Honor’s Magic V5 foldable almost feels too thin

As soon as I picked up Honor’s Magic V5, I was a little concerned about its durability. The fourth generation of Honor’s Android foldable may not be massively thinner than its predecessor, but it sure feels like it. Yes, it’s built with aerospace-grade materials to make it sturdy despite its svelteness, but it’s also the first foldable I’d insist on buying a case for because goodness me, it’s thin.

If you recall, the last handset in this series was the Magic V3 and no, you haven’t fallen asleep and missed a year. The number four can represent bad luck in Chinese culture as its Cantonese form (sei) sounds almost identical to the word for death (séi). Consequently, we’ve skipped a model number.

The V5 is so svelte it’ll barely make an impression on your pants pocket, measuring 8.8mm folded and 4.1mm open. That’s not a big difference to the V3’s 9.2mm / 4.35mm, but it certainly feels like a rubicon has been crossed. It’s worth noting Honor is marking its own homework with one eye closed here, since it can only reach that thickness with the white V5. The other colorways (black, red and gold) stack up at 9mm / 4.2mm, which is almost the same as Samsung’s Z Fold 7.

Photo by Daniel Cooper for Engadget

Naturally, a premium foldable deserves premium internals, and the V5 packs a Snapdragon 8 Elite with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. There’s a 5,820mAh silicon carbon battery that, when paired with the company’s usual AI power-management tools, promises nearly 50 hours of life on a charge. I won’t comment on that claim but I can say this is the snappiest and fastest Honor foldable I’ve laid my eyes and hands on. There’s no lag or delay when switching displays, and everything feels like it’s already served up seconds before you’ve even asked for it.

But in the same way no modern smartphone is a dramatic departure from what went before, the rest of the story here is nips and tucks. The Magic V5 has the same 6.43-inch cover display as the V3, and the main screen has grown only slightly, from 7.92 inches to 7.95 inches. The only useful tweak is support for Honor’s MagicPen stylus on both screens, but it’s the same size as an Apple Pencil, so you’ll need to find a place to store it.

Photo by Daniel Cooper for Engadget

It’s a similar story of modest changes on the imaging front as the V5 is equipped with a 50-megapixel f/1.6 primary camera with OIS. That's paired with a 64-megapixel, f/2.5 periscope telephoto (also with OIS) and a 50-megapixel f/2.0 ultra-wide. Overall, that’s an improvement on the previous model, but both selfie cameras (in the cover and primary display) are the same 20-megapixel shooter found in the V3. Of course, performance is bolstered by the usual AI features that may or may not be useful.

Honor has announced European pricing for the V5, with it costing €1,999 (around $2,317) in the EU and £1,699 (around $2,283) in the UK. That puts it in the same rough bracket as the Z Fold 7, although there's so many deals and discounts these days you can always save money if you look. I'm still not sure if Honor isn't selling itself short by not undercutting its rivals more aggressively, but it must feel it can compete, and win, against Samsung and the like on an even playing field. 

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