While some might still call them a “niche” product, foldables have been pretty much a part of the general smartphone landscape for the past half decade, with a lot of manufacturers continuing to push considerable advancements in both hardware and software. In the case of the Magic V5, it’s clear that Honor is after Samsung’s throne, promising a user experience that it hopes will be enough to win over potential fans and buyers.
READ: The Honor Magic V5 Officially Launches for the UK and Europe
In fact, Honor claims that its foldables now hold the second top spot throughout European markets, and it’s something that the company is looking to capitalize with the Magic V5. But what’s it really like, though?
Initially launched for buyers in China a while back, Honor has certainly managed to pack the V5 with some considerable upgrades. For one, the company claims that it’s the thinnest foldable on the market, measuring just 4.1mm when unfolded and 8.8mm when closed. It’s also pretty lightweight at around 271 grams for the white model and 222 grams for the other colour variants, something that’s very obvious when you hold the device itself.
In addition to its much slimmer design, Honor also claims that the Magic V5 features a more durable chassis, even going so far as to demo the device supporting a dumbell attached at the centre of its unfolded hinge. Honor says that the Magic V5 also comes with a free one-year warranty which covers screen damage on both the external and internal displays.
As for the V5’s displays themselves, the photos here don’t do them justice—both the external and internal screens on the phone feature a peak brightness of 5,000 nits in addition to a 120Hz refresh rate, which make them ideal for content consumption, although Honor is also heavily marketing productivity as a major selling point of the Magic V5, thanks in part to the multitasking capabilities offered by the larger display.
In actual use, the Magic V5 has no problems zipping through the user interface, and even during split-screen scenarios the device was more than capable of keeping things generally smooth. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and a 5,820 mAh battery, in case you were wondering.
For its cameras, the Honor Magic V5 comes with a 50MP main camera, a 50MP ultrawide lens, and a 64MP periscope telephoto camera, with 20MP front cameras on both the inner and outer screens. You can check out the video above where we pit it against the equally-premium Galaxy Z Fold7, with some pretty interesting results.
Priced at £1,699.99 (for buyers in the UK) and 1,999 EUR for the 16GB model, Honor is very confident that the Magic V5 will have what it takes to impress both foldable users and first-time adopters, with a number of enhancements that no doubt make for a tempting offer. There’s no shortage of worthy competition though, and in the long run it will be extremely interesting to see who manages to win over the market.