Design, build quality, handling
The Honor Magic V5 is a gorgeous device through and through. It looks incredibly slick and premium with its thin profile, exquisite materials, stylish lines and overall design. The design is memorable for quite a few reasons.
The Honor V5 is a very device, both while folded and unfolded. We won’t be getting into the whole measurement and thickness debate since we really don’t think it matters whether the Honor V5 is the thinnest current foldable or not when the title is decided by the fraction of a millimeter.
Beyond that, the camera island design is quite distinctive and, in our opinion, very stylish. The shape of the camera island is very classic and resembles a large lug nut that begs to be unscrewed.
The Magic V5 comes in a total of four colors: Black, Ivory White, Dawn Gold and Reddish Brown. All of these are quite subdued and respectable. They are not flashy or gaudy at all and will fit right into any environment.
The back cover is made of a blend of aramid fiber, S-grade glass fiber, and PBO fiber, chosen for their lightweight properties and high strength. The phone’s frame is made of aluminum, providing a sturdy and lightweight structure.
Both displays are covered with an anti-scratch surface. The outside display has a tempered glass finish called Honor Anti-scratch NanoCrystal Shield, while the inner display features something called an Honor Super Armored finish. The bill of materials is overall very premium, even if there are no popular brand-name materials like Gorilla Glass.
This hinge is constructed from three aerospace-grade materials: zirconium-based liquid metal, corrosion-resistant titanium alloy, and lightweight carbon fiber. It feels very sturdy and offers a fluent opening and closing motion with constant tension the whole way. You can easily leave the phone open at any angle, but there is a satisfying snap at the beginning and end positions.
Honor rates the hinge as being capable of withstanding 380GPa of pressure, and internal testing rates the mechanism for about 500000 closing cycles.
The phone opens nicely flat at a nearly 180-degree position, which ensures a minimal crease. That said, we think that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 has a smaller and less noticeable crease both visually and to the touch. The one on the Magic V5 is very much visible and noticeable to the touch, even if it remains perfectly reasonable and not distracting in practice.
Crease and opening aside, it is particularly impressive that the hinge and indeed the entire Magic V5 is constructed in such a way that it managed to snatch an IP58/IP59 ingress protection rating. That’s better than say Samsung’s IP48 rating on the Z Fold7 and means that the Magic V5 should be able to survive high-pressure water jets and a dip in up to 1 meter of fresh water for up to 30 minutes.
By nature, foldables are particularly susceptible to foreign objects getting stuck inside different parts of the device. The mechanism should be well sealed and protected, but you can still get something caught between the two portions of the inner display. The Magic V5 allegedly has an AI-based system for detecting such debris and warns the user accordingly. Apparently, the system can detect particles as little as 0.8mm in size.
Beyond the formal ingress protection rating, it is worth noting that the Honor Magic V5 feels very sturdy and well-made. The hinge instills confidence, and there is no real flex or instability in any direction.
The Magic V5 fits very snugly in the hand and is really comfortable to use. Unfolding it single-handedly is not possible, but that is typical of most foldables. The power button and volume rockers are quite thin, which is also not uncommon with this form factor. Other than that, it is a great phone to handle.
Controls and ports
Speaking of buttons, the controls layout is pretty standard with nothing really out of the ordinary. Well, perhaps except for the IR blaster, which is positioned on the back side along with the cameras rather than on the phone’s frame. This seems to be the current way of doing things.
Honor Magic V5
You get an empty left-hand side and a mostly empty top side, except for the second speaker grill and the secondary noise-cancelling microphone hole.
The phone’s bottom is busy. There is the main speaker grill, the dual Nano-SIM card slot and the Type-C port. There are two microphones facing down, and interestingly, both are positioned on the left half of the phone. Space is definitely at a premium.
The Magic V5 has a side-mounted capacitive fingerprint reader integrated into the power button. It is both fast and very accurate. We have no complaints with it except that it is very thin.
Honor did a great job hiding the sensors on the Magic V5. The proximity and light sensors are underneath the display, both on the cover display and the inner one.