Honor Magic V6 Review: The Android foldable to beat in 2026
Honor's Magic V6 is a masterclass in foldable phones. It'll be a spectacle to watch this one and the Galaxy Fold 8 go head to head.
One of the most complete phones I've ever reviewed. | Image by PhoneArena
The Honor Magic V6 is one of the finest foldable phones ever created. If you’re looking for a cutting-edge foldable, this one is a great choice at launch, because Honor is usually very good at sweetening the deal with bundles and discounts.
At this point, Honor hasn’t revealed prices around the world for the Magic V6, except for its international launch market of Malaysia, where it’ll debut at RM 7,699, or roughly $1890.
But let’s focus on the phone itself, because it deserves a lot of attention.
At this point, Honor hasn’t revealed prices around the world for the Magic V6, except for its international launch market of Malaysia, where it’ll debut at RM 7,699, or roughly $1890.
But let’s focus on the phone itself, because it deserves a lot of attention.
Table of Contents:
Honor Magic V6 Design and Display
A winner through and through
Honor Magic V6 in gold. | Images by PhoneArena
The overall footprint is very well balanced. The 6.5” cover display is neither small, nor too big - it feels just right to hold and carry around. Meanwhile, the inner, 8” one is nice and spacious - just as it should be.
I have the gold color option of the Honor Magic V6 and I love it. The feel is superb, while the look is out of this world (in a good way.) All the other color models (there’s black, red and white) have specific materials and finishes, which adds a significant degree of sophistication to the Magic V6.
The Magic V6 is an insanely good-looking phone. | Images by PhoneArena
A lot of thought has gone into the design, the colors and the finish of the surfaces, so I doubt you can go wrong with any of them.
Build quality appears to be quite solid. During my testing, I haven’t had any issues with the exterior of the phone, or its hinge mechanism.
The hinge feels solid enough - there aren’t any uncontrolled movements or weird sounds as you open and close the phone.
The 6.6" cover and 8" internal screens are superb. | Images by PhoneArena
Both OLED, 120Hz displays look incredible. They have equal color characteristics for a very uniform look, including their special coating which reduces reflections to a minimum.
I also want to mention the rich set of eye care features Honor has added to this phone. They are so many, Honor decided to take them into a separate menu.
Honor Eye Comfort Display includes a flicker monitor, advanced color personalizations for user with different sensitivity to colors, Circadian Night Display, Defocus Eyecare, Natural Tone, Eye Comfort (blue light filter), and a 4320 Hz dimming mode for extra comfort. It’s crazy!
Did I mention Motion Sickness Relief, which is basically Apple’s Vehicle Motion Cues (reduces the motion sickness effect while looking at your phone while traveling in a moving vehicle)? It’s great. This feature has auto start/stop (as it should), based on whether it believes you’re in a moving car or not, but while the auto-detection generally works, it’s not perfect.
And for fans of looking at extra-dim screens at night, you'll be happy to know the Magic V6 can go down to 0.8 nits, as per our measurements.
There is a side-mounted fingerprint scanner on the Honor Magic V6, which works flawlessly. And there’s the usual basic face recognition for quick unlocking - it also functions as it should.
Honor Magic V6 Camera
Insane photography and zooming capabilities
The 64MP telephoto camera of the Magic V6 is outstanding. | Image by PhoneArena
When I say Honor Magic series, you say camera! And that’s true of the Magic V6 to the fullest extent. This is a foldable camera phone (the large, stylish camera bump probably gave that away).
I’m very happy with both 50 MP main and ultra-wide cameras - the level of photography you can expect out of this phone is boss-level.
To me, though, the real star of the show is the 64MP telephoto (zoom) camera, which enables a 3x optical magnification, and just as impressive 6x optical-level zoom.
I’m very happy with both 50 MP main and ultra-wide cameras - the level of photography you can expect out of this phone is boss-level.
To me, though, the real star of the show is the 64MP telephoto (zoom) camera, which enables a 3x optical magnification, and just as impressive 6x optical-level zoom.
Magic V6 camera samples | Images by PhoneArena
Couple the Magic V6’s telephoto camera with Honor’s increasingly savvy algorithms, and voila - you end up with a superb machine for breath-taking shots and portraits.
While the Honor Magic V6 takes amazing photographs, its video recording capabilities aren’t equally impressive. I’d describe its video recording as average at best. It’s obvious that Honor’s main focus has been on still photography.
Honor Magic V6 Performance & Benchmarks
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 delivers significant power, but thermal management is a challenge.
Few things can slow down the Magic V6 (Minecraft is not one of them). | Image by PhoneArena
Honor’s Magic V6 foldable comes with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which is the latest and greatest chipset from Qualcomm. The finest silicon you can get on Android.
Overall, performance is fairly strong. The Magic V6 manages to take advantage of the 8 Elite Gen 5, however, as with most foldable phones, thermal management is a challenge. Which means that throttling is a real issue here.
The Magic V6 prioritizes balanced, snappy and fluid everyday operation, so it’s generally a top-notch performer in most use cases. Still, it’s not the best choice for very tasking, prolonged workloads like livestreaming or PC emulation. These things are perfectly doable, though, if you connect an external cooler to it.
Geekbench 6: A high single-core score is what makes your phone feel snappy during everyday tasks like opening apps, typing and browsing. The multi-core score matters most when doing heavier work like video editing or gaming.
Overall, performance is fairly strong. The Magic V6 manages to take advantage of the 8 Elite Gen 5, however, as with most foldable phones, thermal management is a challenge. Which means that throttling is a real issue here.
The Magic V6 prioritizes balanced, snappy and fluid everyday operation, so it’s generally a top-notch performer in most use cases. Still, it’s not the best choice for very tasking, prolonged workloads like livestreaming or PC emulation. These things are perfectly doable, though, if you connect an external cooler to it.
CPU Performance Benchmarks:
Geekbench 6: A high single-core score is what makes your phone feel snappy during everyday tasks like opening apps, typing and browsing. The multi-core score matters most when doing heavier work like video editing or gaming.
GPU Performance
Wild Life Extreme is a heavy graphics workload used to measure a device's sustained GPU performance and thermal throttling. It uses older mobile rendering techniques and is friendly to older or lower-end mobile devices.
Honor Magic V6 Software
Honor's MagicOS 10 takes obvious inspiration from Apple's Liquid Glass design, but is also full of useful features. | Images by PhoneArena
Honor’s take on Android 16, called MagicOS 10, is very mature at this point. It’s chock-full of useful features related to a whole bunch of things, including AI, eye care and multitasking.
The appearance of MagicOS 10 is heavily inspired by Apple’s Liquid Glass aesthetic, with Honor already giving you a slider to adjust the level of transparency to your liking.
It’s a clean, simple-looking but modern user interface with very strong Apple vibes. It’s both good-looking and functional.
The appearance of MagicOS 10 is heavily inspired by Apple’s Liquid Glass aesthetic, with Honor already giving you a slider to adjust the level of transparency to your liking.
It’s a clean, simple-looking but modern user interface with very strong Apple vibes. It’s both good-looking and functional.
What's also very cool is that Honor is now guaranteeing 7 years of major Android updates in the EU and UK, which is a serious and welcome commitment. Why only in the EU and UK, I don't know. I hope other markets will be getting the updates as well, although 7 years is obviously excessive, to be honest.
Honor Magic V6 Battery
A very large battery delivers just enough battery life, but not much more
The battery in the Honor Magic V6 is quite large, at 6660mAh. It’s cutting-edge silicon-carbon tech. However, this is a foldable phone, so the demands on the battery are also bigger than usual.
I enjoyed comfortable battery life with the Magic V6, but I’d say - don’t expect miracles. The phone will comfortably taking you through a full day of use, and if you happened to use it extensively throughout that day, you’d definitely want to connect it to a charger at night.
Our battery life tests results don’t paint a particularly inspiring picture, but battery life and performance tend to be easily influenced with the first big software updates a manufacturer rolls out to a new phone, so we might re-test the Magic V6 after a month or so and revisit the results.
I enjoyed comfortable battery life with the Magic V6, but I’d say - don’t expect miracles. The phone will comfortably taking you through a full day of use, and if you happened to use it extensively throughout that day, you’d definitely want to connect it to a charger at night.
Our battery life tests results don’t paint a particularly inspiring picture, but battery life and performance tend to be easily influenced with the first big software updates a manufacturer rolls out to a new phone, so we might re-test the Magic V6 after a month or so and revisit the results.
PhoneArena Battery Test Results:
Honor Magic V6 Audio Quality and Haptics
Audio quality from the stereo speakers of the Honor Magic V6 is decent. It’s not especially bassy.
Meanwhile, haptics are perfect - you can even adjust their precise strength.
Honor Magic V6 Specs
And here is an overview of the Honor Magic V6 specs:
|
|
| Honor Magic V6 | Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 |
| Dimensions | |
|---|---|
| 156.7 x 145.6 x 4.1 mm (~8.20 mm with camera bump) | 158.4 x 143.2 x 4.2 mm (~8.6 mm with camera bump) |
| Weight | |
| 219.0 g | 215.0 g |
| Size | |
|---|---|
| 8.0-inch | 8.0-inch |
| Type | |
| AMOLED, 120Hz | Dynamic AMOLED, 120Hz |
| System chip | |
|---|---|
| Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SM8850-AC (3 nm) | Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy SM8750-AB (3 nm) |
| Memory | |
| 12GB (LPDDR5X)/256GB (UFS 4.1) 12GB/512GB 16GB/512GB 16GB/1TB |
12GB (LPDDR5X)/256GB (UFS 4.0) 12GB/512GB 16GB/512GB |
| Type | |
|---|---|
| 6660 mAh | 4400 mAh |
| Charge speed | |
| Wired: 80.0W Wireless: 66.0W |
Wired: 25.0W Wireless: 15.0W |
| Main camera | |
|---|---|
| 50 MP (OIS, Laser and PDAF) Aperture size: F1.6 Focal length: 23 mm Sensor size: 1/1.56" Pixel size: 1.0 μm |
200 MP (OIS, PDAF) Sensor name: Samsung ISOCELL HP2 Aperture size: F1.7 Focal length: 24 mm Sensor size: 1/1.3" Pixel size: 0.6 μm |
| Second camera | |
| 50 MP (Ultra-wide, Autofocus) Aperture size: F2.2 Focal Length: 13 mm | 12 MP (Ultra-wide) Sensor name: Sony IMX564 Aperture size: F2.2 Focal Length: 13 mm Sensor size: 1/2.55" Pixel size: 1.4 μm |
| Third camera | |
| 64 MP (Telephoto, Periscope, OIS, PDAF) Optical zoom: 3.0x Aperture size: F2.5 Focal Length: 70 mm Sensor size: 1/2" Pixel size: 0.7 μm |
10 MP (Telephoto, OIS, PDAF) Sensor name: Samsung S5K3K1 Optical zoom: 3.0x Aperture size: F2.4 Focal Length: 67 mm Sensor size: 1/3.94" Pixel size: 1.0 μm |
| Front | |
| 20 MP (HDR) | 10 MP (HDR) |
See the full
Honor Magic V6 vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 specs comparison
or compare them to other phones using our
Phone Comparison tool
Should you buy it?
The Magic V6's displays boast impressively low reflectivity. | Image by PhoneArena
Yes. If you want a new, high-end foldable phone, the Honor Magic V6 is 100% worth your time.
Its strengths are many: the classy design, the top-notch hardware, the impressive camera system… It’s a high-end foldable phone with character.
Its weaknesses? Not many, but it’s worth mentioning the unimpressive video recording and significant throttling under enough stress.
At the end of the day, though, knowing what the foldable phone landscape offers, I can wholeheartedly recommend the Honor Magic V6.
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