Verdict: A Practical Thin Foldable, If You Can Live With the Software
The Honor Magic V6 foldable phone is an ultra-thin, tablet-style smartphone that aims to fix foldables’ biggest flaws by combining a near-flagship experience with stronger construction and rare two-day battery life at a premium price point. In use, it is one of the first thin foldable phones that feels genuinely practical day to day, rather than a tech demo you baby and recharge every evening. Hardware fans will be impressed: the Magic V6 is slimmer, stronger and capable of lasting two days on a charge, addressing one of the category’s longest-running compromises. But the cluttered MagicOS software, camera performance that is merely “good for a foldable”, and high launch pricing mean this is not the obvious choice for everyone. If you value foldable battery life and comfort in hand above software polish, the Magic V6 is easy to recommend; if you want a flawless flagship, you should think carefully.
Design, Build and That Remarkable Thinness
Honor’s core pitch with the Magic V6 foldable is simple: make a big-screen device feel like a normal phone in your pocket. Closed, it measures 8.75mm thick, the same thickness as an iPhone 17 Pro Max, and when opened it tapers to around 4mm at its thinnest, about as slim as the USB-C port on its edge. This is a world away from early foldables that felt like two phones taped together and makes the V6 comfortable to carry and use one-handed. The chassis uses alloy and glass with an anti-scratch outer screen, plus IP68 and IP69 ratings and a hinge designed to absorb impact and deal with drops, clearly aimed at easing durability concerns seen with previous foldables and rivals like Google’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Compared with the Magic V5, the V6 adds new colour options, a controversial textured red finish, and a smaller camera bump that sits more neatly on a table.
| Spec | Honor Magic V6 | What it means in daily use |
|---|---|---|
| Thickness (closed) | 8.75mm | Feels close to a conventional flagship rather than a bulky foldable. |
| Thickness (open) | 4mm | Tablet-like screen without adding much bulk in the hand. |
| Weight | 219g | Manageable for a large foldable; similar to many big slab phones. |
| Outer / inner displays | 6.52" & 7.95" OLED, up to 120Hz | Smooth scrolling, ample space for multitasking and media. |
Performance and Battery Life: Foldable Power That Lasts
Under the hood, the Honor Magic V6 foldable uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage in the model reviewed, which makes performance feel effortless for apps, gaming and multitasking. The real headline, though, is battery life. Honor fits a 6660mAh silicon-carbon battery, which keeps capacity high while still allowing the phone to remain very thin. In practice, reviewers report that two-day battery life is within reach for general users, describing it as “an absolute first for the folding phone sector”. That is a big step forward for foldable battery life, where most rivals still struggle to get through a heavy day on a single charge. Fast charging support is solid as well, with 80W wired and 66W wireless charging on both displays that offer adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz. The net effect is a foldable that finally feels practical to use without constant battery anxiety.
Cameras, Software and the Price Problem
Camera hardware on the Magic V6 is well specified for a foldable: a 50-megapixel main sensor, 50-megapixel ultrawide, and 64-megapixel periscope telephoto with 3x optical zoom, plus extensive AI tools for edits and colour tuning. In practice, it is a good camera phone, but conventional slab flagships at the same price still offer better results, so you are accepting slightly weaker cameras in exchange for a folding design. The bigger compromise is software. MagicOS 10, based on Android 16, promises seven years of updates but feels cluttered, with awkward design choices and inconsistent multitasking behaviour that wastes some of the big inner screen’s potential. Honor has also added ecosystem features like Quick Share between Android and Apple devices, one-tap file transfers, notification sharing and dual-screen Mac connections, plus support for popular earbuds, which soften the blow for buyers worried about ecosystem lock-in. Pricing remains premium: launch pricing of £1,999.99 makes buyers rightly picky, although early-bird promotions can reduce this to £1,499.99 with extras, and one market lists the phone at $2999 with bundled wearable and earbuds.
Pros
- Exceptionally thin and light for a large book-style foldable, closer to a regular flagship phone in hand.
- Large 6660mAh battery with two-day foldable battery life potential and fast wired/wireless charging.
- Durable design with alloy and glass, anti-scratch outer screen, IP68/IP69 ratings and stronger hinge.
- Strong performance from Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and 16GB RAM, plus generous 512GB storage.
Cons
- MagicOS remains cluttered, with uneven multitasking and design quirks that undermine the big inner screen.
- Camera quality is good for a foldable, but top slab flagships still produce better results.
- Premium launch pricing means buyers are entitled to be extremely fussy and may find better overall value elsewhere.
- Not completely crease-less, while some rivals now focus heavily on hiding the fold line.
Buy if / Skip if
- Buy the Honor Magic V6 if you want a thin foldable phone that feels as comfortable to carry as a conventional flagship while still unfolding into a tablet-sized display.
- Skip the Honor Magic V6 if you prioritise camera performance above all else and expect it to match the very best slab-style flagships at the same price.
- Buy the Honor Magic V6 if battery life is your main concern and you want a foldable that can realistically last up to two days between charges.
- Skip the Honor Magic V6 if you dislike busy Android skins, because MagicOS 10’s cluttered interface and inconsistent multitasking may frustrate you.
- Buy the Honor Magic V6 if you value durability improvements like IP68/IP69 resistance and a hinge designed to absorb impact, and you want a foldable that feels less fragile than earlier models.
- Skip the Honor Magic V6 if the premium launch pricing stretches your budget and you are not convinced that a foldable form factor is worth paying more than an equivalent slab phone.
- Buy the Honor Magic V6 if you are keen to try a foldable from a brand that is now a serious competitor to Samsung and Google in this space.
