Honor's Magic V5 is a slim foldable phone that closes to about 8.9mm thick and weighs up to 222g, keeping a slab-like feel while opening to a 7.95in tablet-like display. The external 6.43in OLED and internal 7.95in 120Hz OLED offer high brightness and smooth motion, though the inner panel is softer and requires careful handling. The device undercuts rivals on price while remaining high-end, and offers water- and dust-resistance to prevent debris ingress around the hinge. Multiple finishes affect weight and thickness, and a large rear camera module is a prominent design feature.
Honor's latest foldable phone-tablet attempts to usurp Samsung as the leader of the pack with a super-thin body, massive battery and a ginormous camera lump on the back. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. The Magic V5 is an impressively thin piece of engineering, slimmed down to about 8.9mm thick when shut, with each half about the same thickness as a USB-C port.
It feels very similar to a standard slab phone in the hand, but one you can open up like a book for a mini-tablet on the go. The foldable costs 1,699.99 (1,999.99), undercutting the competition from Samsung and Google by up to 100, but still very much at the eye-wateringly expensive end of the smartphone market. The Magic V5 comes in various colours with different materials on the back that make the phone varying thicknesses and weights.
At 222g or under it is slightly heavier than Samsung's latest Fold 7, but far lighter than the rest of the folding phone competition, and about the same weight as a large slab phone. When closed the Magic V5 is about the same weight, thickness and width as a large regular phone. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian The outside 6.43in OLED screen is great and acts just like a regular phone while the inside 7.95in folding screen is one of the best, with an impressive brightness. It still has a crease down the middle but you don't notice it in use.
The inside screen is necessarily softer than traditional phone screens to allow it to bend, so you have to treat it with care; and it is a fingerprint magnet. The Honor is one of the first folding phones to be water- and dust-resistant to similar standards as a regular phone. That means fine particles shouldn't be able to get behind the moving, flexible screen and metal hinge, which has been a durability concern for all foldables.
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