Galaxy Z Fold 7 vs. Honor Magic V5: Which foldable will win?

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is Samsung's thinnest foldable phone yet, but the landscape is only getting more and more competitive. Case in point, Samsung's flagship no longer holds the No. 1 spot on our best foldable phone list, and now a new contender may leave it in the dust once again. And no, we're not talking about Apple's rumored iPhone Fold on the horizon.

No, this foldable is already out (in certain markets at least), and it deletes any hope Samsung had of delivering the thinnest foldable of 2025. Earlier this month, Honor launched the Magic V5 in Chinese markets with a powerful new chipset, huge AI integration, and a super-thin build measuring just 8.8mm when folded and 4.1mm when opened fully.

That's just a hair thinner than the Galaxy Z Fold 7, which measures 8.9mm folded and 4.2mm unfolded. Granted, we're talking literal millimeters here. In everyday use, you probably won’t notice much difference between these phones unless you’re comparing them side by side. But it certainly gives Honor bragging rights to beat out both Samsung's latest foldable flagship and last year's winner, Oppo's Find N5, which measures 8.93mm thick, for slimmest profile.

Size isn't the only place where Honor has Samsung beat. The Magic V5 has a colossal 6,100mAh battery compared to the Z Fold 7's 4,400mAh one, a holdover from the Z Fold 6. The large internal screens found on foldables tend to be huge battery drains, which makes it genuinely remarkable that Honor managed to eke out a two-day battery life in such a slim design.

While Samsung offers a slightly larger internal screen, Honor packs a brighter display capable of up to 5,000 nits vs. the Z Fold 7's 2,600 nits. That being said, both share the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, so you can expect similar performance capabilities.

Innovation locked behind borders

On paper, the Honor Magic V5 has the Galaxy Z Fold 7 beat, but its biggest drawback is availability. It won't be available in Europe until later this year, after Samsung's foldable has already hit stores. Plus, Honor devices aren't officially sold in the U.S., cutting off a huge swatch of the smartphone market from the latest foldable phone innovations.

It took Samsung several generations to finally start getting the hang of foldables, and the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is undeniably its most impressive iteration yet. But its $2,000 price tag was already hard to swallow when the series first debuted in 2019, and things have only gotten more expensive in the years since. Knowing that phonemakers have the technology to build better foldables, but they're limited to markets outside the U.S., makes Samsung's flagship an even tougher sell. It's clear Samsung will have to step up its game if it wants to continue to be competitive in the foldable landscape.

More from Tom's Guide

• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 hands-on: The first foldable I'd actually want to buy
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: 5 reasons to buy (and 3 reasons to skip)
• One UI 8 is coming with Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 — here are all the best new features