Honor’s Sleek Magic V5 Foldable: A Delight to Use, Even with Its Bulky Camera Bump

A competition is heating up as brands compete for the title of the slimmest foldable phone. Manufacturers are fine-tuning their devices by slight fractions of millimeters to highlight their compactness.


Honor currently leads this race with its Magic V5 foldable, which measures a thickness of 8.8mm when closed. It’s crucial to recognize that this assertion comes with a considerable caveat concerning the camera bump.

The device’s slim profile is impressive when held properly; however, accidentally touching the notable camera bump can make it awkward to manage. It took me several days to acclimate to this design feature.

When positioned on a flat surface, the device creates a slight tilt (as depicted in the image above). This inclination is manageable when the phone is folded, but once unfolded, it leads to an unstable stance, which can be inconvenient.

In its unfolded state, the phone has a thickness of just 4.1mm, making it one millimeter thinner than Oppo’s Find N5 and 0.5mm thicker than Huawei’s triple-folding model.

Despite these drawbacks, the phone remains a robust piece of technology.

It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, a top-tier processor. The front display spans 6.43 inches with a resolution of 2376 x 1060, while the unfolded main display measures 7.95 inches with a resolution of 2172 x 2352 pixels. The design incorporates a carbon fiber-reinforced inner panel for enhanced drop protection, and Honor has applied a scratch-resistant material to the display. So far, I haven’t seen any significant scratches on either screen.

The display offers outstanding brightness, reaching peaks of 5,000 nits. I found reading articles, PDFs, and lengthy emails enjoyable on the unfolded screen. Completing NYT Puzzles on the larger display became one of my favorite pastimes.

Both screens feature LTPO technology, allowing the refresh rate to adapt between 1Hz and 120Hz, ensuring smooth scrolling and navigation. Most apps performed well on both the cover and main screens, although I observed an increase in resolution while playing “Diablo Immortal” on the unfolded screen, leading me to prefer the front display for gaming.

The construction quality is solid, boasting an IP58 and IP59 rating for dust and water resistance. The folding hinge, which employs a second-generation Honor Super Steel mechanism, felt dependable throughout my week-long usage of the Magic V5.

The Magic V5 is equipped with a robust 5,820mAh silicone carbon battery, enabling prolonged usage throughout the day, including some gaming. It supports 66W wired charging and 50W wireless charging, and requires Honor’s proprietary chargers for these capabilities. Notably, it comes with a 66W charger in the box, allowing for a quick charge from 0 to 50% in just 16 minutes and a full charge in 43 minutes. Even if it doesn’t achieve these theoretical benchmarks, you can still expect a significant battery life in a short time.

Camera and AI

The camera array on the Honor Magic V5 includes three sensors: a 50-megapixel primary camera with an f/1.6 aperture, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide lens, and a 64-megapixel telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. Additionally, there are dual 20-megapixel selfie cameras for the inner and outer displays.

The camera performs well in various lighting scenarios, capturing details with impressive color fidelity. However, at times, the computational processing can oversaturate red tones. The Magic V5 includes a functional super macro mode, allowing close-up shots of subjects like flowers while retaining fine details.

With advancements in AI imaging, several brands now offer a super zoom feature that captures base photos and leverages generative AI for enhancing details. Honor’s 100x zoom technology effectively captures distant text but often results in images that seem artificially generated, unlike the Pixel 10 Pro’s 100x zoom quality.

Like many Chinese smartphones, this model comes loaded with AI-enhanced “beauty” features that allow users to smooth out skin, adjust facial features, brighten images, and beyond. Fortunately, these options can easily be disabled with a toggle.

Honor has included various AI editing functionalities as well. For instance, the AI eraser lets you outline objects for removal and offers options to erase reflections and background passersby. This tool can yield mixed results; during a photo I captured at Wimbledon, it effectively eliminated a couple of onlookers but oddly left a tennis player’s torso missing.

The phone comes with an AI cutout feature that allows individuals to select and reposition objects in a photo. When an object is moved, generative AI works to fill the gap left behind. However, this technique can sometimes lead to artifacts, such as leftover shadows around the object’s previous position, indicating manipulation.

Other tools for AI upscaling and outpainting are also available.

Additionally, the smartphone features an image-to-video capability within its photo application, allowing for three generations every 30 days. While it employs Google’s Veo2 model for video creation, results can often appear uncanny and may not match the original image quality.

Software and Availability

The device operates on MagicOS 9, built on Android 15. This interface is relatively streamlined; however, certain pre-installed Honor apps for smart home devices and the myHonor community app felt unnecessary. There is also the Honor Health app, which connects with Honor’s smart health gadgets (if owned) and contains pre-loaded workout content.

MagicOS facilitates smooth media transfers with both Android and Apple devices. Honor also provides a workstation app for macOS, allowing for easy photo, video, and document transfers to your Mac.

A notable new feature is the on-device call translation capability that enables users to download a translation model for local data processing. Currently, it supports six languages: Chinese, English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian. I tested this feature with a friend who speaks French, and I was impressed with its performance. Unlike the Pixel’s translation function, which maintains your voice, this one allows you to select between male and female voice options.

The Honor Magic V5 will be available in Europe, APAC, and the Middle East, with prices starting at £1,699.99/€1,999 for the 512GB variant in the UK/Europe. This presents consumers with an opportunity to explore foldable technology at a price that’s £200/€1,999 lower than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold7. While it may not dethrone Samsung from the top spot in the foldable market, it could enhance Honor’s growth in this niche.