Honor Magic V5 First Look – A closer look at their slimmest, no-compromise flagship foldable for 2025

Things are heating up on the foldable front and Honor’s titular flagship foldable phone, the Honor Magic V5 will hit the Malaysia market this coming 15 July 2025.

We had the opportunity to enjoy an early preview of the Honor Magic V5 in a special briefing where they shared just how thin the phone is and the sheer technological innovation that went into making it one of the thinnest foldables on the planet.

As proof of how thin and tough it is, they had one of their technicians dismantle a working unit in front of our very eyes just to demonstrate how slim every component is with almost every millimetre possible shaved down to make the phone just 4.1mm thin when unfolded and 8.8mm thick when folded.

 

On top of showcasing the technological innovation in creating the Honor Magic V5, they also shared what they will bundle with units for the Malaysia market. Here’s our Honor Magic V5 first look and unboxing where we share our first impressions of their slimmest, most powerful foldable ever made.

Honor Magic V5 First Look – What’s in the Box?

While specific details as to the Honor Magic V5’s exact specifications are unavailable for now, Honor did share aspects of the Magic V5’s engineering in order to shave down its thinness and also the sophistication of its flagship-grade camera array along with a few key specifications.

 

@hitechcentury Check out what’s in the box for the new HONOR Magic V5, their latest foldable that will be launched in Malaysia! #honormalaysia #honormagicv5 #slimmestwithnocompromise #fyp #hitechcentury #malaysia #techtok #unboxing #techunboxing #foldable @honormalaysia ♬ Little Things – Adrián Berenguer

Out of the box, our Honor Magic v5 first look sample came with a generous selection of extra accessories that included a protective casing that also doubled as a kickstand, a USB-C cable, the obligatory SIM eject PIN as well as a charger. This is quite a generous assortment by 2025 standards seeing as many competing brands these days simply toss in a phone and a cable along with the SIM eject pin and aught else.

Honor Magic V5 First Look – Incredibly slim battery with fast charging

Rather than one single battery, Honor has split the Honor Magic V5’s cells into two separate Silicon-Carbide cells with a combined capacity of 5,820mAh.

When the technician dismantled the foldable, both Silicon Carbide batteries were barely the thickness of a credit card. Belying its slimness, the phone offers 66W wired Honor SuperCharge fast charging and even is capable of 50W wireless charging too. 

Honor Magic V5 First Look –  Camera innovation in miniature

During the teardown, the Honor technician carefully removed each camera module and each one was a marvel of engineering. The front cover display camera and the inner camera each was a 20MP model housed in a tiny housing smaller than my pinky fingernail that’s also capable of up to 4K@30fps video. 

The primary triple rear camera housing was the most impressive of all with a primary 50MP main camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS), a secondary 64MP periscope telephoto camera also with OIS and and another 50MP ultra wide angle camera all crammed into a section barely larger than a postage stamp. 

Combined, this setup is capable of up to a whopping 100x digital zoom and up to 4K@60fps video. This makes for an impressive and versatile imaging setup that can tackle the vast majority of scenarios expected of a phone, more so a foldable that is this thin.

Honor Magic V5 First Look –  Incredibly thin, exceptionally tough

While the Honor Magic V5 is arguably one of, if not the slimmest foldable currently in the market ahead of the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7, it does not lack for durability either. During the briefing, Honor used a working Honor Magic V5 sample fully opened and suspended a massive 35kg dumbbell on the hinge without any adverse effects on the phone.

As a further testament to just how tough the phone is, Honor used three Magic V5’s to fully suspend a full-sized sofa from a hook in the air which is an impressive feat of engineering no matter how you slice it. 

This level of toughness and durability isn’t just limited to the chassis itself and the Honor Magic V5 itself has an IP58 and IP59 rating, allowing it to survive temporary immersion in about a meter or so of freshwater without undue effects. 

That’s not all, the front cover display integrates Honor’s Anti-scratch NanoCrystal Shield coating which lets it shrug off nicks and scratches while the main inward-folding display has what Honor refers to as a Super Armored Inner Screen that integrates a rather novel non-Newtonian fluid into the panel to resist impacts. 

In essence, hard knocks cause the non-Newtonian fluid to harden to resist impact but soft touches keep the display malleable and responsive to touch. To demonstrate this concept, Honor brought out a vat of goo. Slapping it and punching it made the good feel like a brick wall but gently pushing against the liquid or scooping it ensured it remained in a liquid state.

As icing on the cake, the Honor Magic V5’s backplate uses carbon fibre with 40x more impact resistance than conventional aluminium. The hinge itself is also rated to survive 500,000 folding cycles which is equivalent to 100 full open-close folding actions a day for up to 13 years.

Beyond these demonstrations and a showcase of what is in the box, Honor has been mum on the exact specifications of the Honor magic V5 but they did announce that the phone will be coming to Malaysia and that it will be live streamed on their official channels at 2.00PM on 15 July 2025 Malaysia time. For more details tune into http://www.honor.com/my/