While Samsung’s foldables experienced a major glow-up in 2025, Honor has been refining its competing Magic V series with an unwavering consistency over the last four years. The newly-unveiled Honor Magic V6 is another record-breaker that should have rivals worried.
Last year’s Honor Magic V5 took the crown for “World’s Thinnest Foldable” and the V6 ups the ante ever so slightly, by shaving another 0.1mm off its predecessor’s already-svelte body. That’s really just the tip of the iceberg, however, with engineering refinements and new functionality that’ll pose a real challenge for the bevy of foldables expected to follow, in the coming months.
Honor Magic V6 specs and price
|
Dimensions: |
H: 156.7mm x w: 145.6mm (unfolded) / 74.5mm (folded), d: 4.0mm (unfolded white model) / 4.1mm (unfolded black, gold, red models) / 8.75mm (folded white model) / 9.0mm (folded black, gold, red models) |
|
Weight: |
219 grams (white model), 224 grams (black, gold, red models) |
|
Inner display: |
7.95-inch LTPO 2.0 Honor Super Armored Inner Screen w/ anti-reflective coating + stylus support |
|
Outer display: |
6.52-inch LTPO 2.0 Honor anti-scratch NanoCrystal Shield w/ anti-reflective coating + stylus support |
|
Resolution: |
Inner display: 2352 x 2172, outer display: 2420 x 1080 |
|
Refresh rate: |
1 to 120Hz |
|
Peak brightness: |
Inner display: 5,000nits, outer display: 6,000nits |
|
Chipset: |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 |
|
RAM: |
16GB |
|
Storage: |
512GB |
|
OS (at launch): |
MagicOS 10 atop Android 16 |
|
Main camera: |
50MP ƒ/1.6 w/ OIS |
|
Ultrawide camera: |
50MP ƒ/2.2 |
|
Telephoto camera: |
64MP ƒ/2.2 1/2-inch sensor 3x optical zoom w/ OIS |
|
Selfie cameras: |
20MP ƒ/2.2 (internal and external screens) |
|
Battery: |
6,660mAh Xiaomi Si-C Surge Battery (global model) |
|
Charging: |
80W wired, 66W wireless |
|
Colors: |
White, black, gold, red |
|
Price |
TBC (expected to be around £1,699 / €1,999) |
Stronger than ever
Image 1 of 10
Foldables always come under fire from skeptics due to their complicated engineering, intricate hinge mechanisms, and softer, flexible displays, when compared to your conventional candybar smartphone.
Samsung’s debut Galaxy Fold had some serious durability issues, which forced the company to completely rethink how it approached constructing its devices. That served as a cautionary tale to rivals like Honor. As a result, we’ve since seen the entire industry invest more time and money into building folding phones that are actually equipped to handle the rigors of normal daily smartphone use.
In the case of the V6, despite its razor-thin profile, Honor has ensured it’s made for the real world. It’s even brought receipts, with independent certification from recognized bodies including TÜV Rheinland and SGS.
Speaking to Cao, he dove into more detail on the engineering refinements at work, especially those underneath the phone’s elegant exterior.
“Targeting the issue of hinges being prone to failure, the V6 utilizes 2800MPa (up from 2300MPa on the Magic V5) Honor Super Steel to fortify the mechanical core, which is almost twice the strength of Samsung’s material. This is combined with an AI simulation system, which leverages tens of thousands of virtual drop scenarios, ensuring the structure’s absolute durability and long-term reliability.”
Like the V5, this newer hinge is again rated for 500,000 folds, but Honor’s also bolstered the phone’s construction with IP68 and IP69-certified water resistance. This level of protection is currently exclusive to the V6 in the foldable space, with IP69 in particular, being a rarity outside of devices from the likes of Oppo and OnePlus.
Biggest battery out there
Image 1 of 2
Honor is no stranger to pushing the envelope on battery tech, but the V6 has legitimately raised the bar for the competition. That includes a larger and more energy-dense battery than any other foldable currently on the market. Even though the international version of the V6 comes with a smaller capacity offering than its Chinese equivalent, it still clocks in higher than any rival foldable right now.
Despite its impressive 4.1mm thickness (4.0mm on the white version) when open, the Magic V6 still manages to house a sizable 6,600mAh cell, up from 5,820mAh on the Magic V5.
At the launch of the V6, Honor also showed off its fifth-generation ‘Blade Battery’. As thick as a playing card, this next-gen cell has found its way into the China-exclusive 1TB model of the V6, granting the foldable a record 7,000mAh battery capacity.
Cao explained, “this [Honor’s Blade Battery] houses the world’s thinnest mobile phone battery cell, with a thickness of only 0.15mm, yet boasting a silicon content as high as 32%. This enables a maximum battery capacity of 7,000+ mAh on the 1TB version sold in China, ushering the foldable category into the 7,000+ mAh era. Underlying technical innovations include a “super glue” binder in the anode material, 4.57V cathode material, and the thinnest copper foil.”
True cross-platform compatibility
Multitasking on a device like the V6 is already a freeing experience, compared to split-screen use or app switching on a conventional candybar phone (and even other foldables). But Honor has been gradually expanding its cross-device compatibility further than any other phone maker.
As much as the company undoubtedly wishes its users operated in an Honor-only bubble of personal tech, it knows that’s seldom the case. As Cao points out, “we are well aware that many high-end users are ‘dual-device owners’ (dual-phone users) operating across ecosystems.”
With their sights set on Apple users in particular, Honor has expanded the V6’s interoperability with the best iPhones; letting you mirror notifications between devices and activate an instant hotspot from the V6 when your iPhone’s signal is poor. What’s more, you can now mirror notifications from the V6 onto your Apple Watch, as well as extend the display of your MacBook onto Honor’s hot new foldable.
The phone’s OneTap feature can wirelessly beam a 1GB file to your MacBook in about 25 seconds. When you pair AirPods with the V6, you get everything from a familiar setup animation to control over the buds’ noise cancellation modes and Find My support.
Early thoughts
The Honor Magic V5 was arguably the most capable foldable of the last year, and the V6 looks on track to receive that same crown in 2026. The only fly in the ointment is that Honor hasn’t yet set a release date (or announced a price).
Despite its impressive new durability credentials, its sizable camera hardware, large displays (with stylus support on both), and new AI-backed functionality, its ambiguous on-sale date gives rivals time to bolster their 2026 foldable offerings, in an effort to thwart the V6’s promising lead.
From my time with it so far, it has a design with presence and a software experience that’s bursting with potential, I just hope we’re not kept waiting for the phone to actually make it to market.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/6urK7aMYJBzr38LC5hqAWa-2560-80.jpg
Source link
alex.walker-todd@futurenet.com (Alex Walker-Todd)
