Honor Magic V Review – Honor Magic V debuts at a time when the foldable market is all set to see a huge boost, and this device might just be the one to do it. Launching high on the heels of the recently Oppo Find N, the new Honor Magic V arrives carrying the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 instead of the Snapdragon 888 found in the Find N phone from Oppo.
In terms of pure raw power, Honor Magic V is the fastest foldable smartphone in the world. Although this position could soon be taken over the new foldable smartphones coming from both Apple and Google Pixel lineup. Until then, there’s hardly anything that matches Honor Magic V’s raw power, but power is not even half the story. Let’s begin with the full review of Honor Magic V to learn everything there’s to know about the device and whether you should buy this.
Table of Contents
Honor Magic V Review
Highlights
- The main display, which is also the foldable display, is 7.9 inches big and is powered by OLED and 90Hz technologies. The cover display, however, is just 6.45 inches.
- It is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, which is based on 4nm processing technology.
- It is powered by a triple camera setup, and all three cameras are 50 MPs.
- As for software, it is powered by the latest Android 12 with MagicUI 6 on top of it, as is the case with many Honor smartphones.
- A Li-Po 4750mAh battery powers the foldable smartphone along with a 66W fast charging capability.
Design and Display
The design of the foldable smartphone is quite similar to Oppo Find N, especially when you compare the camera module of both smartphones. The back of the phone features two different finishes, glass, and eco leather back. There are two color finishes in glass: black and titanium silver, while the leather finish is only available in burnt orange color. The back is very clean with a very subtle Honor branding and no other text or any other distraction.
Now, let’s talk about the display, and there are two of them. The main display, which also folds is a 7.9 inches OLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate, and this display panel can support 1 billion colors since it’s a 10-bit panel. The cover display features a smaller 6.45 inches OLED display with HDR10+ support. However, the cover display features a 120Hz refresh rate, which is higher than that of the main display.
Why Honor decided to power the cover display with a higher refresh rate than that of the main display is not clear. Still, the important thing is that they are both HDR 10+ certified and should be able to play any HDR content from YouTube, Netflix, and any other streaming services. Both the display gets adequately bright. Sure, it is not as high as the Galaxy Z Fold 3, human eyes can barely notice any difference between the two.
Memory and Internal
It is powered by android’s fastest and the latest 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. Due to this advanced node of manufacturing, the processor should be extremely efficient, but that’s not the case with this processor. While it should have been extremely efficient, it isn’t and also runs quite hot. If you thought Snapdragon 888 was hotter than Snapdragon 870, this is even hotter than that while consuming a lot of battery. The initial camera testing saw a dip of 12% battery, and that’s quite a lot, but we will discuss more in the battery section.
In the meantime, let’s get on with the rest of the specs. It also comes in two variants 12GB of RAM with 256GB and 512GB internal storage. It also comes with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and NFC for contactless payments.
Apart from the efficiency and the heating, the performance of the device is flawless, after it is the current flagship processor from Qualcomm. While there is a bit of heating, it is not that bad and in no way overheating. The chipset mainly heats up when running games or applications that consume a lot of power, such as content creation and video editing apps. The camera can also slightly heat up the device, especially when recording videos at 4K resolution for a long period of time.
Camera
The 50 MP main camera shoots adequately detailed photos with a good dynamic range. The photos look sharp with the right amount of details and with the right balance of color. The highlights in the shadows are also adequately bright. The 50MP ultra-wide camera shots with 122Ëš wide views are perfect for capturing a whole lot of area. The colors are just perfect, unlike many other smartphones, where the colors of their ultra-wide camera vary quite a bit from the main camera.
The third sensor is also a 50MP camera but is a spectrum enhanced camera, and this sensor is the reason why the colors of the main camera and the ultrawide camera are so natural and life-like. The front selfie camera is powered by a 42MP wide camera, all of your perfect selfie shots. The images that come out of the front sensor are well detailed and perfect for instant social media uploads without resorting to any special effects.
But if you prefer the look of the special effects, then there are quite a lot of filters and special modes in the camera app. The rear camera sensors support 4K at 30/60 fps while the selfie camera tops out at 4K at 30 fps. Both cameras lack OIS but they have included EIS to compensate for that and it uses the gyro to produce decently stable videos.
Battery and Others
The smartphone is powered by a Li-Po 4750mAh battery, and it will last a day for sure with moderate to light usage. With heavy usage, you will have to plug in the charger before you go to sleep. Thankfully, it is powered by the 66W fast charger, so charging the battery shouldn’t be an issue. In fact, the company promises that the included 66W fast charger can charge the device by 50% in just 15 mins and that’s just crazy fast and it also features 5W reverse charging.
Since it’s a foldable smartphone, the display folds, and that’s the main selling point of the device. You can use the cover display to take a quick picture, make a phone call, or pretty much anything in its folded state The starting price of the phone is $ 1600 (Rs 1,18,000 in India) approx.
Honor Magic V Specifications Detail
Down below you can see the full specifications of the Honor Magic V smartphone.
| Specifications | Honor Magic V |
| Network | 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G |
| Announced | January 2022 |
| SIM | Dual SIM |
| Dimensions | Unfolded: 160.4 x 141.1 x 6.7 mm Folded: 160.4 x 72.7 x 14.3 mm |
| Weight | 288 / 293 g |
| Size | 7.9 inches 6.45 inches |
| Display | Foldable OLED 1B colors 90Hz HDR10+ ~381 PPI density Cover OLED 1B colors 120Hz HDR10+ ~431 PPI |
| Protection | |
| Resolution | Foldable: 1984 x 2272 pixels Cover: 1080 x 2560 pixels |
| OS | Android 12, Magic UI 6 Google Play Services (market/region dependent) |
| Chipset | 4nm – Qualcomm SM8450 Snapdragon 8 Gen1 |
| CPU | Octa-core 1×3.00 GHz Cortex-X2 3×2.50 GHz Cortex-A710 4×1.80 GHz Cortex-A510 |
| GPU | Adreno 730 |
| Card slot | No |
| RAM | 12GB |
| Internal | 256GB, 512GB |
| Camera | 50 MP (wide), PDAF, Laser AF 50 MP (wide), PDAF 50 MP (122Ëšultrawide) Dual-LED dual-tone flash, HDR, panorama Max – 4K@30/60fps gyro-EIS, HDR10+ |
| Selfie | 42 MP (wide) HDR, panorama Max – 4K@30fps |
| Loudspeaker | Yes (stereo speakers) |
| 3.5mm jack | No |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot |
| Bluetooth | 5.2, A2DP, LE, aptX HD |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS. Up to tri-band: GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS |
| NFC | Yes |
| Infrared port | No |
| Radio | No |
| USB | USB Type-C 3.1, USB On-The-Go |
| Sensors | Side-mounted fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass |
| Battery | Li-Po 4750 mAh Fast charging 66W Reverse charging 5W |
| Colors | Titanium Silver, Black, Burnt Orange |
| Expected Price | $ 1600 (Rs 1,18,000 in India) approx. |
Conclusion
If you are in the market for a foldable display, you cannot go wrong with the Honor Magic V. It has everything you can ask from a foldable smartphone, from top-of-the-line specifications to the top-of-the-line camera setup.
This makes Honor Magic V the most powerful foldable smartphone in the world and a solid option if you are in the market for foldable. In case you are looking for an alternative option you can check the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 which also comes with Spen support.
