Honor Magic V5 review: the UK foldable I would pick over the Z Fold7

The Honor Magic V5 is the foldable I would put at the top of the UK shortlist this year, and after weighing its real published specs against the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7, I think it genuinely out-foldables the phone everyone treats as the default. Honor sells a single 512GB model in the UK at £1,699.99 (source: Honor UK, last checked 19 June 2026), and the headline claim that it is the world’s slimmest book-style foldable is not marketing fluff: GSMArena measured it at 8.8mm folded and 4.1mm open in its 28 August 2025 review, which scored it 4.5 out of 5. The specs and the named, dated reviews make the case on their own, and I am not hedging on the verdict.

The thinness is real, and it changes how you carry a foldable

I have used enough foldables to be cynical about thinness claims, because a phone that is thin on the spec sheet often hides a brick of a camera bump. On the published figures the Magic V5 does not. At 8.8mm folded it is fractionally slimmer than the Galaxy Z Fold7’s 8.9mm, and at 4.1mm open it is the kind of slab that reads more like a normal phone than a folding one. The weight, from 217g, sits a hair above the Fold7’s 215g, so this is not a phone that punishes you for choosing the bigger battery. In daily terms it should slide into a jacket pocket the way a normal phone does, which has always been the foldable dream and rarely the reality.

The displays back up the premium framing. Honor fits a 7.95-inch LTPO OLED inner panel and a 6.43-inch cover screen, both running at 120Hz and both rated at a frankly silly 5,000 nits of peak brightness. I read that figure with the usual caution, since peak brightness is a tiny-window measurement rather than what you see across the whole panel, but even allowing for that, this is among the brightest foldable hardware on sale. If you have read my piece on the Galaxy Z Fold7 finally going mainstream in the UK, the Magic V5 is the phone that turns up to that party and quietly does the same job with a slightly bigger inner canvas.

Battery is where the Honor Magic V5 pulls ahead

Here is the gap that matters most to me. The Magic V5 carries a 5,820mAh silicon-carbon battery, the third-generation chemistry that packs more capacity into the same space than the older graphite cells most rivals still use. The Galaxy Z Fold7, by contrast, has a 4,272mAh rated cell. That is a meaningful difference on a device you actively want to use all day for two-app multitasking, and it is the single spec I would not trade away. Honor pairs it with 66W wired and 50W wireless charging, so topping up is quick by foldable standards, even if it does not chase the 80W-plus numbers you see on some slab phones.

A bigger battery in a thinner body is the trick foldables have been promising for years. On the numbers, the Magic V5 is the first one that looks like it finally delivers it.

Powering all of this is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, the same top-tier chip you will find in this year’s best Android flagships. Performance is not the story here, because at this price it is simply expected, but it does mean the Magic V5 will not feel slow against a Galaxy S25 Ultra or any other 2026 flagship you might cross-shop. If you are the sort of buyer who agonises over whether to buy a phone now or wait out the memory-price squeeze, the chip is one less thing to worry about: it is current and it will stay current.

Cameras that aim higher than most foldables

Foldables usually compromise on the camera, because there is nowhere to put a big sensor in a body this thin. Honor has fought that harder than most with its Falcon system: a 50MP f/1.6 main with optical stabilisation, a 50MP ultrawide, and a 64MP periscope telephoto with 3x optical zoom. The periscope is the standout, because reach is exactly what foldable cameras tend to lack, and 64MP is a higher-resolution telephoto than the Z Fold7 offers. In its 28 August 2025 review GSMArena specifically flagged the Magic V5’s brighter display, larger battery, better water resistance and higher-resolution periscope as hardware wins over Samsung’s foldable, which lines up with what the spec sheet promises.

I would still temper expectations. A periscope on a foldable is a triumph of engineering, but folding-phone camera tuning has historically trailed the best slab flagships, and Honor’s processing leans punchy rather than natural. If pure camera quality is your priority over the folding form factor, an Honor 200 Pro against a Pixel 9 Pro comparison still tells you that a dedicated camera phone wins on consistency. But as foldable cameras go, this is near the top of the pile, and the telephoto alone makes it more versatile than most rivals on a day out.

Honor’s own product film lays out the slimness and durability pitch better than any spec table I can write, so it is worth two minutes before you commit.

Durability and MagicOS: the two caveats I would weigh

On durability, Honor has done its homework. The Magic V5 carries IP58 and IP59 ratings, meaning protection against dust and against both immersion and high-pressure water jets, which is unusually thorough for a folding phone and a genuine edge over the Z Fold7. Foldables remain more fragile than slabs by their nature, with a hinge and a crease that no rating fully erases, but on paper this is one of the better-protected foldables you can buy, and Honor leans hard on that point in its marketing.

The software is the part that gives me pause. The Magic V5 runs MagicOS 10 on top of Android 16, and it is a capable, feature-heavy skin with the Gemini-powered tricks you would expect in 2026. The issue is longevity. Samsung now commits to seven years of OS and security updates on its flagship foldables, and Honor’s promises sit short of that. On a £1,699.99 phone you intend to keep for years, that gap is not academic, and it is the main reason a cautious buyer might still default to Samsung. If you are weighing the wider Android field, my look at the best Samsung Galaxy phone to buy in the UK and the OnePlus 13 as a value flagship both put that support question front and centre, and it should factor into yours too.

Where to buy it in the UK

The Magic V5 is sold as a single 512GB SKU at £1,699.99. You can buy it directly from the Honor UK store, which has run summer promotions and bundle codes that drop the effective price below the headline, so it is worth checking the live offer before you pay full RRP. Beyond Honor, it is stocked at Argos, Currys, Amazon UK and Very, plus carrier deals from EE, O2, Three and Vodafone if you would rather spread the cost. Honor has also included a 66W charger and the Magic Pen stylus in the UK box, which is a nicer touch than the empty boxes some rivals ship. For the full spec sheet you can cross-check, Honor’s official UK specification page lists every figure I have quoted here. Last checked: 19 June 2026.

What would actually make me hand over £1,700

So here is where I land. If your priority is the best book-style foldable hardware you can buy in the UK right now, the Magic V5 is the one I would choose over the Galaxy Z Fold7. It is thinner, it has a much bigger battery, a brighter screen, a longer-reaching telephoto and stronger water resistance, and it costs £100 less than Samsung’s £1,799 foldable. Those are not marginal wins, they are the things you actually feel. The only reason I would steer you back to Samsung is software longevity: if you keep phones for five years or more, Samsung’s update commitment is the safer bet, and that is a fair trade to make. For everyone else, especially anyone who has wanted a foldable that does not feel like a compromise to carry, this is the most convincing one yet.

My score: 9/10. The Honor Magic V5 is the foldable I would spend my own money on this year, with the one asterisk that you accept slightly shorter software support than Samsung in exchange for better hardware everywhere else.