So Honor just dropped their Magic V5 foldable phone worldwide today, and honestly, it’s been a long time coming. After months of teasing and limited releases in random countries, European buyers can finally get their hands on this thing.
The price tag? Well, brace yourself – €1,999 in Europe and £1,699.99 in the UK. Yeah, that’s premium territory, but Honor’s throwing in some freebies if you jump on it early. Free wireless earbuds or tablets, depending on where you live, which isn’t terrible.
You get four color options, though the cooler names like Dawn Gold and Reddish Brown might not show up everywhere. The usual suspects – Ivory White and Black – are definitely available.
This whole global launch thing started back in July when they first released it in China. Then they quietly tested it in Bulgaria, Romania, and Malaysia before going all-out today. Smart move, really.
What’s actually impressive about this phone is the display setup. The main folding screen hits 7.95 inches, while the front cover display comes in at 6.43 inches. Both run at 120Hz, which is smooth as butter, and they can pump out 5,000 nits of brightness. That’s stupidly bright – probably brighter than your laptop screen.
Inside, they stuck Snapdragon’s newest 8 Elite chip in there with up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB storage. That’s more storage than most people’s laptops. The camera setup looks decent too – 50MP main camera, 50MP ultrawide, and a 64MP telephoto that does 3x zoom.
Here’s where it gets interesting though. The battery is actually huge for a foldable 5,820mAh with 66W wired charging and 50W wireless. Most foldables have terrible battery life, so this might actually last you a full day.
And get this – Honor claims it’s both the thinnest and lightest book-style foldable at just 8.8mm thick and 217 grams. That’s pretty wild considering how much tech they crammed in there.
The phone also got IP58 and IP59 water resistance ratings, which means you don’t have to baby it as much as other foldables. It’s running Magic OS 9.0 based on Android 15, so you’re getting the latest software experience.
What’s crazy is how well Honor’s been doing in Europe lately. Some research company called Counterpoint found that Honor tripled their foldable market share from 11% to 34% in 2024. That’s nuts. They’re basically eating Samsung’s lunch over there.
They think foldables will grab almost 10% of premium phone sales in Europe by 2028. If that’s true, Honor picked a good time to get serious about this market.
They had the official launch event today at The Peninsula in London, where they also showed off some laptops and tablets. Pretty fancy setup for what’s essentially a phone launch.
Look, foldables are still kind of a niche thing, but this Magic V5 seems like it could actually work for regular people. The battery life sounds promising, the specs are solid, and the price isn’t completely insane compared to Samsung’s Galaxy Fold.
Whether it’ll actually steal customers from the big players remains to be seen. But Honor’s clearly not messing around anymore – they want a piece of the premium phone market, and this foldable might just be their ticket in.
Also Read | Honor Magic V5 just lifted 104kg — and yes, Guinness made it official
