Honor Magic V5 Review – Ultraslim foldable flagship tested

Honor has been trailblazing a path when it comes to foldable phones with every generation of their Magic V series phones becoming slighter, lighter and more powerful. Their latest generation design is their most impressive yet on a number of fronts including slimness, cameras and battery size. We managed to get a sample for review and after taking it for a whirl, here’s our Honor Magic V5 review where we share if it’s worth the money.

Honor Magic V5 Review – Build and Design

The Honor Magic V5 is technically the successor to last year’s Honor Magic V3 but skips a number due to the Asian aversion for the number 4. As we’ve shared previously, the phone is currently the thinnest foldable on the planet at 4.1mm thin, inching out its near peer contender the Galaxy Z fold7 by 0.1mm while also packing impressive hardware.

When folded down, our Honor Magic v5 review sample is just 8.8mm thin, which is also an impressive record. There’s a caveat here though in that it’s only the Ivory White variant is this thin; its other colourways – Dawn Gold, Silk Brown and Black – are slightly thicker on account of their paintjobs at 4.2mm unfolded and 9mm thin when folded down.

While they are currently the world’s slimmest foldables by a hair’s width, they haven’t neglected durability as well and the entire design is rated for IP58 and IP59 dust and water resistance; its predecessor the Magic V3 only maxed out at IPX8 which means it is still vulnerable to dust ingress. 

The design itself also has toughened hinges too that are rated for 500,000 folding cycles with users able to fold and unfold it for at least 100 times a day for 13 years nonstop. 

That’s not all, the hinges are able to withstand incredible amounts of force and in live demonstrations was able to hold up a 35kg dumbbell on its own and three Honor Magic v5’s were able to suspend a full-sized leather sofa from the ceiling.

On top of an enhanced hinge, the backplate uses what Honor refers to as Aerospace Special Fiber for the backplate that offers 40% better impact resistance than its predecessor.

On top of a toughened hinge and backplate, Honor has also used a new formulation of their NanoCrystal shield coating to protect the front display that offers even better scratch and crack resistance. The inner main display has also been reinforced  as well and integrates a non-Newtonian fluid into the panel that hardens when encountering hard impacts but is otherwise malleable for better impact resistance.

Belying its durability, our Honor Magic V5 review sample in Ivory White looks surprisingly slim and elegant with rounded corners and a mostly flat display that curves slightly around the edges and an otherwise flat backplate dominated by a large camera housing. 

The backplate comes in a slightly metallic cream finish resembling aged ivory with the main rear triple camera array embellished in metallic gold trim and set in a raised, rounded housing. Of note with the design here is that the camera housing is symmetrical such that when it is placed camera-side down, it doesn’t wobble; something that tends to happen to its near peer contenders. Placed just beneath the camera housing is a wireless charging coil and the phone supports fast 50W wireless charging.

The hinge mechanism itself and the sides are also finished in the same gold trim as the camera housing, making the whole design look premium indeed.

The base of the phone features a single USB-C port that supports fast 66W wired charging along with a nano SIM card port and a grille for one of the two speakers on the phone. The right side features a power button and volume rocker while the top is unremarkable.

Up front, our Honor Magic V5 review hosts a 6.43-inch LTPO OLED display which offers up 2,376 x 1,060 pixels resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, a quoted 5,000 nits peak brightness along with 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut. Interestingly, even with the slim design, the Honor Magic V5’s front display retains stylus support along with the main display; something the Fold7 had to omit in its pursuit for slimness. Inset into a punch hole up top is a single 20MP camera for selfies along with a tiny slit for the earpiece and the second speaker.

Flipping the foldable open reveals the main draw to the Honor Magic V5 – a 7.95-inch LTPO OLED with 2,352 x 2,172 pixels resolution, a full 120Hz refresh rate, 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut and also with up to 5,000 nits peak brightness.

What impresses is that Honor has taken significant pains to upgrade its durability with what they refer to as a Super Armored Inner Screen that integrates non-Newtonian fluids in its design that significantly increases its resistance to scratches and drops.

Closer inspection reveals an interesting design decision –  the hinge of the Honor Magic V5 is spring-loaded inwards such that if it’s at a less than 45-degree angle, it’ll close itself automatically, which comes in handy in certain scenarios. 

@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

That ergonomic oddity aside, the Honor Magic V5 makes for a highly polished, beautifully crafted design that is both durable and attractive in equal measure. To sweeten the pot, Honor has also added in an elegant casing that snaps onto the backplate and which doubles as a kickstand, a USB-C cable and best of all, a 66W wired charger too. As an added insurance policy, Honor has also pre-applied a screen protector to the front of the display though it seems unnecessary seeing how tough NanoCrystal Shield coating is in practice.

Honor Magic V5 Review – Performance and Benchmarks

In terms of hardware, our Honor Magic v5 review sample is armed for bear with the best hardware that can be mustered from Qualcomm’s foundries with the phone powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, one of the most powerful CPUs for 2025, paired with blazing fast 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of UFS 4.1 storage. 

That’s not all, Honor has taken great pains to improve cooling this time around and the design integrates a titanium vapour chamber that offers 53% better cooling performance than its predecessor the Magic V3 along with ultralight aerogel insulation in key parts to offer faster heat conduction and lower weight. Here’s how our Honor Magic V5 review sample looks like on paper:

Price	RM6,999
Display	6.43-inch LTPO OLED w Nanocrystal Shield, 2,376 x 1060 pixels, 100% DCI0P3, up to 5,000 nits peak brightness, 1-120Hz refresh rate, stylus support [front display] / 7.95-inch LTPO OLED w/ Super Armored Inner Screen, 2,352 x 2,172 pixels, 100% DCI-P3, 1-120Hz refresh rate, stylus support [main folding display]
Processor	Snapdragon 8 Elite
OS	Android 15 w/ MagicOS 9.0.1
Memory	16GB LPDDR5x RAM w/ 512GB UFS 4.1 storage
Cameras	50MP F/1.6 Falcon Main Camera w/ OIS + 64MP F/2.5 periscope telephoto lens w/ OIS + 50MP f/2.0 ultra wide camera [rear[ | 20MP f/2.2 [cover display] | 20MP f/2.2 [main display]
Battery	5,820mAh silicon carbon battery w/ 66W wired fast charging, 50W wireless charging
Size/Weight	156.8 x 145.9 x 4.1mm [unfolded], 156.8 x 74.3 x 8.8mm [folded] / 217g

On top of a flagship chipset and improved cooling, Honor has also integrated two additional hardware upgrades unique to the brand – their RF Enhanced Chip C1+ that is designed to improve mobile signal connectivity especially in areas with poor signal coverage. Another addition is their Power Enhanced Chip E2 that intelligently manages power consumption, battery health and optimises charging speeds to ensure better overall battery life.

Running under the hood is the latest Android 15 and their own Magic OS 9.0.1 that has a host of AO features, not least of which is its AI Deepfake Detection culled from the Magic7 Pro that actively notifies you if a caller uses deepfake videos in a videocall. 

Honor’s Magic OS also has the notable ability to assign up to 16GB of additional RAM Turbo virtual RAM off the onboard 512GB storage. As with prior versions, there’s no way to modify the amount of virtual RAM available but you are able to disable this option entirely if you need more space.

According to Honor Malaysia, the Honor Magic V5 will enjoy 4 years of OS updates and 5 years of security updates for units sold in Malaysia which is a bit short of the market leader’s 7 years of OS and security updates but is still a respectable duration of time.

Combined, this array of hardware lets the Honor Magic V5 go toe to toe with any flagship phone, be it another foldable or a conventional candy bar phone. When subjected to synthetic benchmarks, our Honor Magic V5 review sample with the full 16GB of virtual RAM Turbo scored the following benchmarks:

3D Mark Steel Nomad Light	2,311
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited	2,355
3D Mark Solar Bay	11,206
3D Mark Solar Bay Unlimited	11,106
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme	5,178
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	6,238
Geekbench 6 Single Core	1,266
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	4,835
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	15,568
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	19,698
Geekbench 6 AI (CPU)	2,174 (quantised)
Geekbench 6 AI (GPU)	3,698 (quantised)
PCMark Work 3.0	20,126
PCMark Battery Life	16 hours 51 mins

In terms of overall performance, our Honor Magic V5 review sample acquitted itself in an impressive fashion with performance close to the Honor Magic7 Pro that we reviewed earlier this year that also uses the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. The Honor Magic V5 also handily outpaces its predecessor the Honor Magic V3 which uses the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor in almost every benchmark.

Overall performance is superb, allowing it to go toe to toe with any other flagship phone currently in the market and is able to effortlessly tackle demanding tasks like gaming, video editing and the like with deft aplomb. 

In the Steel Nomad Light Stress Test, the phone got a 52.9% stability score, which is less stable than the Honor Magic7 Pro. The Magic V5 also served up a best loop score of 2,310 and a lowest loop score of 1,221 which is on par with the Magic7 Pro and noticeably exceeds what the Honor Magic v3 was capable of while temperatures were maxed out at 48°C.

In general, these scores arel a notable improvement especially seeing the better loop scores and benchmarks compared to the older Honor Magic v3 as well as the slimmer form factor which doesn’t leave much room for hefty cooling arrays.

Both the front and main LTPO OLED displays offer excellent colour rendition and pin-sharp detail with superb clarity even under daylight conditions, more so for their enhanced durability. Even after a week plus of heavy use as a daily driver being tossed around numerous work desks and a pocket laden with keys, our Honor Magic V5 and its front display remained intact and scratch free.

Of particular note is that the improved hinge design also ensured that the main folding display is almost creaseless when fully opened which also makes for a more immersive viewing experience.

What makes it particularly appealing, especially for heavy users is that both displays offer 4,320Hz ultra-high frequency PWM dimming as well as an ‘Eye Comfort’ mode that reduces blue light emissions to minimise eyestrain.

Also available is a Defocus eyecare mode that alleviates eyestrain by slightly altering the colours on the edges of the screen to simulate myopic defocus. While we weren’t able to test it, Honor has assured that both the front and main displays are compatible with their own stylus that is sold separately.

Seeing our line of work, heavy screen usage is a given especially when reviewing phones and while it isn’t empirically viable to test for eye strain, using it for reading in bed and in daylight made for a pleasant experience with noticeably less discomfort over our test period. The stereo speakers did not disappoint, offering decent detail and the ability to be cranked to maximum volume without distortion while serving up enough sound to fill a small room.

Of note here is that the screen can be propped halfway up, allowing for a hands-free viewing experience on the go akin to the Flex mode in Samsung’s Fold series. To Honor’s credit, the hinge mechanism here remained sturdy and wobble free.

Beyond hardware, Honor has also added a number of AI-powered features to the Honor Magic V5, many of which debuted earlier this year on the Magic7 Pro. On top of the aforementioned AI Deepfake Detection, the phone has AI Writing that lets you rephrase or clean up text on demand, AI Translate to offer real-time translation for chats and other social interactions, Call Translation for real-time, simultaneous transcription of dialogue in different languages and Magic Portal that lets you touch and hold content like images or text to share to other applicable apps. All these features aren’t enabled by default though and they have to all be manually toggled on one by one.

In terms of battery life, our Honor Magic V5 with its larger battery offered enough endurance to comfortably last two or so days of average use with texting, social media and audio calls. PCMark’s battery life test yielded a respectable 16 hours 51 minutes of battery life. With the bundled fast charger, the phone was able to get fully charged from dead zero in about 50 minutes which is a decent figure.

Honor Magic V5 Review – Cameras

Our Honor Magic V5 review sample comes with a rear triple camera array which has an improved telephoto and ultrawide angle camera compared to the Magic V3. Most of the grunt work is handled by a 50MP f/1.6 main camera that has optical image stabilisation with a 64MP f/2.5 telephoto camera that also optical image stabilisation and 3x optical zoom as well as a 50MP f/2.0 ultrawide angle camera riding shotgun.

Combined, this camera setup allows for up to 3x optical zoom and up to 100x digital zoom for stills and up to 4K@60fps at up to 10x zoom for video. Both the front and the main display camera use 20MP sensors capable of stills and up to 4K@30fps video for video calls.

The camera also gets access to Honor’s signature Harcourt mode that offers a stylish set of AI-enhanced filters that lend shots the signature look from renowned photo studio Studio Harcourt ith your choice of a Harcourt Classic mono mode, a Harcourt Colour mode and Harcourt Vibrant mode as well as half a dozen additional film simulation modes to mimic the look of vintage film. 

In daylight conditions, the rear triple camera delivers stills with excellent dynamic range even in stark sunlit and shadow-strewn scenarios while retaining lifelike colour rendition and detail out to 6X zoom. Beyond that out to 100x zoom, shots start to become soft though they’re still eligible with the AI filling in the broad strokes with best results if you’re shooting architecture or foliage; unique items like people and signage tend not to fare as well but it’s still nonetheless impressive.

 

In low light conditions, shots from the ultrawide angle and primary camera out to 2x zoom fare the best with consistent colour rendition and good retention of detail as well as colour even from the shadows and dim light. 

For best results in low light conditions, users should stick to these zoom levels for best effect. 4K videos@60fps on the rear camera are surprisingly good, serving up steady footage and good colour rendition and odds are you’ll likely rely on them more than the front and selfie cameras unless you’re taking a video call or a selfie. Selfies and mugshots on both cameras are also decent with good skin tone rendition and detail. In general, you’re getting a very competent imaging setup.

Should you buy the Honor Magic V5?

When it comes to flagship book-style foldables, there are really only a few serious choices in the game and the Honor Magic V5 is one of them. You get the world’s slimmest phone with flagship-grade displays and hardware, good cameras and solid build quality.

Add in its generous assortment of free accessories that include a casing and a charger and the Honor Magic V5 makes for a compelling choice if you’re looking for a flagship foldable.

Honor Magic V5 review sample courtesy of Honor Malaysia. For more details please visit https://www.honor.com/my/