The Honor Magic V5 is the ultra-skinny foldable phone I’d pick for photography

Introduction

If the Honor Magic V5 had landed on my desk even a month ago, I’d be shouting about its slender build from the rooftops. But Samsung rather spoiled the party by introducing the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Now there are two size-zero foldable smartphones to choose from, and it’s impossible to talk about one without the other.

While Samsung gives its main snapper pixel priority, Honor’s rear camera trio has a more balanced set of sensors. The Galaxy arrived with the latest version of Android; the Magic V5 has one of the biggest batteries you’ll find on any phone, let alone a folding one, and has price on its side. Both are actually available outside of China – unlike the previous slimline champion, Oppo’s Find N5 – although the Honor won’t be officially sold in the USA.

I’ve lived with both for over a month now, and picking between the two is proving seriously tricky.

Design & build

Ignoring the two brands’ back-and-forth about screen protectors adding fractions of a millimetre, I simply can’t tell whether the Magic V5 or Galaxy Z Fold 7 is slimmer without breaking out the callipers. Honor’s effort is a little more rounded at the edges, so sits that bit more comfortably in my hand, but both fit as easily in my pocket – and weigh less than – the non-folding handset I normally use. That’s seriously impressive.

The Magic V5 is better protected from the elements. No foldable can currently match its IP58/IP59 resistance ratings… though the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold will have something to say about that in a few months’ time. The firm’s own NanoCrystal Shield glass should withstand most scrapes and scratches to the front display, if you insist on removing the pre-applied screen protector.

That screen’s wider aspect ratio gets closer to the feel of a non-folding phone when closed; the Samsung is just that little bit skinnier and compensates for it with a smaller font size, which won’t be to all tastes.

I also prefer the Honor’s more prominent power button/fingerprint sensor, which is easy to locate by touch. On the Galaxy it sits too flush to the frame, so I’d sometimes miss it and squeeze the volume button instead. Here it’s nice and quick to detect your digits. I do wish Honor had carried over the secure facial recognition from the Magic 7 Pro, as it was great for bypassing security on banking apps, but there’s only so much space for sensors in such a skinny frame.

At the rear, the Magic V5’s prominent camera bump isn’t quite as angular as it was on the old Magic V3; somehow it’s both subtle and shouty, with a knurled texture around the edge that adds a bit of bling. I think it looks particularly slick on my Ivory White review unit, which is 0.1mm slimmer than the Black and Dawn Gold versions (if you’re keeping count) as they use different materials.

Screens & sound

The Magic V5’s 6.43in outer screen sits in a sweet spot, between compact kings like the iPhone 16 and big brutes like the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL. It comfortably fills my palm, but not so much I have to use it two-handed.

With a sharp 2376×1060 resolution and brilliantly smooth 120Hz refresh rate, it’s a proper looker. The OLED panel guarantees fantastic viewing angles and vibrant colours. In fact other than size and pixel count, there’s very little to separate it from the inner display, which is just as easy on the eyes.

Slimming down the bezels has helped make room for a 7.95in flexible OLED, up from 7.92in on the Magic V3. The telly addict in me loves that its (non-removable) screen protector isn’t as reflective as the one on the Galaxy Z Fold 7, which makes a big difference when watching dark scenes, and it feels a little more like glass under your fingers too. The crease is essentially invisible unless the sun hits it at the perfect angle. Both screens nudge a whopping 5000 nits peak brightness when you’re watching HDR or Dolby Vision content, and outdoor visibility is fantastic.

Interestingly they also both support stylus input. Samsung stripped out S Pen support from the Z Fold 7 to go super-thin, but here you can scribble away to your heart’s content – as long as you buy the optional £80 (roughly $110) Honor Pen.

Splitting the Magic V5’s speakers across its two halves was an odd choice – or perhaps a necessary one to stay so slim. One grille sits at the bottom right and the other at the top left when opened, meaning you’ve got to be careful where you put your hands to avoid blocking the sound. They get reasonably loud, at least, but with a treble-heavy tune.

Cameras

Honor has squeezed quite the sensor setup behind the Magic V5’s characterful camera island. The 50MP lead lens has optical image stabilisation and a wide f/1.6 aperture to help with low-light snaps; the 50MP ultrawide gets autofocus so it can also act as a macro close-up lens; and the 64MP periscope telephoto is good for 3x optical zoom.

You’re given a choice of Natural, Vibrant and Authentic tones when shooting, which is a lot more straightforward than Samsung’s ten colour filters. I leaned towards Natural, which unsurprisingly stays truer to life, but Vibrant’s more saturated hues might appeal to anyone migrating from an older Galaxy Fold. The vignetting effect on the Authentic mode isn’t quite as strong as it was on the Honor Magic 7 Pro, so is also worth a look if you like the analogue film style.

In good light, the 50MP main camera really packs in the detail, with deep shadows and colours that are satisfyingly punchy, but stay on the right side of natural. It seemingly exposes more for highlights than shadows, which can leave some scenes looking a bit brighter than reality, but there’s plenty of dynamic range.

The ultrawide put in a good shift, with hues that closely match the other lenses and not much in the way of distortion at the extreme edges of the frame. Macro close-ups look nice and crisp, too.

For my money, 3x zoom clarity is better here than what you’ll find on the Galaxy Z Fold 7, with less image noise to boot. Consistent colour, exposure and dynamic range mean it quickly became my go-to lens. Even the generative AI zoom, which kicks in over 30x, seems more convincing (and less likely to make stuff up) than previous efforts.

Across the board, night-time shooting really highlights where Honor’s algorithms are doing more heavy lifting. Shots appear that bit more processed than during the day, with oversharpening in places. Slow shutter speeds can be an issue even in good light, with the phone sometimes struggling to freeze moving subjects perfectly.

That said, this is still an excellent set of cameras for a foldable phone, and it trades blows confidently with its closest rival.

Performance & battery life

Honor hasn’t skimped on specs in order to make the Magic V5 so slim. There’s an eight-core Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset running the show – not the cut-down, seven-core version seen on the Oppo Find N5 – and it’s paired with a healthy 16GB of RAM.

This is a rapid combo right out of the box, but the optional High Performance mode really uncorks its potential. Switched on, it sent synthetic benchmark scores higher than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 in all but one test. That makes this the most powerful book-style foldable I’ve tested to date.

At stock settings, Android felt perfectly responsive, and I had no issues with climbing temperatures in daily duties. Repeated benchmark runs made it run warm, but that’s not how most people use their phones.

I never felt the need to use High Performance when playing games, as even pretty demanding Play Store titles felt smooth and delivered high frame rates, but it could come in handy when editing videos on-device.

Left to its own devices, the Magic V5 can really go the distance thanks to a huge 5810mAh battery. That’s nearly a third more than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and its modest 4400mAh cell. When sticking mainly to the outer screen, I was comfortably able to make it to a second day before needing to plug in.

Using the inner screen for games and HDR video drained it sooner, but I can’t remember a single time I had to reach for the battery saver mode before calling it a night. Honor’s silicon-carbon battery tech is really putting in work here.

This phone also refuels at a speedy 66W over USB-C, and can even manage 50W wirelessly if you’ve got a compatible charging pad. That’s more than twice as fast as the Galaxy Z Fold 7 can manage, and also puts the upcoming Pixel 10 Pro Fold to shame.

One last thing to note: you get 512GB of storage as standard here, while the Galaxy Z Fold 7 starts at 256GB. In a direct comparison, that makes the Honor quite a bit cheaper.

Software experience

Spend any amount of time multitasking on the Honor Magic V5’s inner screen and you’ll quickly appreciate its Multi-Flex split screen mode. It lets you have three apps side-by-side-by-side, with two bleeding off the screen edges to leave more room for the one that’s currently active. It’s way more flexible than Samsung’s more rigid 50:25:25 split.

The rest of the Magic OS interface, now on version 9, doesn’t feel too far removed from previous editions. There’s still a slight whiff of iOS to the icons, though I’m happy to report Honor hasn’t attempted its own take on Liquid Glass just yet, and the lack of an app drawer (by default) means the home screens are stuffed with icons.

That includes a bunch of home-grown apps for things like email, notes, file management and an image gallery, which you could say are just dupes of Google’s defaults. Honor does make a few worth a look, though, with a dash of AI assistance. The automatic voice recorder transcription is impressively accurate, and the text proofreading function is handy, but the Google Veo-powered Image to Video tool is a bit freaky.

The biggest software downside to picking the Honor over Samsung is that the Magic V5 arrives a full Android generation behind. The firm says buyers are in line for seven years of updates, but there’s no word on exactly when a bump to Android 16 – which the Galaxy Z Fold 7 had from the factory – will land.

Honor Magic V5 verdict

Examined on its lonesome, the Magic V5 is a superb smartphone. It’s stupendously slim, takes impressively detailed photos at all zoom levels, and has serious stamina between charges.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is the elephant in the room, but every time the Magic V5’s software felt clunkier or less customisable than Samsung’s, something would swing things back in the Honor’s favour. The fact it’s effectively £200 (around $270) cheaper than a Fold 7 with the same amount of storage shouldn’t be overlooked, either.  

Crucially foldable fans now have a genuine choice between two fantastic handsets. Those who value battery life and telephoto photography should seriously consider the Honor.

Honor Magic V5 technical specifications