It is an Honor Magic V5, sir. This is the best foldable phone of 2025 (review)

The Honor Magic V5 foldable is a late 2025 entrant into the foldable field. At least on paper, it’s the best foldable this year by far.

But that is what CyberShack’s deep-dive reviews are all about. Getting into the nitty-gritty that other reviews don’t or can’t assess by regurgitating a press release or reviewers’ guide.

What is Honor?

It was a mid-range Huawei brand that was spun out in November 2020 after Huawei was banned from 5G and infrastructure and not allowed to use Google Android or its Play Store. It is majority-owned by Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co. Ltd, a conglomerate of 30 Chinese companies, some of which have close ties to the government. The founder and principal shareholder of the conglomerate is Shenzhen Smart City Technology Development Group Co., a state-controlled company owned by the Shenzhen City Government.

Honor, like most Chinese phone makers, receives significant government backing, including retroactive research funding, tax breaks, customs assistance, and financial support for operations and global expansion. It will likely float on the Chinese Stock Exchange in 2026.

It runs Google Android 16 overlaid with MagicOS 10 and can use Qualcomm SD8 Elite System-on-a-Chip (SoC). Any claims that Honor is full of spyware are deceitful. It ensures that personally identifiable information and Google Gemini AI stay on the phone. It complies with the EU GDPR and California Privacy Provisions. But it does mean that you must buy the Australian certified version, which uses a local cloud and is approved by Australian Telcos.

OK, the elephant in the room can exit now. And remember that apart from Samsung’s premium phones, the majority of phones are made in China!

CyberShack says: Cutting-edge hardware, sleek design, and performance, the Magic V5 stands out as a compelling and highly disruptive alternative. We love it!

With apologies to Samsung Fold7 and Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold

Comparisons are inevitably made with Samsung and Google, both brands we respect. As objectively as possible, the Honor Magic V5 beats every opposition benchmark.

It proves that a company can (probably with a lot of Chinese Government support) design and manufacture:

• The thinnest and lightest fold
• The world’s highest processing power with better-controlled thermal management
• Use 10-bit/1.07 billion colour, 5000 peak nits, Dolby Vision capable, no PWM screen
• A better point-and-shoot camera system
• A larger battery for all-day use
• Match 2+7+7 warranty, OS upgrades and security patches (TBC)
• Make a phone that you can actually listen to music and enjoy the perfect neutral sound signature
• City, Suburbs, Regional and Rural strong phone reception
• At a few hundred dollars less for far better specs all around

I am a candidate for a Fold, and this is it. Am I paranoid (it is not paranoia if it’s true😁) about the CCP knowing all about me? Part of me says it’s a possibility, but the rational, scientific, technical part says it’s just rumour mongering.

We won’t be covering AI features in depth

This is a speeds and feeds review. You can read more about Honor AI and Google Gemini 2025. My take is to use Google Gemini for as much as you can and use Honor AI where it adds value. There are a few very interesting Honor AI features:

• AI Image is largely on-device, and the AI telephoto enhancement via a 12.4 billion LLM is superb. AI tools like portrait, eraser, outpainting, cutout and upscale (really good at taking poor quality photos and upscaling them) are handy.
• AI Office text translation is fast, and its Call transaction is accurate and fast (on-device Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish). AI Transcribe, Minutes and Notes can distinguish between speakers.
• AI Deep fake detection (or suspicion thereof) will be invaluable.
• AI Connect seamlessly joins Android, iOS, Windows and Mac ecosystems.

Australian Review: Honor Magic V5, 16/512GB, dual SIM, SIM and eSIM or dual eSIM, Model MBH-N49

Please note that all tests were using Android 15, and as these take days to repeat on Android 16, we have only retested a few significant items. It is a reasonable assumption that Android 16 would equal or better the Android 15 results.

Brand	Honor
Model	Honor Magic V5
Model Number	MBH-N49
RAM/Storage Base	16/512GB
Price base	16/512GB $2599 exclusive to Harvey Norman Hurry for bonus HONOR Pad 10 HONOR Watch 4, via redemption. Valued at $897
Warranty months	24-months ACL 180-day replacement Warranty policy Support 1300 074 512 (M-F 09:00- 17:00) [email protected]
Teir	Fold Premium
Website	Product Page
From	Harvey Norman
Country of Origin	China
Company	See above
Test date	December 2025
Ambient temp	22-38
Release	Announce August 2025 and global release. Australian release November 2025.
Other models not for Australia (Don’t buy)	Do not buy MHG-AN00 or MBH-AN10 Settings > Systems and Updates> Regulatory Information: RNZ C-Tick

Ratings

We use the following ratings for many of the items below. CyberShack regards a score between 70 and 80/100 as a fit-for-purpose pass mark. You can click on most images to enlarge them.

• Fail (below expectations), and we will let you know if this affects its use.
• Pass(able) rating that is not as good as it should be.
• Pass (meets expectations).
• Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good, but does not quite make it to Exceed
• Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader).

How to make the best use of this deep dive review

We test over 70 different aspects and uncover nearly 300 key data points about the device. Overall reviews can reach a few thousand words. So, if you are keen, this is the world’s most comprehensive, 6300 word review!

If you want to see our impressions only, they are listed at the beginning of each table. At the end, you will find CyberShack’s view, competitor analysis, and ratings. Ratings are based on the price bracket and expectations, so a $200 phone may score as well as a $2000 phone—we compare like with like.

First Impression – spectacular hardware specs and beauty as well

It has top drawer specs on paper. But there is one issue that may stop all but the tech-savvy from buying this.

MagicOS 10 overlay is relatively light (you can easily find Android underneath). Still, there are many Honor substitutes for Google Apps (mail, calendar, phone/dialler, messages, gallery, and many more) that make backup and restore from Google One a challenge. In short, we Aussies prefer Google. I spent quite some time successfully trying to Googlise it.

Android 16 is now installed (it launched with Android 15) and is what you expect on a $2599 device. The security patch is 1 December 2025 (Google 10 Fold and Samsung Fold 7 are the same). This is the certified Australian model (Settings> System and Updates > Regulatory Information RNZ C-Tick).

Now, according to Huawei Central the V5 gets seven years of operating system updates and security patches under the Honor Alpha Plan which appears to be limtied to the EU at present. Requests for an AU policy (if different) have not been answered.

As for impressions: It is beautiful, stylish, light and very well made. It’s a keeper.

Screen: Exceed

The world’s best foldable inner screen on the world’s best foldable. The external screen is perfect too.

This is a glorious screen. Ultra bright (up to 5000 nits for Dolby Vision) as well as wonderfully daylight readable. It’s 10-bit colour perfectly matches photos. It has no perceptible PWM (headache-inducing pulse width modulation (Samsung/Google and Apple are the worst.)

If you compare this to a Samsung Fold 7, or Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold (all using Samsung screens), you will be immediately sold on the screen alone.

My only caveat is that some apps don’t format correctly for the inner screen. Honor has settings for foldable phones, and it allows for individual app scaling, app extension, and rotation per app. I really like that you can have three apps open for multitasking.

In summary

• Extremely bright
• No PWM
• Accurate 10-bit colour match
• Honor’s screen protection is very good
• Supports Honor Magic Pen Bluetooth stylus and gestures (only foldable to support a stylus)
• No better foldable screen

Size	7.95″/6.43″
Type	Foldable LTPO OLED/LTPO OLED BOE panels Inner: Carbon Fibre Reinforced Panel Excellent antireflective surface.
Flat, Curve, 2D, 3D	Flat
Resolution	2352 x 2172/ 2375 x 1060
PPI	403/404
Ratio	9.75:9/20:9
Colours bits	10-bit/1.07 billion colours
Refresh Hz, adaptive	1-120Hz Standard 60 Hz Dynamic: 1-120 Hz High: 120Hz and per-app settings
Nits typical, test	Not disclosed – 650 nits and 1300 ABL.
Nits max, test	Inner: 1300 HDR (Test 1220) 5000 PEAK (not tested) Outer 1800 (Test 2199)
Contrast	Infinite
sRGB	Test 100%
DCI-P3	Test 99.8%
Rec.2020 or other	N/A Note: It has good calibration settings not seen on other phones.
Delta E (<4 is excellent)	<1/<1 – excellent
HDR Level	Dolby Vision HDR support on both of its displays. HDR, HDR10, HDR10+, HLG.
SDR Upscale	Yes, Video Enhancer, and it does a credible job.
Blue Light control	Yes
PWM if known	4320Hz – No PWM under normal brightness.
Daylight readable	Yes
Always on Display	Yes
Edge display	Yes customisable Magic Sidebar
Accessibility	All Android features and supports Gestures.  HONOR Magic-Pen stylus is supported.
DRM	L1 for FHD, SDR and HDR (should be available)
Gaming	<1ms GTG
Screen protection	Internal: HONOR Super Armoured Inner Screen External: HONOR Anti-scratch NanoCrystal Shield. Harder than steel Mohs >6
Comment	Stylus support – a first for a foldable. This is an amazing 10-bit internal and external screen. It totally disproves Samsung’s insistence on using an 8-bit screen to extend battery life and not support Dolby Vision. It also proves you can make a screen without PWM – Samsung, Google and Apple are the worst offenders here. The only issue is that some apps are not optimised for the inner screen.

Processor: Exceed

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite was the fastest and most accomplished System-on-a-Chip (SoC) in 2025. Honor has managed to tame this ‘hot’ chip and extract the maximum power from its performance mode. In general, using the Balanced mode extends battery life without a noticeable loss of performance.

Type	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite SM8750AB Note: The 2026 successor is the SD8 Elite Gen 5 (there was no Gen 1, 2, 3 or 4).
nm	3nm TSMC N3E fab
Cores	2 × Prime 4.32 GHz + 6 × Performance 3.53 GHz
GPU	Adreno 830 with Ray Tracing
Modem	X80 5G and Fast Connect 7900 6nm chip – DSDA Gen 2 – supports voice and data

NPU Tests: Exceed

Thankfully, Honor gives accurate results, whereas Samsung ‘games’ the results so much that we have to ignore them, and Google simply won’t let most benchmarking apps run.

It is faster than the Samsung as it uses 16GB LPDDR5X (12GB LPDDR5X) and 512GB UFS 4.1 Storage (Samsung 256GB UFS 4.0).

NPU	Qualcomm Hexagon Neural Processing Unit features a fused AI accelerator architecture for significantly faster on-device AI, supporting complex Large Language Models (LLMs). There is no faster NPU in 2025.
AI TOPS OR Multi-thread Integer Operations Per Second (INOPS) GINOPS = billion	On power – Performance mode CPU: 1144/1046/1687 GPU: 2445/3949/3254 NNAPI: 218/218/496 QNN: 233/24446/53424 AiTuTu: 1,952,568 AI Benchmark 5: 18627 GFLOPS: 23.33 (Fold 7 22.77) GINOPS: 35.26 (Fold 7 37.97)
Antutu	2,565,692 (Fold 7 is 1,999,965)
Geekbench 6 Single-core	2932
Geekbench 6 multi-core	8515
Like	This is a very powerful device, matching or bettering the Samsung Fold7 with the same processor. Why? More RAM, faster UFS 4.1 SSD, and far better thermal management. Honor got the build right – Samsung did not.

GPU test

The Adreno 830 brings hardware-accelerated ray tracing (RT) to mobile, offering more realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections with significant performance and efficiency gains (around 35% better RT than previous gens). It’s a shame the inner screen is too soft for gamers.

The results reflect the fastest scores of any Fold (Fold 7 in brackets)

OpenCL	17,993 (17,108)
Like	SD8 Elite top marks
Vulcan	24,190 (23,759)

RAM/Storage: Exceed

Honor allows for virtual RAM expansion by using some of the storage. It’s slow but gives enormous flexibility when multitasking and AI. Samsung does not allow virtual RAM, and its meagre 12GB is often a bottleneck.

BUT THE BEST PART IS FULL USB IMPLEMENTATION.

Honor supports the full USB-C 3.2 Gen 1, 5Gbps standard for ALT DP 1.2 (audio, video, HID, Data and Charge) and external mountable SSD drives. Samsung and Google do not.

This means videographers, vloggers and more can plug in an external SSD, a USB-C hub, a mouse/keyboard and have pass-through charge.

RAM, type	16GB LPDDR5X and virtual RAM
Storage, free, type	512GB UFS 4.1
micro-SD	No
CPDT internal seq. Read MBps sustained/peak	2600/3900
CPDT internal seq. write MBps sustained/peak	980/1470
CPDT microSD read, write MBps	N/A
CPDT external (mountable?) MBps Read Write	At last, a full implementation of USB-C that allows mountable external SSD drives. Read: 426/477 Write: 145/314
Comment	This phone meets a major criterion for phone of the year with a full implementation of USB-C 5Gbps for vloggers and videographers.

Thermal management

The SD8 Elite SoC is a hot chip, so much so that we perform three tests in the performance mode.

• After a cold boot at 22°
• One hour after typical use at 22°
• Within 10 minutes of 100% load tests

Now this reveals some interesting facts for the same tests on the Fold 7. It does not run at full GIPs to show a lower, ‘better’ percentage throttle result. The Honor shows accurate GIPs and has less throttle and more power than Samsung.

Throttle test	Battery Cold boot/hours use/after load (Fold7 cold boot in brackets)
Max GIPS	320,133/343,528/346,417 (320,772)
Average GIPS	290,284/252,249/260,505 (242,742)
Minimum GIPS	276,638/136,724/146,880 (220,674)
% Throttle	9%/40%/36% (37%)
CPU Temp	99° (99°)
Comment	Overall, it shows the best and worst of throttling. Honor has done a good job of thermal management on what is a hot chip. Samsung has less usable power after throttling.

We ran the test in Balanced mode, and it’s very different (Bottom Left)!

Comms: Exceed

Both Samsung and Honor use the SD8 Elite SoC and Qualcomm 7900 antenna system, so in theory, the Wi-Fi and GPS results are similar.

What we found was that Honor has enabled more of the SD8 sensors, whereas Samsung has only enabled the minimum. One can only assume that this resulted in a higher licence fee for Honor.

It also supports screen mirroring and Honor Android Desktop over a USB-C cable with full HID (Mouse/keyboard). It will support a USB-C to HDMI cable (audio/video only) and a USB-C 3.1 dongle with power pass-through. No more lugging a laptop – just your phone.

Samsung has its DeX, and Google uses the Android 16 desktop.

Wi-Fi Type, model	Wi-Fi 7 BE Tri-band 2.4/5/6Ghz 2 x 2 MIMO HE320
Test 2m -dBm, Rx/Tx Mbps	-45/4003-4804/4195-4932
Test 5m	-57/913-3459/2498-3615
Test 10m	-59/1296-3075/2177-3587
BT Type	6
GPS single, dual	GPS (L1+L5) AGPS GLONASS BeiDou (B1I+B1C+B2a+B2b) Galileo (E1+E5a+E5b) QZSS (L1 + L5)
USB type	USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 5Mbps Supports screen mirror (Alt DP 1.2) audio/video/data/HID, 325/charge.
ALT DP, DeX, Ready For	Honor Desktop
NFC	Yes
Ultra-wideband	Chip is capable but not enabled.
Sensors	52
Accelerometer	Yes
Gyro	Yes
e-Compass	Yes
Barometer	Yes
Gravity	Yes
Pedometer	Simulated
Ambient light	Yes
Hall sensor	Yes
Proximity	Yes
Other	Fingerprint sensor on the power button Infrared Blaster on camera bump.
Comment	Add far more sensors, faster USB-C, ALT DP, external mountable SSD support, and it’s a winner.

4/5G: Exceed. Rurual users rejoyce

This is way more impressive than the Fold7/Pixel 10 Fold (in brackets).

• 25.1 picowatt reception amongst the highest recorded (20/4)
• Found all four 4G bands at pico Watt power levels (Tower 2 at 1.6pW/No to all)
• Found usable 5G signal from two towers (No/No)
• Found usable 4G Band 3 and 29 internal signal (No/No)

But the two things that I love most

• The choice of dual physical SIMS, one SIM and one eSIM or two eSIMs. eSIMs are DSDA Dual SIM, Dual active, so you can be using one to call and the other for data. Samsung and Google are DSDS (Dual SIM, Dual standby – only one at a time.
• And dual ring tones – a different one for each SIM. Only Motorola offers this.

SIM	SIM1+SIM2 / SIM1+eSIM / eSIM1+eSIM2
Active	DSDA (Dual SIM, Dual active) when using 2 x eSIM
Ringtone	Dual
VoLTE	Yes
Wi-Fi calling	Yes
4G Bands	Bands are not disclosed, but we understand that all Australian bands are covered B1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 28, and 40 (as well as many more)
Comment	See Bands – not on the website.
5G sub-6Ghz	Ditto, we understand it covers n1, 3, 5, 8, 28, 38, 41, 77, and 78.
Comment	Honor needs to update its AU specs with bands.
mmWave	No
Test	Boost Mobile, Telstra retail network
DL/UL, ms	4G: 45/43/34ms (excellent) 5G: 22.9/29.9/32ms (at least it found a usable signal)
Tower 1 -dBm, fW or pW	4G: Band 3: 25.1pW 5G: Band 7 631 fW (usable)
Tower 2	4G: Band 7 20pW 5G Band 7 398 fW (usable)
Tower 3	4G Band 28 5pW and Band 3 1.7pW 5G Not usable
Tower 4	4G: Band 3 2 pW 5G: Not usable
Indoor	4G: Usable band 28 and band 3 coverage 1+ pW 5G: Not usable
Comment	This is one of the strongest city, suburb, regional and rural reception phones we have seen with pico Watt signal strengths from all four towers and even usable 5G from two towers. For comparison, the Samsung Fold7 and Google Pixel 10 Fold are city and suburbs phones only. Add dual eSIM and dual ringtones, and this is well ahead of the foldable pack.

Battery: Exceed

First, you have to remember here is not a lot of room in there as the world’s slimmest foldable, if only by a fraction of a millimetre. The solution was to use the new Silicon Carbon (Si/C) Anode Lithium-Polymer pouch batteries that combined give 5820mAh compared to Samsung at 4400 and Google at 5015. Neither Samsung nor Google use Si/C yet.

In addition, it uses Honor 66W SuperCharge (in fact 2 x 33W parallel charging), which can charge the two internal batteries simultaneously (Similar to OPPO SUPERVOOC).  Samsung is limited to a single stream 25W and Google to 30W.

It also supports a 50W air-cooled Qi wireless charger, where Samsung and Google max out at 15W.

My only gripe is that to get the fastest 50-minute charge, you need a proprietary dual-channel charger that is not certified for or sold in Australia. The most we could get was the Anker 140W GaN charger that got to 8V/3A, 24W – an unusual charge rate and that took 92 minutes.

Teardowns show it’s very easy to replace the batteries by removing the external screen and rear panel.

mAh	5820mAh typical 5690mAh rated Other reviews assume it is Si/C, but teardowns show a two-part Li-Polymer pouch battery. Dual cells for parallel charging 11V/3A/33 x 2 channels Cell 1: 3.79V/3825mAh/14.5Wh Cell 2: 3.79V/1955mAh/7.57Wh Five-year battery 1000+ cycles
Charger, type, supplied	Not supplied 66W HONOR SuperCharge up to 20V/3.35A Compatible with 11V/3.2A or 5V/2A. These are not certified for sale in Australia.
PD, QC level	PD 3.1QC 5.0 and PPS
Qi, wattage	50W HONOR Wireless SuperCharge (not sold in Australia).
Reverse Qi or cable.	No Wireless – cable 5W USB-C supports up to 7.5W OTG
Test (60Hz or adaptive screen)	Adaptive
Charge % 30mins	65%
Charge 0-100%	Our Anker 140W GaN charger could not get above 8V/3A/24W – unusual. 24W charge 1 hour 32 minutes 66W fast charge in about 50 minutes
Charge Qi, W Using Belkin Boost Charge 15W fast wireless charge	50W HONOR Wireless SuperCharge (not sold in Australia). Not tested. It is limited to 15W on Qi chargers.
Charge 5V, 2A	No tested – estimate 4-5 hours.
Video loop 50%, aeroplane mode	Inner: 10 hours 21 minutes Outer: 14 hours 10 minutes These seem a little short and were not retested with Android 16. I suspect that we did this in performance mode.
PC Mark 3 battery	18 hours 14 minutes (performance mode) Accubattery: 18 hours 3 minutes
GFX Bench Manhattan battery	Not available in the Play Store
GFX Bench T-Rex	Not available in the Play Store
Drain 100-0% full load screen on	4 hours 48 minutes Accubattery: 5 hours
mA Full load screen on	50% main screen 750-800 100% main screen 1050-1100
mA Watt idle Screen on	50% main screen 350-400mA 100% main screen on 450-500mA
Estimate loss at max refresh	Tested on Adaptive – should be the best battery life.
Estimate typical use	Typical users who primarily use the external screen will easily get a full 24-hour day. Power users will get from 8-10 hours. The internal screen is remarkably power-efficient, and its extended use should not incur more than a 20% time penalty.
Comment	The largest battery in a foldable offering full-day use and reasonable fast charge.

Sound hardware: Exceed

Some phone makers practice extreme ‘down-engineering’, cutting costs wherever they can. In the sound area, they refuse to pay Qualcomm’s licensing fees for the use of its excellent Aqistic suite of audio technology, using lower-cost amps and no Digital to Analogue (DAC) to allow USB headphones to work without an external DAC. Nor do they pay Dolby for Atmos licenses, etc. Instead, they use no-cost software, digital signal processors, freeware aptX, and spatial apps. That is why so few have decent sound.

Honor uses the full Aqusitic suite and that includes the full set of aptX Bluetooth codecs. You can plug in a USB-C headphone without a DAC (No/No).

Honor has placed the stereo speakers in a diagonal left/right side setup. Whichever way the screen faces, the sound comes from both sides with a proper centring sound.

Speakers	Open: Top left upwards firing. Bottom Right downwards firing. When used for media, the speakers are left and right stereo. When closed, the top speaker outputs via an earpiece speaker.
Tuning	N/A
AMP	Uses Qualcomm Aqistic system
Dolby Atmos decode	Yes, downmix metadata to 2.0
Hi-Res	Yes
3.5mm	No, but supports USB-C headphones without a DAC.
BT Codecs	SBC, AAC, LDAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, LDHC5
Multipoint	Yes
Spatial	Honor Spatial Audio for headphones only – superb 3D height and wide sound stage.
EQ	No – third-party apps available.
Mics	Three, including one for noise reduction. Stereo AAC recording.
Test dB – all on EQ flat DA off
Volume max	82
Media (music)	80
Ring	80
Alarm	80
Notifications	80
Earpiece	70
Hands-free	Superb hands-free in audio and video.
BT headphones	Excellent left-right separation, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, LDAC and more. Great Spatial apps for headpones.

Sound signature: Exceed

Music actually sounds really good on the Honor Magic V5 as a result of its focus on quality, not compromise. It has a neutral sound signature, which is nirvana for any speaker as it neither adds nor subtracts from the native sound. The only downside is that crappy original sound is still crappy sound.

However, it lacks a speaker EQ but has adjustments for BT speakers and headphones. There are plenty of EQ apps (not tested) that support Aqistic, like Poweamp, Wavelet AutoEQ, Music Volume, Equaliser FX Pro, etc.

An interesting feature is that you can adjust the volume of each app.

Our test is with a white noise generator at full volume (gold line) and reflects the speaker’s native sound signature – what it is capable of. This is one of the best, if not the best, we have tested.

Deep Bass 20-40Hz	Nil
Middle Bass 40-100Hz	Building from 50Hz to 200Hz – impressive
High Bass 100-200Hz	Strong build to 200Hz and good solid bass – thump, not whump.
Low Mid 200-400Hz	Flat from 200to 10KHz – never seen a phone able to do this before
Mid 400-1000Hz	Flat
High-Mid 1-2kHz	Flat and no clipping
Low Treble 2-4kHz	Flat and no clipping
Mid Treble 4-6kHz	Flat
High Treble 6-10kHz	Flat to 13kHz with minor clipping
Dog Whistle 10-20kHz	13-20kHz is there and provides good ‘air’.
Sound Signature type	I have never seen any phone provide such a pure neutral sound signature before. Mid and High bass are there – thump! Mids are clean and great for clear voice Treble is well defined and controlled – instruments are crisp, not harsh. Upper treble adds a sense of sound direction and a feeling of ‘air’, a reality as though the music were really there.
Soundstage	The speakers are well-balanced. The sound stage is as wide as the phone. It supports Dolby Atmos metadata downmix to 2.0, and there is a setting for Spatial Audio for the headphones. It expands the 2D sound stage nicely, as far out as 30cm and adds 3D height.
Comment	Apart from being the best sound we have ever heard, it proves that the Qualcomm Aqistic amp and sound processing, married to even the most ridiculously thin speakers, can produce excellent phone sound at good volumes. I would have liked an EQ if only because the neutral signature works so well with one.

The Fold7, for comparison, has

* No low/mid/high bass
* Poor low mid
* Choppy mid mid
* 1-4 kHz good for clear voice
* 4 kHz to 9 kHz low/mid treble, but quite harsh
* 9-20kHz – choppy and no feeling of air or vitality

We won’t embarrass Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold except to say it is quite a deal worse than the Fold7.

Build: Exceed and impressive

It is incredibly thin at Fold/Open 8.8mm/4.1mm x 217g (White carbon fibre) if you don’t count the camera ring (nor do Samsung and Google). The other colours are infinitesimally thicker and heavier due to the rear panel material.

I don’t want to get into the argument of whether the Samsung or the Honor is thinner – let’s call it a draw. But I will mention my pet hate when a phone rocks on a desk. Samsung rocks (in the worst way) and Honor does not. It makes a mountain of difference when using the phone on a desk.

Honor has also redesigned the hinge, reducing the number of moveable parts to 4 (some competitors have 96), and it can support a 30kg weight. It has been tested for 500,000+ folds.

The power/fingerprint reader and volume rocker are on the right-hand side, one above the other, which makes it easier to transition from a more traditional candy bar format

Haptics are excellent and there, and there is a sub-menu that allows you to adjust front, rear, and more haptics.

Now to the significant bit – IP58/59, which means almost dust resistant (hinge) and at least 1.5m of water for 30 minutes (9 includes pressure water jets). Fold7 is IP48.

The inner screen protection is way ahead of the competition.

Summary: The build quality is excellent, matching what I have seen from OPPO.

Size (H X W x D)	Flat 156.8 x 145.9 Folded 74.3
Weight grams	217g White 222g Other colours
Front glass	Internal: HONOR Super Armoured Inner Screen External: HONOR Anti-scratch NanoCrystal Shield. Harder than steel >6 External: Prefitted plastic protector
Rear material	A blend of aramid fibre, S-grade glass fibre, and PBO fibre, chosen for lightweight properties and high strength.
Frame	500,000 folding cycles 35kg hinge from three aerospace-grade materials: zirconium-based liquid metal, corrosion-resistant titanium alloy, and lightweight carbon fibre. Magnesium alloy and stainless steel surround
IP rating	IP 59 and 59 IP5X dust protection rating means there is a risk of dust intrusion into the product, so avoid using it in environments with high concentrations of sand and dust. IPX8 and 9 mean at least 1.5m of water for 30 minutes. By comparison, Samsung Fold7 is IP48.
Colours	Black Dawn Gold Ivory White
Pen, Stylus support	Yes – this is the only foldable that works with the Bluetooth Honor Magic Pen – unique for a foldable
Teardown	It looks highly repairable with no need to remove the inner screen to replace batteries.
In the box	A very big box
Charger	No
USB cable	1m USB-C to USB-C 3W cable
Buds	No
Bumper cover	Yes
Comment	We are disappointed that no charger is in the box.

OS: Pass, and I will tell you why

It shipped with Android 15/MagicOS 9, and all the major tests were done with that. I was going to say that it was the Achilles heel, as the competition has Android 16. Hence, the ‘Pass’

Well, a couple of days before this review was ready, it updated to Android 16 /MagicOS 10 and December security patches. The phone performs even better (up to 20% on some AI tests). A lot of the previous MagicOS 9 quirks are gone. Overall, MagicOS 10 is a good improvement, but I ahve not had a month to use it.

But it is still very China-oriented shipping with an almost complete set of Honor Apps that substitute for Google apps. That is fine if you use Honor backup and intend to restore to a new Honor phone.

But Aussies all want to use Google Backup as it is brand-agnostic. You can select Google Backup over Honor’s offerings.

As with all skins, Samsung included, we suggest you use Google Apps for ease of backup and restore.

And we cannot get confirmation of the OS upgrade and security patch policy. It’s 7+7 in the EU, but approaches to the PR and distributor were responded to with “Let me get back to you”.

You can use the device without an Honor account, but some AI apps may not work.

Its basic privacy policy and terms are Google’s. Where it has other policies, they are region-specific and comply with EU GDPR, USA and Australian privacy regulations. It appears Honor is fair dinkum about privacy.

Android	Shipped with 15 and updated to 16 in January
Security patch date	1 Dec 2025
UI	MagicOS 9.0.1 updated to 10. Now supports 3 apps side by side. Magic Share
OS upgrade policy	7 years TBC
Security patch policy	7 years TBC
Bloatware	Honor versions of Google Apps Agoda App market Booking.com Castro System Info Facebook Email Files Gallery Games Centre Honor App Market Honor AI Space Honor Health Instagram LinkedIn Magic Mobile Service Mirror My Honor ReelShort Ride Mode Smaret Remote TikTok WPS Office
Other	Honor AI Magic Sidebar Gemini Nano Gemini, your built-in AI assistant Gemini Live Gemini Apps Pixel Screenshots Magic Cue Circle to Search Live Translate Call Assist
Comment	Magic OS 10 is not a deal breaker, as you will find Android under it. But the Google substitute apps are unnecessary in Australia and often quite quirky.
Security
Fingerprint sensor location, type	Power key. Difficult for left-handers
Face ID	2D face unlock
Other	The SD8 Elite has a Secure Processing Unit and stores biometrics on the device. All Android security features apply.
Comment	Use Google Apps where you can, if only for backup and restore.

Honor Magic V5 camera: Exceed with an explanation

Three issues here.

First, that foldables are so thin that black slab phone sensors do not fit. These need to use ultra-slim sensors that simply do not have the same image quality as a larger sensor.

Second, the Qualcomm SD8 Elite only supports 3 x 48MP sensors (at a time) or one single 108MP sensor for Multi-Frame Noise Reduction (MFNR), Zero Shutter Lag (ZSL), and 30 Frames Per Second.

Third, a lot of work has gone into the camera app for the Android 16 upgrade. All the pre-January 2026 reviews you may read are not relevant.

In a nutshell, the Honor and the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, are very much on a par with the Pixel having slightly stronger AI and the Honor having more flexibility, filters and gimmicks. Both are well ahead of the Fold7, even with its 200MP wide sensor that bins to 12.5MP anyway.

Camera design: Special mention to the round camera hump. It stops the phone rocking when on a desk. Apart from that, the fine detail (like a watch bezel) is very attractive.

All three cameras on the Magic V5 impressed me as excellent point-and-shoots. There are three colour profiles: neutral for natural tones, vibrant for more saturated, and authentic for warm, deep tones.

Honor’s AI-assisted 100X Super Zoom is quite impressive. Textures still have that smoothened AI look, but the distance and detail it produces are class-leading.

Sensor colour matching is adequate, but the auto lens switch (which can select the best sensor) can be a little disconcerting.

3x telephoto acts as the macro.

AI-enhanced portrait mode can change people’s appearance. It is subtle – minor tweaks to skin and hair that keep you looking like yourself on a good day, ten years ago!

Video: Honor has avoided 8K video settling on 4K@60fps. Videos are excellent, stereo recording and AI to help if you need it.

Summary: A reliable triple camera system with a standout telephoto producing solid point and shoot across the board, even in low light.

Honor Magic V5 test photos

It was an overcast day.

Honor Magic V5 rear camera specs

Rear Primary	Wide
MP	50MP bins to 12.5MP Can shoot at 50MP
Sensor	Sony IMX906 (not sure)
Focus	Dual pixel PDAF Multi-zone laser AF
f-stop	1.6
um	1
FOV° (stated, actual)	23mm
Stabilisation	OIS/EIS
Zoom
Rear 2	Ultrawide
MP	50MP bins to 12MP
Sensor	Unknown. Likely an Omnivision OV50M40 for ultra-slim foldable phones.
Focus	PDAF
f-stop	2
um	.61 bins to 1.22
FOV (stated, actual)	122
Stabilisation	No
Zoom	No
Rear 3	Telephoto
MP	64MP bins to 16MP
Sensor	Omnivision OV64B
Focus	ML-PDAF
f-stop	2.5
um	0.7
FOV (stated, actual)
Stabilisation	OIS/Gyro-EIS
Zoom	3x optical zoom 100x Digital zoom
QR code reader	Yes
Night mode	Yes
DXO Mark	DXO Mark 150 – best foldable tested Samsung S25 Ultra 151 Samsung Fold7, not submitted for testing.
Special	Auto and manual night mode Can also shoot portraits in wide and telephoto.
Video max	4K@60 saved as H.264/AAC stereo, MP4 Can select H.265.
Flash	Dual-LED
Auto-HDR	Yes
	AI Motion Sensing Capture AI photography Super Wide Angle Aperture, Multi-Video Night shot Portrait mode Photo Pro mode Video, Panorama Watermark Scan Document HIGH-RES, Super Macro Capture smiles Time-lapse Timer Movie Slow-MO Story Light Painting HDR

Honor Magic V5 selfie x 2: Pass+

The inner and outer sensors are the same. We expect it to be a Samsung 3T2 20MP that bins to 5MP.

Given the colour filters – natural, classic, smooth and brighten – you should find one that gets skintone just right. Google may lead here.

Inner Selfie	Inner selfie camera
MP	20MP bins to 5MP
Sensor	Likely Samsung 3T2 Ultra-slim
Focus	FF
f-stop	2.2
um	.8 bins to 1.6
FOV (stated, actual)	21mm
Stabilisation	Gyro-EIS
Zoom	Wide .8X and standrd 1X
Front selfie	Selfie – on external display and internal display – two
MP	20MP bins to 4.9MP
Sensor	Likely Sony IMX476
Focus	FF
f-stop	2.2
um	1.22
FOV (stated, actual)	21mm
Stabilisation	Gyro EIS
Flash	Screen fill
Zoom	Wide .8X and standrd 1X
Video max	4K@60
Features	Portrait Watermark Capture smiles Mirror reflection Timer Night Gesture control
Comment	Overall camera performance is very good and definitely won’t disappoint – sensors are selected based on thinness.

CyberShack’s view: Honor Magic V5 is the only phone to meet our 2025 phone of the year criteria

The Honor Magic V5 is, without a doubt, the most compelling foldable we’ve tested this year. It combines an impressively thin and lightweight design with premium materials, a robust hinge, and class-leading IP58/IP59 ingress protection – a rare achievement in this segment.

Both displays are 10-bit,  sharp, bright, colourful and feature-packed, with stylus support and Dolby Vision certification, while the stereo speakers round out the excellent multimedia experience.

Performance is flagship-grade thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Elite, and generous memory and storage.

Battery life is solid for a foldable, and the 5,820 mAh Si/C paired with 66W wired and 50W wireless (if you could buy them here) deliver strong results.

Software is its weakest point with MagicOS 10 on top of Android 16. But to be fair, there is a hugh selection of options, great multitasking tools, and a seven-year update promise in key markets.

Cameras are another strength, with a versatile triple setup that covers wide, ultrawide, and 3x telephoto while delivering excellent stills and video. Add in extras like an IR blaster and fully implemented USB 3.1, and the Magic V5 is every bit the premium package.

Ratings
Features	95
	This has the best of everything and deserves the accolade. Beauty and brains. We applaud the full USB-C DP implementation.
Value	90
	With the Samsung Fold 7 only having 12/256GB as standard for $2898 and Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold 16 16/512GB at $2899, this is superb value at $2599. It’s exclusive to Harvey Norman, and there are bonus packs for early adopters.
Performance	90
	It beats every Samsung Fold7 benchmark, has better controlled thermal management, a 10-bit no PWM screen, and city, suburbs, regional and rural phone reception (Samsung does not).
Ease of Use	85
	MagicOS is not as streamlined and mature as Samsung UI, but it is easy to learn, and all Android 16 features are there. Unlike Samsung, it does not require a Samsung account and 40,000+ words of policies to operate.
Design	90
	The thinnest, lightest fold with more durability and a bigger battery than the Fold7.
Rating out of 10	90
Final comment	Without a doubt, it meets all criteria for our phone of the year and sneaks in as the 2025 winner. More importantly, it shows what can be achieved at a lower cost than Samsung refuses to do: 10-bit screen, no PWM, better thermal management, bigger, faster charge battery, excellent cameras and lovely style.

Pro
1	Excellent point and shoot camera scoring the DXO Mark as the best camera in a foldable.
2	10-bit/1.07 billion colour, no PWM internal and external screens with a peak of 5000 nits and excellent colour consistency with photos.
3	TBC: 7 OS upgrades (shipped with Android 15) and 7 years of security patches.
4	Google Gemini AI as well as Honor AI features.
5	1:1 internal and 20:9 external screens are more usable.
Con
1	Throttles, but not as much as the competition
2	MagicOS needs work for the Western market  – more Google, less Honor.