Honor has confirmed the specifications for the Magic V5 foldable ahead of its global release, and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 could be in a spot of bother.
Those problems start with the dimensions of Honor’s new foldable. At just 4.1mm when open and 8.8mm thick when closed, the Magic V5 looks set to undercut Samsung’s redesign, which is rumoured to be 0.1mm thicker in both orientations.
Another stand-out spec here is the Honor Magic V5’s 5820mAh battery. That’s bigger than the Honor Magic V3’s 5150mAh, and significantly bigger than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7’s rumoured 4400mAh capacity.
It has the best design of any book-style foldable right now, offering plenty of upgrades compared to the Magic V3.
Honor Magic V5 camera specs
We found the Honor Magic V3 to have a strong camera set-up for a foldable, particularly in the main and telephoto departments, though the ultra-wide was a little weak.
Honor may be addressing that in the Magic V5, with a new set-up that includes a 50MP f/1.6 main camera (as before), a new 50MP ultra-wide, and a new 64MP telephoto camera.
Honor
There’s another pair of 20MP selfie cameras – one on the internal screen, and one on the external display.
Talking of which, the Honor Magic V5 will pack a 7.95-inch internal LTPO OLED with a 120Hz peak refresh rate, a 2352 x 2172 resolution, and a 5000 nits peak brightness. That’s a little bigger and much brighter than before, and will be a real challenge for Samsung’s new foldable to top.
Honor will only confirm that its foldable has a ‘Super Armoured Inner Screen’ at this point, so we’ll have to wait and see on that front.
Honor Magic V5 design and performance
The name of that internal display indicates a certain amount of toughening up on the Magic V5’s part, and that carries through to an IP58 & IP59 certification.
We’ve heard mixed things about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7’s level of dust and water resistance, but the latest rumour is that it will still only feature IP48 certification.
Honor revealed images of the Magic V5 in three colours, as featured here. These include a white and gold model, a beigey model, and a black model.
Snapdragon 8 Elite power should see the Magic V5 performing as well as any flagship phone of 2025. It remains to be seen if the Galaxy Z Fold 7 will run on Samsung’s Exynos 2500 chip, as rumoured, and if so whether that chip will be competitive with Qualcomm’s. History suggests otherwise.
Honor
Finally, you can expect 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage as standard in the UK model of the Honor Magic V5.
We’ll have to wait and see how all this ties together, and to confirm all of the finer details. We have lingering concerns following the Honor Magic V3’s cluttered software and premium pricing, in particular.
But the Magic V5 is already shaping up to be a premium slice of foldable. Samsung has a job on its hands if it’s to position the Galaxy Z Fold 7 as the ‘Ultra’ foldable option of 2025.
