Honor has introduced the Magic V5, which it says is the thinnest foldable cellphone on this planet proper now — although provided that you ignore the raised digital camera module, and just for its white model. The cellphone launches at the moment in China, however Honor says a global launch is coming “quickly.”
At 8.8mm thick when folded shut, the V5 is certainly impressively skinny, and beats the 8.9mm Oppo Discover N5. That 0.1mm distinction is imperceptible in observe, although a really slight curvature does assist Honor’s cellphone really feel a hair thinner than the Oppo. That’s solely true for the cellphone’s “Ivory White” model although, with the opposite colours very barely thicker at 9mm, which suggests they’ll use completely different supplies for the ultimate end.
Maybe extra tellingly, you’ve additionally bought to fully ignore the digital camera. The Magic V5’s triple rear digital camera module rises nearly twice as excessive as Oppo’s, making the cellphone really feel thicker general consequently. Superior specs, with greater decision sensors and sooner apertures nearly throughout the board, could justify the additional heft, however it does diminish that “world’s thinnest” declare.
When open, the V5’s body measures 4.1mm, once more simply beating Oppo’s 4.2mm. It’s price remembering that neither of those telephones are fairly as skinny as Huawei’s trifold Mate XT when it’s open, dropping to three.6mm at its thinnest level, a phase that doesn’t have the USB-C port.
This battle of the millimeters isn’t new territory for Honor. Earlier than Oppo launched the Discover N5 earlier this yr, Honor’s Magic V3 was the thinnest foldable available on the market. Subsequent week Samsung is predicted to disclose a drastically thinner Galaxy Z Fold 7, although it’s more likely to be just a bit thicker than Honor’s effort. Honor isn’t highlighting it, however the Magic V5 is perhaps the world’s lightest foldable too, or at the least appears to share that title with Vivo’s X Fold 5, introduced final week — each weigh 217g.
If this all seems like quibbling over a gram right here and a fraction of a millimeter there, then that’s as a result of it’s. I stated again after I reviewed the Oppo Discover N5 that it could “mark the beginning of diminishing returns” for foldable telephones, and right here we’re. With out dropping the USB-C port or adopting an uneven design there merely isn’t room for these telephones to get meaningfully thinner, so foldable producers are going to have to determine a brand new method to generate hype for future launches.
Luckily for Honor, the Magic V5 has robust sufficient specs to impress regardless. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite powers the cellphone, along with as much as 16GB of RAM and a big 5,820mAh battery. Each screens use 120Hz LTPO OLED panels, there’s wi-fi charging, and IP58 and IP59 rankings for dust- and water-resistance that’s nearly pretty much as good as any non-foldable’s.
