Honor Magic V6 review: Finest foldable finesse | Tech News

Folding telephones are most likely going to change this 12 months, and it won’t be for the best. Apple is rumoured to be launching its first foldable iPhone in September, and whispers are it is going to have a huge, squat type issue more akin to a passport than the tall folding telephones we have already got that fold out into an almost-square.

Samsung has led the book-style folding cellphone charge with its Galaxy Fold vary, however I’ve been a fan of Chinese rival Honor’s efforts too. I reviewed each the Honor Magic V3 and Honor Magic V5, and have been repeatedly impressed by the skinny designs and good cameras.

Enter the Honor Magic V6, the firm’s newest. It is thinner than ever at simply 4.1mm when unfolded, and has upgraded cameras and battery. But at a retail price of £1,999, it’s extremely arduous to advocate to anybody however probably the most money wealthy of Android fanatics. That’s one of the most costly telephones ever, and more than the £1,799 Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

To ease the ache, Honor is offering a straight £500 low cost to early patrons, which lands them the cellphone for £1,499 plus an Honor Pad 10 pill with keyboard accent fully free of charge. This offer ends on August 5, 2026.

A good low cost and offer, besides, why spend £1,499 on a cellphone that folds? Well, with a cellphone as skinny and as properly constructed because the Honor Magic V6, it is simple to grasp why.

The thinness when folded shut means it seems like a common, if massive, smartphone that unfolds to an ultra-thin pill. This is much preferable to older folding telephones, which had been thick bricks within the pocket earlier than gadgets just like the V6 got here alongside and thinned issues down.

When I unboxed the plush crimson model of the cellphone, I used to be instantly impressed. Where some may say the gold trim and pretend leather-based back seems to be gaudy – and it’s actually not delicate – I give Honor credit for doing one thing totally different to the uniform look of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 or Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

For a tamer look, there’s additionally black and gold, or a white model that shaves off even more measurement and weight and is 4mm thick.

Then again, it’s arduous to explain the Magic V6 as tame in any color. The back is adorned with a massive round digicam island with a gentle octagonal ring round it. No one is mistaking this cellphone for an iPhone, that’s for sure.

Honor has crammed in some very spectacular lenses, with a 50MP most important, 64MP periscope telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and a 50MP ultrawide. Finding a periscope telephoto on a foldable is uncommon, making this simply the best digicam on any foldable I’ve examined. It wipes the ground with the Z Fold 7.

Honor tends to oversaturate colors, however you possibly can tweak the settings to your liking, in addition to flip off the annoying beautify modes on the selfie cameras. And yes, there are two of these, one 20MP on the high of the outer 6.52-inch OLED show and one other 20MP on the highest proper of the inner 7.95-inch OLED panel. Both screens have easy 120Hz refresh charges and are very vivid, even in direct daylight.

The inside screen is the Magic V6’s trump card. The vertical crease is seen, however much less of a ravine than on Samsung foldables. You can break up screen two apps to run aspect by aspect to make sure of the sq. form, which is helpful when texting and watching video, or viewing your calendar whereas on a work video call.

Though essentially coated in a plastic layer that may be completely broken with a fingernail (yep), Honor’s used an antireflective coating that actually help visibility, plus the cellphone has an IP68/IP69 mud and water resistance ranking, which suggests it may survive an unintentional dunk in water or within the sand on the seashore. I don’t advocate attempting both on objective, although,

Handy too is the case Honor places within the box, which has a kickstand cleverly constructed into the digicam ring. This let me prop the cellphone up unfolded – the nerd in me was then compelled to attach a Bluetooth keyboard and draft some work in Google Docs, creating a tiny, joyful laptop computer various. The top-of-the-range Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and beneficiant 16GB RAM imply it’s more highly effective than some laptops, too.

This great efficiency extends throughout the board, for flipping between apps loading websites, and high-end gaming. The massive inner screen is great for a few rounds of PUBG, although much less properly suited to watching Netflix – a smaller slab cellphone remains to be higher for this because the horizontal video fills the screen, whereas on the V6 it has black bars above and beneath.

Honor’s software program is a little shonky, although. I choose it when Android telephones lean into Android relatively than copy Apple’s iOS. Honor has carried out the latter, from the icon form and measurement to the control centre design and even its cringe copy of Apple’s Liquid Glass feel and appear to Magic OS 10, the present Honor model of Android 16.

It’s nitpicking for sure, however I do choose the purposeful really feel of Samsung’s One UI and Google’s playful Android 16 design. Most annoying is Honor’s automated (although reversible) default battery optimisation that kills needed background app exercise to avoid wasting battery. A good suggestion in precept, that in actuality stops apps working and notifications coming via.

Better is the software program assist, which Honor now matches Samsung and Google with by promising seven years of Android and security updates. Bravo.

Where the Magic V6 one-ups its rivals is with battery life, although. Unlike Samsung, Google and Apple, Honor now makes use of batteries with silicon-carbon inside, which dramatically will increase battery capability without having a bodily bigger cell. This means the V6 comfortably lasted me two days on a full charge, one thing I can’t say of some other foldable, and never even of a fashionable slab cellphone just like the iPhone 17.

It’s good to see that the high price additionally brings tangible battery advantages, not simply leading edge exterior design.

Frustrating, then, that Honor doesn’t embody a charger within the box. The cellphone can charge at zippy 80W speeds, however you’ll should stump up £49.99 to get one. Honor’s early fowl offer with the cheaper cellphone enables you to add this charger to your basket for £9.99, however even that irks.

My time with the Magic V6 has been totally satisfying. It has a pretty design, even when an acquired style, and regardless of the software program quibbles, it’s a zippy system that may actually do more than the average common smartphone.

Battery life is unbelievable, the cameras maintain their own towards non-folding telephones and despite the fact that the cellphone could be very costly, it will get seven years of updates to take bankrupt patrons to 2033.

And yes, the cellphone can even make cellphone calls! They sound loud, clear and crisp via the earpiece.

As with any foldable, what I can’t take a look at is the {hardware}’s longevity. While the Magic V6 is sturdy and well-built now, who is aware of how long the moveable components will final? It’s additionally a tightrope stroll with every day use as to when the interior screen may get broken.

But for these with money to burn on a new cellphone who wish to stay on the bleeding edge of personal computing, the Magic V6 is one of probably the most spectacular gadgets you will get.