Quick Summary
The forthcoming Honor Magic V5 appears to be blessed in the photography department thanks to a wide aperture periscope camera.
Image samples provided by Honor show that no compromises are being made, even though it's a foldable phone.
Honor's new foldable could take the best folding phone crown from its rivals, at least in the photography department.
The manufacturer has shared photo samples on social media, it claims were taken using the Magic V5's telephoto camera – they're very impressive.
That camera is a f/2.5 equivalent, up from the f/3.0 in the Magic V3 and better than both the Oppo Find N5 (f/2.7) and Vivo X Fold 5 (f/2.6).
The current Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 has f/2.4, but the Honor beats it on other specifications. The Honor's telephoto camera is reportedly a 64-megapixel periscope zoom, while the Galaxy's telephoto is 10-megapixel.
Honor Magic V5: what we know so far
The Honor Magic V5 is expected to launch in China on 2 July 2025, and it's also reportedly planned for release globally – although pricing and availability is currently unknown.
It promises to be the world's slimmest folding phone, so it's going up against the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, and from leaked images it certainly looks like an extremely thin device.
According to Digital Chat Station on Weibo, the Magic V5 will be just 8.93mm thick when folded and weigh less than 219g.
We're expecting the Honor Magic V5 to have a Snapdragon 8 Elite inside, although we don't yet know if it's the 7-core or 8-core variant, and it's believed to have a 50-megapixel main camera, a 7.95-inch folding screen and a 6,100mAh battery.
Reports also indicate that Honor will be pushing AI as a key selling point, and it will apparently be able to connect "to all brands of devices".
We really rate the current Honor Magic V3. In our in-depth review, we gave it the full five stars and awarded it the coveted T3 Platinum Award thanks to its hugely impressive spec. It is "thinner, lighter and costs less than the main foldable competition," we said.
If Honor has upped the camera spec and solved the photo processing inconsistencies we identified in our V3 testing, the Magic V5 could be a very impressive foldable indeed.
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