Honor Magic V6 review: I doubted this sleek foldable, but it raced beyond expectations

Quick review

The Magic V6 is the most complete large foldable I have used in a while, and it’s no mean feat, especially in a sea of hard-hitting rivals. It’s a picture of holistic excellence, if I may put it that way. The IP68 and IP68 water resistance ratings are a first for the category. The battery will outlast your day regardless of how hard you use it. Moreover, the camera system is one of the best you will find on any book-style foldable right now.

Coming in as someone who had written off foldables entirely after frustrating flip phone experiences, the Magic V6 emerged as the phone that changed my mind on the form factor, and not through mere novelty, but by being a genuinely good phone that also happens to fold. It is not perfect, however.

The CPU performance is nerfed in the default balanced performance mode, which is a strange call for a phone with the most powerful Android chip on the market. The crease is still there, while other phones like the Oppo Find N6 have achieved a zero-crease panel. Finally, the camera bump is large enough to make the phone feel top-heavy. But to sum it all up, none of that changes the final experience. If you are considering a large foldable in 2026, this is the one you should consider.

Honor Magic V6 specs: Everything under the hood of this ultra-thin foldable

Honor Magic V6 design and build: Engineering that earns its price

I have held a lot of phones over the years, but the Magic V6 is the only one I catch people staring at from across a room. Its incredibly thin form factor is part of it, but so is the gold hinge with its subtle triangular texture, and the way the whole thing folds into something that comfortably slips in my pocket without feeling too bulky.

At 4mm thin when unfolded, it is the thinnest big foldable on the market. Folded, it measures 8.75mm, which is roughly the same profile as an iPhone 17 Pro Max. That comparison never stops being striking in person.

The white model I reviewed uses aerospace special fiber on the back, a material that has the look and feel of frosted aluminum. It is the lightest of the four colorways at 219g, compared to 224g for the red, gold, and black versions. The white is the most minimal-looking of the four, but it’s quite slippery. The red version fixes that with eco-leather on the back that has a suede-like finish and offers a better grip.

The hinge is made from what Honor calls Super Steel, a high-tensile-strength aerospace-grade alloy with 2,800MPa tensile strength, rated for over 500,000 folds. It opens smoothly and snaps shut with a satisfying sound. In my testing, the hinge holds reliably between about 50 and 140 degrees. Push it beyond that range in either direction, and it snaps fully open or closed rather than holding position, which is worth knowing if you were planning to use it propped at a shallow or wide angle.

I had some history with foldables before this. The Moto Razr Plus I used briefly ended with the folding screen breaking without any obvious explanation. The Magic V6 hinge inspires considerably more confidence, though my unit does produce an occasional crunching sound when opening or closing. It has not affected usability in any way, but it is not the kind of noise you want to hear from a phone at this price.

The IP68 and IP69 ratings deserve more attention than they typically get. IP68 covers complete dust protection and submersion up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes. IP69 adds resistance to high-pressure water jets. No large foldable has had both until now. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 comes with IP48 certification, which means it’s not fully dustproof. The Honor Magic Magic V6 is. That is a meaningful gap, and it changes how confidently I carry the phone day to day.

Two design frustrations are worth calling out, though. The camera bump is substantial. It makes the phone feel top-heavy, and the phone rocks on flat surfaces. But that is the unavoidable cost of a serious triple camera system in a phone this thin, and I have accepted it, but it is a daily reality rather than an occasional inconvenience.

The other is opening the phone. The magnets are strong enough that finding a grip between the two halves takes some getting used to. I am past that point now, but handing it to someone else is a reliable reminder of how long that learning curve actually is. Honor should etch a notch into the frame or find some other mechanical solution to make this a bit easier.

The bundled case is excellent. It has a built-in kickstand, matches the white and gold finish of the device, and feels like it belongs with the phone rather than sitting awkwardly on top of it. It also adds some much-needed grip, making the phone a lot easier to handle.

Score: 9/10

Honor Magic V6 display: The inner screen won me over

The Magic V6 has two excellent screens, but the 7.95-inch inner display is the one that changed how I use a phone day to day. I wrote about that shift at length when I first switched to the Magic V6, but the short version is that a screen this size makes reading, casual video watching, and multitasking feel so much better than on regular slab phones.

Both panels are LTPO 2.0 OLED with 10-bit color and 4,320Hz PWM dimming. Both also support HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision. The inner display runs at 2352 x 2172 pixels with a peak brightness of 5,000 nits, and the cover display at 2420 x 1080 with a peak of 6,000 nits. Both have anti-reflective coatings, which is new to this generation and makes a noticeable difference in direct sunlight. Neither screen is one you will be squinting at outdoors.

The refresh rate system is fully dynamic on both panels, dropping to 1Hz when the screen is idle and climbing up to 120Hz in use. There are three modes to choose from. Dynamic and High both go to 120Hz, with High adding a per-app toggle for finer control. Standard caps the screens at 60Hz but stays dynamic within that ceiling.

The screens themselves are hard to fault, but the crease is another matter. Out of the box, I barely noticed it. But after a few weeks of use, it became more visible, particularly in certain lighting conditions and at certain angles, and I could feel it under my fingertip too. Oppo’s Find N6 has achieved a true zero-crease panel, so that expectation now exists. It’s not a dealbreaker by any means, but it’s something worth pointing out if you’re expecting that from the Magic V6.

Stylus support on both displays rounds things out. Samsung dropped S Pen support entirely on the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but Honor went the other direction. I’m not a big stylus person myself, but if you are, it’s worth knowing the Magic V6 has you covered on both screens.

Score: 8/10

Honor Magic V6 camera: The best stills camera on a large foldable

The rear camera setup is a 50MP main at f/1.6 with OIS, a 64MP 3x periscope zoom camera at f/2.5 with OIS, and a 50MP ultrawide at f/2.2 with autofocus. Both the inner and cover displays have a 20MP selfie shooter at f/2.2. Honor has changed very little from the previous generation here. The Magic V5 had one of the best cameras on any folding phone, and the Magic V6 carries that forward with largely the same hardware.

Daylight shots from the main camera are excellent across the board. Colors are vivid, dynamic range is wide, and Portrait mode does a reliable job at both 2x and 3x. The full-resolution 50MP mode is available, but the default pixel-binned shots are sharper in most situations, so I rarely found a reason to switch.

The 3x telephoto is the standout of the three. It is the lens I reached for most in daily shooting, and it held up well across a range of subjects and lighting conditions.

6x is also more capable than you might expect, with enough detail to make the results usable for social media. Low-light performance is solid, though at 6x you’ll not get the same level of detail.

The ultrawide is the weakest of the three, but it’s not far behind. In good light it performs well, but in dimmer conditions it softens noticeably and at night it’s barely usable. It’s good enough for daytime shooting, but that’s where I’ll draw the line.

The selfie cameras are where the Magic V6 does not keep up. Shots are soft in a way that feels out of place on a phone this pricey. The workaround is to open the phone and shoot with the rear cameras using the cover screen as a viewfinder, which produces excellent results. It takes a bit more effort than a standard selfie, but the quality difference makes it worth it.

All three cameras record up to 4K at 60fps with HDR across all modes. Log recording is available in Pro mode on the main camera at 1x and 2x, which is great for anyone editing footage seriously.

Daylight footage is sharp and punchy, though contrast runs slightly higher than I would choose. Stabilization is strong for walking and stationary shots. Low-light video is also good on the main camera and the telephoto, but noticeably weaker on the ultrawide.

Score: 8/10

Honor Magic V6 performance: The fastest Android chip, applied selectively

The Magic V6 runs on the Snapdragon Elite Gen 5, the most powerful Android chipset available right now. In daily use, it is fast, fluid, and never strained. Apps open instantly, switching between them is seamless, and multitasking is a breeze.

For demanding workloads, though, the story is a little more complicated. The Magic V6 ships in Balanced mode by default, which prioritizes efficiency and thermals over raw output. You can switch to Performance mode if you want the chip to run at full tilt, and the difference in performance is quite evident in benchmarks.

In Balanced mode, the Magic V6 secured a single-core score of 755 and a multi-core score of 2,787, which was quite low for a device with Qualcomm’s flagship chip. The numbers jumped up to 3,531 and 9,524, respectively, in Performance mode, closer to what you would expect from the get-go. This kind of gap can be alarming without context. Although I did not notice it in everyday use, it is still there.

Switching to Performance mode does unlock those numbers, but it comes at a cost. The phone throttles quickly under sustained load, and the AnTuTu benchmark could not even complete in Performance mode, with the phone throwing an overheating warning before finishing. Balanced mode keeps things stable and the phone cool, but you are essentially leaving a significant chunk of the chip’s capability on the table.

Honor has included a vapor chamber cooling solution, but it only goes so far in a body this thin. For everyday tasks, it never matters, and Balanced mode handles daily use without breaking a sweat. For sustained intensive workloads like long gaming sessions, neither mode gives a clear answer, and that is a limitation you have to accept when you buy a phone this thin.

Score: 7/10

Honor Magic V6 battery life and charging: The strongest argument for this phone

Battery life is where the Magic V6 separates itself from every other large foldable on the market. The global model packs a 6,600mAh silicon-carbon cell, which is significant for a phone this thin, and it shows in real-world use.

I consistently got through a full day with charge to spare, even with the inner screen as my primary display and heavy use, including a lot of doomscrolling, video consumption, and multitasking throughout the day. Standby battery life is also pretty great, and I have not once gone to bed having worried about whether the phone would last until the next morning.

Charging is another highlight, with 80W wired and 66W wireless speeds on offer. Although Honor doesn’t include a compatible charger in the box, a third-party 80W charger took under an hour to get the phone from almost empty to full. The phone does prompt you to unfold it for the fastest possible charging speed, but I was not comfortable leaving the inner display exposed while plugged in, so I charged it folded throughout. It was still plenty fast either way.

MagicOS 10 has some sensible longevity options built in. You can cap charging at 70%, 80%, or 90% to preserve long-term battery health, and the phone has a Smart Charging mode that charges to 80% overnight and finishes to 100% just before your alarm.

It’s also worth noting that the Chinese variants of the Magic V6 pack even larger cells, at 6,850mAh and 7,150mAh depending on the storage configuration. The global model is already the class leader on battery endurance among large foldables. The Chinese version extends that lead further still.

Score: 9/10

Honor Magic V6 software: MagicOS 10 is surprisingly good

The Magic V6 ships with MagicOS 10 based on Android 16, and Honor promises seven major OS upgrades. That is the right commitment for a phone at this price, matching what Samsung and Google offer on their flagships.

MagicOS 10 features an iOS-style liquid glass aesthetic with translucency and soft blur throughout. Although inspired, the implementation is quite well done, and if it’s not your cup of tea, you can customize the translucency in settings. The software offers plenty of such customization options, including themes, fonts, always-on display styles, lock screen layouts, and folder sizes that scale up to a 2×3 grid with 3×5 icons inside.

The multitasking tools are what matter the most on a foldable, and Honor has done a great job on that front as well. Split-screen with adjustable ratios, floating windows, and Multi-flex, which runs three apps in a scrollable layout on the inner display, are all here and all work reliably. I use a two-app split regularly with messages alongside notes, or Google Books open next to Instagram. The implementation handles all of it without making me think twice.

The one frustration worth flagging is browser support for split-screen. Neither Chrome nor Firefox worked in split-screen view, which is a notable gap given how often a browser is exactly what you want alongside another app. On the plus side, frequently used split-screen app pairs show up in the dock for quick access, which is a genuinely useful touch.

Magic Portal is Honor’s system-wide contextual drag-and-drop tool. Long-press any content, and it surfaces a sidebar of relevant apps and actions, with AI adjusting suggestions based on what you have selected and what you have been doing. It works well enough, but it’s not something I use daily.

Honor’s AI suite is pretty extensive. Real-time subtitles, live call translation, deepfake detection during video calls, AI Memories for screenshot organization, and Image to Video 2.0, which generates short video clips from up to three reference images and a text prompt.

For Apple users, Honor Connect on iOS enables AirDrop-style file transfers and notification sync between the V6 and an iPhone. Honor Workstation on macOS can mirror the phone’s screen within macOS. I tested the file sharing, and it works without friction. These cross-platform tools exist in a space where most Android manufacturers have largely given up competing with Apple’s ecosystem lock-in, and Honor at least deserves some credit for making a genuine attempt.

Score: 8/10

Should you buy the Honor Magic V6?

The Magic V6 does not reinvent the large foldable. In my opinion, what it pulls off handsomely is that it takes everything the category has been building toward and executes it at the highest level currently possible. For example, it’s the first foldable with both IP68 and IP69 ingress protection, which is akin to solving the huge durability problem for fodables. You get a solid battery mileage that won’t leave you hanging before the day comes to an end.

More importantly, you get a camera system that does not ask you to accept foldable-tier compromises. And finally, the Magic V6 serves a rewarding OS that has finally caught up with the rest of the flagship Android skins. The performance situation is a bit unusual and worth pointing out, but it does not affect daily use in any way I could feel.

The crease is still present, and Oppo has now shown it does not have to be the case. The camera bump is an ongoing reality of this form factor that no amount of engineering has yet eliminated. None of that changes where I land, though. This phone changed my mind about large foldables entirely, and it did so not through novelty but through being a genuinely excellent device that happens to fold.

I have no qualms recommending it, though you might have to wait a little to get your hands on one. If you can’t wait, importing (with all its warranty, servicing, and transit risks) is the only viable option. The Magic V6 is currently available for pre-order in Malaysia, and based on a conversion from that pricing, you’ll have to shell out close to $1,900/€1,650/£1,400 to get your hands on one. Availability is expected to expand to more regions over the coming weeks, but regional pricing has not yet been revealed.

Why not try

If that’s too pricey or you would rather not wait for wider availability, here are two alternatives worth considering:

• Oppo Find N6: The only large foldable with a zero-crease display, and the one honest reason to consider looking elsewhere. The Find N6 has larger screens, similar battery life and charging speeds, and competitive cameras. Its Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 uses a 7-core architecture versus Honor’s full 8-core configuration, but performance in practice is similar given the Magic V6 is capped in Balanced mode anyway. If the crease is something that would genuinely bother you, the Find N6 is where to go.
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: If budget is a constraint, Samsung’s flagship foldable is a viable option, though it’s now almost a year old. The device packs Qualcomm’s previous flagship chip, which is still a strong platform, and One UI 8.5 offers one of the best foldable software experiences out there. However, it is IP48, not IP68, and battery life trails the Magic V6 considerably.
• Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold: It’s the most rewarding phone in Google’s lineup, and not just because it’s a foldable Pixel. It’s sleek, well-built, and offers terrific cameras. The core appeal, however, is the software. This phone serves the most refined version of Android tailored for large screens. And let’s not forget, it’s also the test bed for all AI experiments and gets priority access to not just Android, but the broad Google software ecosystem, too.

How we tested the Honor Magic V6

I have been using the Magic V6 as my primary phone since receiving a review unit in late April. This is my first book-style foldable after years on slab phones, with the only prior foldable experience being a Galaxy Z Flip 3 and a Motorola Razr Plus 2023, both of which left poor impressions. That context shaped the review. I was not testing this against established expectations for the category. I was testing it as a phone.

Camera testing was done across multiple lighting conditions throughout the day, indoors and outdoors, over several weeks. Performance benchmarks were run in both Balanced and Performance modes to get a full picture of what the chip does under each setting. Battery testing was conducted through daily use across both displays over an extended period. The review unit is the 512GB model with 16GB RAM in the white colorway, running the latest stable build of MagicOS 10 at the time of publication.