Honor’s Magic V6 specifies three primary folding times

On paper, the Honor Magic V6 looks like a huge leap forward for foldable phones: it’s the thinnest phone ever, with the biggest battery, and the best water resistance ever. In practice, only the larger battery feels like a meaningful improvement. Other upgrades are only partially superior to what came before.

This is not entirely the hon.’s fault. It’s becoming more difficult to make a foldable phone stand out; Even last year’s offerings felt like full-fledged flagships. Huawei Bora X Max It featured a strange new aspect ratio, both of which we expect to see Samsung and apple Repeat later this year. Then there Threeswhich feels like a completely separate beast. But book-style Android foldables have matured well, and are now competitive with regular flagship phones in almost every respect.

Honor has been one of the manufacturers pushing foldable devices forward more aggressively, so it has earned the right to release a phone with relatively modest hardware improvements. I just wish the company had put more effort into fixing the software, as MagicOS remains the main thing holding the Magic V6 back.

Magic V6 It was launched at the MWC trade show in February. At the time, it was only on sale in China; It has taken until now for Honor to begin the global rollout. Phone now For sale in Malaysia and SingaporeIt costs 7,699 Malaysian ringgit (about $1,930). More countries, including the UK and Europe, are set to follow later this month.

It’s fair to start with the three firsts for a foldable phone, even if they’re mostly incremental. For starters, it’s the world’s thinnest foldable device, measuring just 4mm thick when open, and 8.75mm thick when folded and closed (well, the white version is – the other colors are fractionally thicker at 9mm). Closed, no thicker than iPhone 17 Pro MaxWhich is a real achievement. But it is only 0.05 mm thinner than Previous generation Honor foldable. That’s the width of a human hair, so I think it’s safe to say we’re in no-man’s-land here.

The Magic V6 is also the first foldable phone to be IP69 rated, meaning it is dust-tight and able to survive exposure to high-pressure, high-temperature water jets. The rating means the V6 has better dust protection than the V5’s IP59 and can withstand exposure to water compared to IP68. Pixel 10 Pro Fold It is not possible, but the practical implications are still minimal. I can’t say I experience high-pressure jets with my phone in my hand very often, but even so, the extra peace of mind is welcome.

The most important of the three upgrades is the battery, which is now 6,660 mAh thanks to improved silicon and carbon cells (although China got a more capacious 7,150 mAh model). That’s larger than any other foldable, and represents a reasonable jump from the Magic V5’s 5,820 mAh capacity. And it pays off. The V5 can last a day and then some, but I’ve been using the V6 comfortably for two days at a time, charging it every night, and I’m struggling to see how even a heavy user could run this thing over the course of a day. This, at least, seems like a meaningful improvement.

Elsewhere, things are boring, but only because I take it for granted in flagship foldable devices. Of course the Magic V6 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor. Of course, it offers up to 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM. Of course it includes fast wireless charging (but of course it does not support Qi2). Of course, it has dual 120Hz OLED displays, a triple rear camera, and stylus support. These things are not expected anymore, they are Presumably.

However, despite the progress foldable phones have made, there are drawbacks. The camera is still the big one. The triple rear camera here is definitely impressive and probably the best of any foldable bar Oppo Find N6. But, just like that phone, the camera system here lags behind high-end phones, hampered by smaller sensors that limit light capture, heavy saturation in many shots, and some inconsistent color processing. In short: The camera is good, but not great, and that’s still one of the big compromises you’ll make with any foldable phone.

Crease is another thing, of course. The V6 is fairly subtle, but not as hard to spot as a V6 One is almost imperceptible On the latest OPPO. Then there is durability. Yes, there’s an IP69 rating, but it’s still a foldable: the hinge is fragile, the inner screen is soft, and it’s difficult to fully protect it with a case. Outside of China, Honor can’t match the repair and support infrastructure of the likes of Samsung, so it may have a harder time if it breaks.

Then there is the software. The good news is that Honor promises seven years of OS and security updates, two more than Oppo and the same offered by Google and Samsung. The bad is that Honor’s MagicOS is among my least favorite Android skins. The UI is noisy (and increasingly inspired by Apple’s Liquid Glass), Honor supplies the phone with its own brand apps, and multitasking isn’t as powerful or intuitive as that offered by Oppo. I much prefer using other versions of Android, and the software is one of the main reasons why the Find N6 foldable phone remains my favorite.

We don’t know exactly what the foldable iPhone, or Samsung’s impending Galaxy Z Fold 8 for that matter, will offer. But Apple will be entering a mature foldable market, and I have to give credit to Honor as one of the companies that has made sure that happens. Over the past few years, its Magic foldable devices have pushed the limits of foldable design and battery capacity time and time again, and the Magic V6 is the culmination of that steady hardware progress, even if Honor has let its software side disappear. It’s fully foldable and impressive, but all those extra upgrades are starting to get boring. Let’s see if Apple can make things interesting again.

Photography by Dominic Preston/The Verge