I didn’t expect this foldable phone to embarrass Samsung and Google — but here we are

Foldable phones are still in an arms race. Manufacturers are desperate to prove they can make the biggest screens with the smaller creases, with the most camera tech and most spacious batteries. And Honor is one of the foremost brands at stuffing more and more into its folding phones, especially with its new Magic V6, freshly unveiled at MWC 2026.

Honor's confirmed that Chinese sales are coming this month, but global sales won't come until the second half of the year. So this early reveal is more about Honor calling its shot before other foldable phone makers launch their devices later in the year. How sporting of them.

Take a brief tour with me of the Magic V6's specs and special features, and see if you think a next-gen Galaxy Z Fold, Pixel Fold or even the rumored iPhone Fold stand a chance against this.

Premium looks

We start off strong with the design of the Magic V6. While the alternative black or white versions of this phone sound sophisticated, this red vegan leather edition really stuns. And that's before you admire the gold trim around the edges and the toughened "Super Steel" hinge, with its subtle grid design. If a duke from ages past were to have a foldable, it might be one as luxurious-looking as this one.

But in a similarly historical vein - much like a 19th century phrenologist, all I want to do is get my calipers out and do some measuring. Honor claims that the skinniest version of the Magic V6 measures 8.75mm thick when shut, 4mm thick when open, and tips the scales at a surprisingly light 219 grams. Sadly the non-white versions, like the red one here, aren't quite as thin, but it still feels wonderful to handle.

The screens on the Magic V6 are a 7.95-inch inner display and a 6.52-inch outer one. Both have anti-reflective displays thanks to new silicon nitride layers, a feature Honor's keen to note is used on luxury cars. And like previous Magic V models, you can use a stylus on either screen.

Looking to the inner display, Honor touts a 44% crease depth decrease compared to the Magic V5. It's still there if you're looking for it, but we're way past the point where you're likely to be distracted by it. And that's if you can stand to look at the screen, as an alleged 5,000-nit peak brightness (6,000 nits on the outer one) helps things stay visible.

Cameras are not as big a deal on the Magic V6 as it has been on previous generations, but Honor's still got impressive specs to share. We have 50MP main and ultrawide cameras and a 64MP telephoto camera on the back, and 20MP front cameras for the inner and outer screens.

These are all tuned with the in-house AiMAGE Color Engine, which Honor highlighted in our demo by showing how accurately it could capture the lustre of golden jewellery. Something I know we all struggle with.

But the specs keep getting better from here. Running all the phone's operations is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, with the Magic V6 being the first foldable to use this chip. Honor offers 16GB RAM and 512GB storage by default, which is just as generous as previous Magic V models have been. Not an easy thing to keep going during RAMageddon.

And to continue the roll of big, impressive numbers, the Magic V6's silicon carbon battery dazzles with its 6,600 mAh capacity, which is the highest in any foldable phone to date. And refuelling comes from 80W wired and 66W wireless charging, assuming you have the right chargers to hand.

Honor's quite proud of the fact the the battery it uses in the Magic V6 is more energy dense than one found in a Tesla. Unfortunately, we don't get the best version globally, as the China version of this phone has over 7,000 mAh of capacity by adding an even denser 32% silicon "Blade Battery." And while I couldn't test the battery life for this review, the Magic V6's inner display apparently lasts for 24 hours on a single charge according to testing by TÜV Rheinland.

Software that even iPhone users will want

Beyond the raw specs, Honor still has more to show off with the Magic V6. It comes with improved multi-tasking with the option to slide across a virtual desktop of apps, arranged to your liking. It's more like OnePlus or Oppo than Samsung, which I am all in favor of.

Gemini cross-app actions are here, and can work with either Google apps or Honor's own. More uniquely, the Magic V6 has an "AI meeting agent," which can apparently summarize your meetings in real time. But Honor also says it can listen out for your name, or other key terms you give it, letting you tune out freely while knowing the Magic V6 will alert you if your boss calls on you to give an update on that project you should have already finished by now.

Then there's all the Apple cross-compatability powers that will be coming via an over-the-air update later in the year. We've seen some of these on other devices from other brands before, like mirroring screens and sending files, but Honor's gone even further.

You can use the Magic V6 as a second screen for your Mac, much like Apple will let you do with an iPad via Sidecar mode. The Magic V6 is also able to access your iWork and iCloud to access files you have stored there. You can also pair AirPods with a similar interface and feature set to using them with an Apple device, and similarly get notifications passed through to an Apple Watch. It all seems designed to attract iPhone users back to Android, but without the additional expense of replacing all your peripherals.

Sadly, the new software and AI tricks, including the iPhone and Mac integration, remains only as a demo you can see at trade shows or in online sizzle reels. We'll let you know how these work at a later date when we get to try them, but going by how Honor and other Chinese companies like Oppo have managed to get their devices through the gate of Apple's walled garden to play with iOS and macOS, I trust that these features work as described. Even if you have to download an app with a long list of required data permissions to make it all happen.

Magic is on its way

Keeping an eye on non-Samsung and Google foldables may seem a pointless exercise if you can't easily buy these devices where you live. But I'd disagree, since the Magic V6 shows just how much more the Galaxy Z Fold and Pixel Pro Fold series can do if users expected it of them.

And even if the iPhone Fold matches up to the incredible device that the rumors have told us about, it will still lack in several areas to Honor's latest and greatest. And may even have worse cross-device collaboration features with Apple's own computers.

I look forward to returning to the Magic V6 later in the year when the final software updates appear and we can give it a full review. But even while I wait, and start to see the rumor mill churn out more and more Z Fold 8 or Pixel 11 Pro Fold rumors, I'll be smiling wryly at the idea that Honor's latest foldable is looming above them, waiting to strike with its wealth of still-superior specs.

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