Honor launches the ‘world’s thinnest’ foldable

Honor has announced the Magic V5, which it says is the thinnest foldable phone in the world right now — though only if you ignore the raised camera module, and only for its white version. The phone launches today in China, but Honor says an international release is coming “soon.”

At 8.8mm thick when folded shut, the V5 is indeed impressively thin, and beats the 8.9mm Oppo Find N5. That 0.1mm difference is imperceptible in practice, though a very slight curvature does help Honor’s phone feel a hair thinner than the Oppo. That’s only true for the phone’s “Ivory White” version though, with the other colors very slightly thicker at 9mm, which suggests they’ll use different materials for the final finish.

Perhaps more tellingly, you’ve also got to completely ignore the camera. The Magic V5’s triple rear camera module rises almost twice as high as Oppo’s, making the phone feel thicker overall as a result. Superior specs, with higher resolution sensors and faster apertures almost across the board, may justify the extra heft, but it does diminish that “world’s thinnest” claim.

When open, the V5’s frame measures 4.1mm, again just beating Oppo’s 4.2mm. It’s worth remembering that neither of these phones are quite as thin as Huawei’s trifold Mate XT when it’s open, dropping to 3.6mm at its thinnest point, a segment that doesn’t have the USB-C port.

This battle of the millimeters isn’t new territory for Honor. Before Oppo launched the Find N5 earlier this year, Honor’s Magic V3 was the thinnest foldable on the market. Next week Samsung is expected to reveal a drastically thinner Galaxy Z Fold 7, though it’s likely to be just a little thicker than Honor’s effort. Honor isn’t highlighting it, but the Magic V5 might be the world’s lightest foldable too, or at least seems to share that title with Vivo’s X Fold 5, announced last week — both weigh 217g.

If this all sounds like quibbling over a gram here and a fraction of a millimeter there, then that’s because it is. I said back when I reviewed the Oppo Find N5 that it would “mark the start of diminishing returns” for foldable phones, and here we are. Without dropping the USB-C port or adopting an asymmetric design there simply isn’t room for these phones to get meaningfully thinner, so foldable manufacturers are going to have to figure out a new way to generate hype for future launches.

Fortunately for Honor, the Magic V5 has strong enough specs to impress regardless. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite powers the phone, together with up to 16GB of RAM and a large 5,820mAh battery. Both screens use 120Hz LTPO OLED panels, there’s wireless charging, and IP58 and IP59 ratings for dust- and water-resistance that’s almost as good as any non-foldable’s.