Honor Magic V6 review: The ultimate foldable… almost

Best Prices Today: Honor Magic V6

The Honor Magic V6 originally broke cover in China back in March, but it took a while to make its way to Europe. Now, it’s finally available to buy in the UK, and it’s aiming to be the best foldable yet.

Unfortunately for Honor, the competition is stronger than ever, and it’s only going to get tougher when Apple’s long-rumoured foldable hits the market. Does this slim powerhouse offer enough to remain compelling?

It certainly looks the part, has one of the largest batteries of any foldable ever, it’s the first to be IP69 certified, and it’s somehow still one of the thinnest. We’re off to a good start. I’ve been putting it to the test over the last couple of weeks, and here’s what I think.

Design & Build

• Aluminium frame, composite fibre back
• 219g, NanoCrystal Shield Glass
• IP69 rated

The Honor Magic V6 looks a lot like the Magic V5, with the most noticeable difference being the shape of the camera bezel. It’s now more angular, with an octagonal shape. New colour options also help differentiate it from the last generation.

The red version is probably the most eye-catching; it has a deep, almost blood-red rear panel with a textured finish. I have the gold version, which is also very flashy. Friends have commented that it looks like a phone a Saudi prince or Kim Kardashian would use.

it somehow remains fingerprint-free despite being quite shiny

The colour shifts slightly when the light hits it; there’s a subtle triangular repeating pattern across both the hinge and the rear, and it somehow remains fingerprint-free despite being quite shiny. It’s a cool look. The included case is also super-premium, with a cream leatherette covering and a rose-gold camera surround that doubles up as a fold-out kickstand.

Of course, if you want something a little less attention-grabbing, there are more traditional black and white models. The latter has a hidden advantage, too – it’s the slimmest of the bunch at just 8.75mm when closed, and Honor reckons it’s the slimmest foldable on the market right now.

I haven’t used the white one, and maybe it’s noticeably slimmer, but for what it’s worth, the gold version definitely looks and feels a bit thicker than my 8.9mm Galaxy Z Fold 7. I am splitting hairs, though; this phone is still thinner than a lot of flagship bar-phones. So whether or not it’s the slimmest, it’s more than slim enough to feel good in your pocket.

It’s also worth pointing out that the cover display is now flat, with a more symmetrical shape. It makes the phone look even more like a traditional bar phone when folded shut, but the unavoidable squared-off corner of the hinge gives it away slightly.

As important as the dimensions of a foldable are, the durability is just as crucial. And thankfully, the Honor Magic V6 is built like a tank. It’s IP69-rated, the highest of any foldable phone. This means it’s essentially immune to dust, and it’ll withstand dunks in fresh water or blasts from jets of hot water. Foldable tech has come a long way.

it looks like a phone a Saudi prince or Kim Kardashian would use

It’s also built to be tough, with anti-scratch ‘NanoCrystal Shield’ glass on the front, and a ‘Super Steel’ hinge that improves the impact resistance. SGS certifications back up these claims, too, as the phone has been awarded 5 stars for drop resistance. I haven’t treated my review sample too roughly, but it’s nice to know it should stay in one piece if gravity gets the best of me.

Screen & Speakers

• Outer: 6.52-inch 1080 x 2420 OLED 120Hz
• Inner: 7.95-inch 2172 x 2352 OLED 120Hz
• Stereo speakers

Foldables are all about the screen, so let’s start with the star of the show, the inner display. It’s just shy of 8 inches diagonally, which means it’s up there with some of the largest book-style foldables on the market. It’s almost perfectly square, which means it’s great for running two apps side-by-side.

This flexible screen has a 120Hz refresh rate and boasts a wild 5000 nits of peak brightness. You should always take these brightness claims with a large helping of salt, but regardless, it’s a very bright display that’s easy to see outdoors.

The inner screen has a shiny screen protector (albeit with an anti-reflective coating), and that’s both a good and a bad thing. As I’ve mentioned in other foldable reviews, the more matt screen protectors do a better job of disguising the crease, but they also attract fingerprints. This one doesn’t smudge up as easily, but despite Honor’s best efforts, you do get some unwanted reflections along the groove.

Speaking of which, the crease is admirably shallow, and not too long ago it would have been the best I’d ever come across. However, I’ve been using the Oppo Find N6 almost daily since it came out, and sadly, this one can’t quite compete. It’s still super impressive, and miles better than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. It’s slightly less noticeable than the Galaxy Z Fold 7, too.

Moving on to the outer display, it’s almost indistinguishable from a flagship bar phone screen, aside from being very slightly narrower than usual. It has lovely slim bezels on all sides, a zippy 120Hz refresh rate, and an even-higher peak brightness of 6000 nits.

It just feels like a normal phone. Then, when you want a bigger screen for your content, games, or multitasking, you just pop it open.

As has been the case with the last few generations of Honor foldable, there’s no major downside to using the phone folded down; it just feels like a normal phone. Then, when you want a bigger screen for your content, games, or multitasking, you just pop it open.

As usual, Honor has put some effort into eye-protection features, and both screens support 4320Hz PWM dimming. That’s something that you’ll really appreciate if you’re sensitive to flicker. Both screens also support stylus input, though sadly, I didn’t have an Honor stylus on hand to try it out.

The luxurious displays are backed up by a decent set of speakers. The stereo pair creates a nice wide soundstage, can get more than loud enough, and has a decent amount of low-end response. They’re no match for the bass-forward speakers of the Magic 8 Pro, but there’s only so much you can do with a chassis this slim.

Specs & Performance

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
• 16GB RAM
• 512GB storage

The Magic V6 has Qualcomm’s most powerful chip inside, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and the global model comes equipped with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. With a slim foldable phone like this, thermal performance is always going to be a hurdle, but Honor has slapped a sizable vapour chamber in here to keep it running at its best.

The V6 kept up with my daily performance needs without issue. With a foldable, I often have three apps open at once, dipping between each of them, and frequently playing music or streaming video at the same time. Even still, the phone barely broke a sweat.

You have to fire up a pretty demanding game to get this phone to struggle a bit, and as luck would have it, I’m quite addicted to NTE. It’s an open-world game with stunning graphics and a massive urban map that most phones struggle to render, but the Magic V6 didn’t have too much trouble.

The V6 kept up with my daily performance needs without issue

The game ran smoothly on the “Extreme” graphics preset at 60fps, and while it did get pretty hot, especially around the camera area, the performance didn’t seem to suffer. I had the best experience using a GameSir clamp controller, which kept the heat away from my palms.

Honor Magic V6 benchmarks

When it comes to benchmark scores, things get quite interesting. While most of the scores were excellent, the phone had serious trouble completing the 3DMark Wildlife Extreme Stress Test. I normally run this test with the phone unfolded, but it would overheat and kill the benchmark every time I tried.

In fairness, it has been quite warm here in the UK lately, but I haven’t had that happen before. Running the test on the cover display, it was able to complete with a decent score, but it couldn’t do that on the foldable screen. In real-world usage, though, I never had such issues.

Cameras

• 50 Mp f/1.6 main camera
• 64 Mp f/2.5 3x telephoto
• 50 Mp, f/2.2 ultrawide
• 20 Mp, f/2.2 selfie camera

The Honor Magic V6 has identical camera hardware to the previous generation, which means there aren’t any particularly exciting developments to speak of.

But, with that said, the V5 already had one of the most impressive camera setups of any foldable phone, and the competition hasn’t been pushing the boat out too much – so it’s still one of the best.

On the rear, you get a 50Mp main camera with a decently sized 1/1.56-inch sensor and a bright f/1.6 lens. It’s joined by a 50Mp ultrawide with a seriously wide 13mm-equivalent FOV, and a very nice 64Mp telephoto. There are also dual 20Mp selfie snappers, one punching through each display.

This is a very versatile set of lenses, enabling you to shoot everything from super wide landscapes to intimate portraits. As usual, it’s the telephoto that I enjoyed using the most, and this might be the best telephoto camera ever to grace a foldable phone.

It has a fairly large 1/2-inch sensor, and it can focus pretty close up. Your subject only needs to be about 20cm from the lens, and combined with the 70mm equivalent focal length, that creates some lovely compression and natural bokeh. 

Of course, you can zoom further with a digital crop, and the camera app lets you go all the way to 100x if you want. If you’re over 10x, you can use generative AI to clean up the images, but even without doing so, you can get pretty usable images at 20x or so.

this might be the best telephoto camera ever to grace a foldable phone

I’ve already mentioned how wide the ultrawide is, and I love that about it, but otherwise, it’s definitely a step down in quality compared to the other lenses. It’s also the least impressive at night, where motion blur becomes hard to contend with. In the right lighting, though, it’s capable of some really impressive shots.

The main camera is, as ever, the most reliable of the trio. The larger sensor means it fares the best in low-light situations, and it’s slightly sharper than the other cameras in the daytime.

The selfie cameras aren’t anything to write home about. They get the job done, and they’re perfectly fine for Zoom calls, but when you have such impressive cameras on the back, it’s really worth flipping the phone around and making use of that cover screen to get properly impressive photos.

Honor’s image processing can be a little hit and miss, but I feel like it’s getting more consistent, and when it hits, you can get some truly stunning images. My main gripe is with motion blur in portrait mode. I’m not sure why, but I get a lot of blurry shots when artificial background blur is enabled, even when the light is decent.

Otherwise, I’m really happy with the images I captured on the Magic V6. The Harcourt portrait modes are as impressive as ever, and the filters elsewhere let you change the look of your photos quite dramatically. I’m particularly into the Nostalgic Negative filter, which gives a lovely contrasty, cross-processed look with blue shadows.

When it comes to video shooting, the offering is a little less robust. That’s not to say it’s bad, but having spent a lot of time with the Oppo Find N6, I got used to having a decent Log profile, 4K120 recording, and Dolby Vision. None of those are present here. There is a Log profile, but it only works on the main sensor, and it produces some unusually grainy shadows.

If you don’t have quite such professional demands, though, you’ll probably be very pleased with the video performance. You can shoot at up to 4K 60fps on every camera except the selfie camera, which maxes out at 4K 30fps. The stabilisation is good, and the microphones are decent, too.

Battery Life & Charging

• 6660mAh battery
• 80W wired charging
• 66W wireless charging

The Honor Magic V6 has the largest battery of any foldable phone that I have tested to date. Somehow, Honor has managed to squeeze a 6660mAh battery pack into this razor-thin frame. Samsung, I hope you’re taking notes.

This capacity pales in comparison to the Chinese 1TB version of this phone, which has an astonishing 7,150mAh battery, but, as we’ve seen a lot lately, EU regulations mean we can’t get quite such a massive pack in the West.

Regardless, it doesn’t matter too much because this battery is more than good enough. Despite using the large internal screen frequently and taking loads of photos, I managed to make this phone last a day and a half throughout most of my testing. Of course, heavy gaming knocks that down a bit, but you’ll rarely, if ever, need to charge this before bedtime.

I managed to make this phone last a day and a half throughout most of my testing

Charging is rapid, too, provided you have a strong enough wall adapter (you only get a USB-C cable in the box) to make use of the 80W speeds. I was able to take this device from flat to almost 70% charged in just half an hour; you can’t ask for much more than that.

If you prefer wireless charging, you can do so without sacrificing too much speed. The Honor Magic V6 can be juiced up at up to 66W with an official Honor wireless charging pad.

Software & Apps

• MagicOS 10, based on Android 16
• Loads of AI features
• Apple ecosystem compatibility

The Magic V6 runs MagicOS 10, Honor’s custom flavour of Android 16. It’s essentially the same software that we’ve seen on the last few Honor flagships, so if you’ve tried one of those, you won’t be in for many surprises.

Honor’s software can be a little divisive. It strays pretty far from the typical Android experience; Instead, it’s starting to feel closer to iOS. Whether that’s a good thing or not will all depend on your preferences. That said, it’s extremely customisable, so if you don’t like the styling or the layout of something, you can most likely change it.

On the whole, I quite like it. It feels quick and responsive, it looks nice by default, and there are plenty of tools to customise it further. As mentioned, there’s a lot of iOS influence, including some Liquid Glass-like elements, a Dynamic Island clone, split notifications/quick settings, and the ability to disable the app drawer. They’re not the most original choices, but they work well, and most are entirely optional.

Honor gives you tonnes of AI features, including all the usual transcription, translation, and summarisation tools, as well as some very advanced photo editing features. 

Multitasking is great, too. You can display apps side-by-side in split view, and then add a third that will just peek out at the side of the screen, springing into action when you need it. Or, if you prefer, you can use floating windows and get even more on screen at once.

What I find most exciting is the way the Magic V6 is able to integrate with Apple products

What I find most exciting, though, is the way the Magic V6 is able to integrate with Apple products. In particular, how well it works with my MacBook. If you install the Honor Workstation app from the Mac App Store, you can share files, copy and paste between devices, remotely control your phone, and even use the V6 as a wireless second screen.

But the fun doesn’t stop there. The Honor Magic V6 can also natively browse and manage files in your iCloud account, and with Honor Connect, you can AirDrop files to and from iPhones, too. It’s great if you’re always hopping between ecosystems (as I often am).

So, overall, it’s a solid software experience, but it’s not without its downsides. My biggest complaint about Honor phones has remained unaddressed for the past few years. The battery management is hyper-aggressive, and by default, it’ll kill background apps with reckless abandon. This means you’ll often suffer severely delayed notifications until you do some tinkering and ensure that these apps stay open.

It’s easy enough to fix, and I can understand the logic – because Honor phones always have excellent battery life – but it’s super annoying, and I’d love to see it addressed.

Honor promises seven years of software updates and security patches for its flagship devices, matching the likes of Samsung and Apple. It doesn’t get much better than that, though you may be waiting a while for the Android 17-based MagicOS 11.

Price & Availability

The Honor Magic V6 is available to order now in the UK, and most of the world, though the US is excluded as usual.

In the UK, it carries a lofty £1,999.99 price tag, but introductory offers slash that all the way down to £1,499.99.

There’s no word on how long this offer will stick around, so if you’re keen, it might be worth jumping on this one early. The special price is available from the likes of Argos, Currys, Very, and Amazon, but the best deal might be buying directly from Honor, as they’re throwing in a bunch of free goodies like a smartwatch, projector, and headphones.

This launch offer makes discussing the pricing quite tricky. On paper, the Magic V6 is a lot more expensive than the V5, which launched last year at £1699.99, and that stings, especially considering it’s so similar to its predecessor. However, with the discount applied, it’s cheaper.

The Magic V6 is easily one of the most appealing foldable phones on the market right now

It’s also currently more affordable than many of the other best folding phones, including the Motorola Razr Fold (£1,799), Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 (£1,799) and Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold (£1,749).

Should you buy the Honor Magic V6?

The Magic V6 is easily one of the most appealing foldable phones on the market right now. The hardware is gorgeous, the screens are impressive, it’s powerful, and the cameras are top-notch. If you want a large-screen foldable phone, but don’t want to compromise on the cameras too much, this is a great choice.

That said, savvy shoppers could opt for last year’s model and get a very similar overall experience for much less money. It’s down to £1,099.99 on Honor’s UK site, it’s still mega powerful, and it has the same cameras. It won’t be in stock forever, though.

It’s also worth remembering that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra are expected in July 2026, with Apple’s long-awaited foldable iPhone likely in September. So, personally, I’d want to see what they bring to the table before taking the plunge.

If you can’t wait, the Honor Magic V6 is an excellent option, and will likely remain so. I can’t imagine Samsung matching the battery capacity, and I very much doubt it’ll be outdone on camera performance. Other than a few software niggles, it’s a brilliant phone.

Specs

• MagicOS 10, based on Android 16
• Outer: 6.52-inch 1080 x 2420 OLED 120Hz
• Inner: 7.95-inch 2172 x 2352 OLED 120Hz
• Power-button fingerprint sensor
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
• 16GB RAM
• 512GB storage
• Camera:
• 50 Mp f/1.6 main camera
• 64 Mp f/2.5 3x telephoto
• 50 Mp, f/2.2 ultrawide
• Dual 20 Mp, f/2.2 selfie camera
• Up to 4K @ 60fps rear video
• Stereo speakers
• Dual-SIM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e/7
• Bluetooth 6.0
• 6660mAh battery
• 80W wired charging
• 66W wireless charging
• 156.7 x 74.5 x 8.8 mm (folded)
• IP69 certified
• 219g
• Colours: Gold, Red, White, Black