outer screen for more sustained and smoother gameplay.
Battery & Charging
What makes Magic V5 remarkable? It must: being thinner, the battery is bigger. With fewer foldable phones reviewed recently, we can only compare it to last year’s Magic V3. The progress in battery endurance over this year is quite significant.
Here’s the battery endurance curve from my heaviest usage day – I tried to use the inner screen as much as possible, and primarily used the 5G network. Even with such intensive usage from work start to finish, I didn’t manage to drain its battery.
And if that’s not enough, the Chinese version of 1TB model upgrades the battery to 6100mAh. That’s a whopping 1,700mAh larger than the Z Fold 7! This is the longest-lasting foldable yet. If you’ve got deep pockets, you should take note.
The charging speed isn’t as impressive as the battery capacity, though. 66W wired charging might not sound exceptionally fast, but it can fully charge the phone in under 50 minutes, which is still quite speedy. The Magic V5 hasn’t sacrificed wireless charging despite its thinness, and third-party PD chargers can deliver up to 45W. There’s really nothing to complain about in terms of charging.
Final Thoughts
2025 has been a rough year for foldable fans: Samsung’s Z Fold 7 dropped S Pen support. Xiaomi paused the MIX Fold series. Vivo skipped the X Fold 5 Pro. And OPPO’s Find N5 cut a CPU P-cores. Against this backdrop, the Magic V5’s all-around upgrades—with zero downgrades—are its biggest selling point. Even if it’s a cell phone case, they’ve upgraded to a vegan leather version with a stand. The Chinese pricing matches the Magic V3’s launch price, so hopefully, the global version Magic V5 won’t disappoint us.
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