Honor Magic V5 review
Displays
Let's start with the cover display. It is rather large at 6.43 inches with pretty small bezels. The display resolution is 1060 x 2376 pixels, which at this diagonal works out at around 404 ppi, which is very sharp.
Honor says that this display is capable of brightness output with a 5,000-nit peak. We did our standardized testing and got a reading of just under 800 nits by maxing out the slider and a maximum of 1296 nits. That's plenty for the phone to be usable comfortably outdoors, even if it's far from chart-topping.
Max display brightness test
White test pattern, 75% fill (nits)
- Manual mode
- Auto mode
Pixel 9 Pro Fold (Cover display)
Galaxy Z Fold7 (Cover display)
Honor Magic V2 (Cover display)
Honor Magic V5 (Cover Display)
Oppo Find N5 (cover display)
Huawei Mate X6 (Cover display)
Tecno Phantom V Fold2 (cover)
Moving on to the foldable inner display. It is a large 7.95 inches with a 2172 x 2352-pixel resolution. That works out to around 403 ppi, which, just like the cover display, is perfectly sharp.
As for brightness, there's no point beating about the bush; there is a problem here either with our review unit or just a software bug that is yet to be addressed. Our Magic V5 unit just refuses to boost its brightness beyond the 600 nits we measured by maxing out the slider. That is definitely not enough to be usable outdoors, but we won't judge the Magic V5 too harshly since this is clearly not the intended behavior of the display and will most likely be addressed in one way or another.
Max display brightness test
White test pattern, 75% fill (nits)
- Manual mode
- Auto mode
Pixel 9 Pro Fold
vivo X Fold5
Huawei Mate X6
Honor Magic V5
Oppo Find N5
Tecno Phantom V Fold2
Honor Magic V2
Both displays feature LTPO tech for dynamic refresh rate control. The displays can go down to as little as 1Hz and do so regardless of which refresh rate mode is selected in settings. The three available modes are Standard, High and Dynamic. Standard limits the refresh rate to 60Hz, but the phone can still go lower automatically when there is nothing happening on the screen.
Dynamic and High can go up to 120Hz and tend to behave quite similarly. The main difference is that in High mode, you get a per-app setting list. However, it doesn't exactly allow you to force, say, 120Hz on any given app. It has toggles for most apps to "allow" them to go as high as 120Hz if they so please.
Interestingly enough, for most games we tried, this toggle was not available, and instead, these were listed as using a "Follow app settings" mode, whatever that means. In practice, most test games we tried only managed to reach 90Hz and not consistently. Still, the UI and most casual apps can stretch their legs up to 120Hz freely, which is good.
The Magic V5 has official Dolby Vision HDR support on both of its displays. They sure have the performance to pull off great HDR. Plus, the phone reports decoder support for every popular HDR format, including HDR10, HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision, so we can only assume HDR is indeed supported.
One thing that is certain is the highest possible Google Widevine L1 DRM certification, allowing apps like Netflix to offer up FullHD streams.
The Magic V5 has stylus support on both of its displays.
Battery life
The international version of the Magic V5 has a 5820 mAh Si/C battery. Battery life is solid through and through for a modern foldable. You definitely get more endurance than the Magic V3.
The cover display offers great battery numbers too, effectively the same as the Honor V3, though with some differences in the proportions.
Charging speed
The Magic V5 supports 66W Honor fast charging. We didn't get a charger in the box, just a USB Type-A to Type-C cable. Honor's 66W fast charging is pretty common, and a charger is fairly easy to get your hands on.
The Magic V5 is a relatively fast-charging device. The 66W charging is essentially making a comeback from the Magic V3 and Magic V2 before that. Due to the different battery size and chemistry, the new Honor V5 has a slightly different charging curve. It still effectively charges from zero to full in a little over 50 minutes, like its predecessors, but the 15-minute and 30-minute charging percentages are a bit lower on average.
Charging speed
- in 15 min
- in 30 min
- Time to full charge (from 0%)
Huawei Mate X6
Oppo Find N5
vivo X Fold5
Honor Magic V5
Tecno Phantom V Fold2
Galaxy Z Fold7
Pixel 9 Pro Fold
Speakers - loudness and quality
The Magic V5 has a pretty impressive stereo speaker setup. The speakers are actually positioned on both sides of the foldable, which helps stereo separation and output balance a lot when the phone is unfolded.
Despite its thin profile, the Magic V5 managed a VERY GOOD loudness rating in our testing. The quality of the output is also impressive. Mids are a bit skewed, but come through nice and clear in person, and the same goes for highs. The low-lever frequency response is pretty impressive, particularly for this foldable form factor. Overall, the speakers may as well be considered one of the Magic V5 highlights, considering the phone's ultra slim body.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
Connectivity
The Honor Magic V5 is a dual Nano-SIM device. It supports simultaneous SA/NSA Sub-6 connectivity on both slots. It is important to note that there are two variants of the Magic V5: one does not support eSIM connectivity, while the other can have up to two eSIM cards active instead of the two physical SIM cards. This is likely a market difference, so make sure to check with your preferred retailer. Our review unit supports either a second physical SIM card or a second eSIM, but not both.
For location services, the phone supports GPS (L1+L5), GLONASS (L1), BDS (B1I+B1c+B2a) and GALILEO (E1+E5a). Local connectivity is covered by Wi-Fi 7. Unfortunately, it is only dual-band and lacks access to the 6GHz spectrum. This might be a regional limitation, but our EU review unit lacks 6GHz.
There is Bluetooth v6.0 with LE and aptX HD support. Also on board: NFC and an IR blaster. No FM radio receiver or 3.5mm jack, though. A USB 3.1 data connection backs up the Type-C port. It is just Gen 1, however, which still offers a decent transfer rate of up to 5 Gbps. Of course, there is USB Host/OTG support. Plus, the Magic V5 supports DisplayPort 1.2 over USB Alt mode, which allows for convenient wired video output.
The Magic V5 has a pretty full set of sensors. There is an STMicro LSM6DSO accelerometer and gyroscope combo, a MEMSIC MMC56X3X magnetometer and compass combo. There are two sets of light and hardware proximity sensors on board, one for the internal and one for the cover display. These use the AMS AG TCS3720 sensor. There is a barometer as well.
Reader comments
- Anonymous
- 03 Jan 2026
- r3m
Pls how is the camera compared to Huawei mate X6 if you have any idea
- Numbcat
- 01 Jan 2026
- gF{
Terrible photo camera