Hands-on with the Honor Magic V6 — the stunning new foldable with 'world’s thinnest mobile phone battery' | Tech Radar

Overview

Hands-on with the Honor Magic V6 — the stunning new foldable with 'world’s thinnest mobile phone battery'

Plus, an interview with Honor product expert, Hope Cao

Details

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The Honor Magic V6 (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

While Samsung’s foldables experienced a major glow-up in 2025, Honor has been refining its competing Magic V series with an unwavering consistency over the last four years. The newly-unveiled Honor Magic V6 is another record-breaker that should have rivals worried.

Last year’s Honor Magic V5 took the crown for “World’s Thinnest Foldable” and the V6 ups the ante ever so slightly, by shaving another 0.1mm off its predecessor’s already-svelte body. That’s really just the tip of the iceberg, however, with engineering refinements and new functionality that’ll pose a real challenge for the bevy of foldables expected to follow, in the coming months.

I was able to get hands-on with the Magic V6 ahead of its international debut in Barcelona, and had the opportunity to quiz Hope Cao, Senior Product Expert at Honor, about creating the Magic V6.

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H: 156.7mm x w: 145.6mm (unfolded) / 74.5mm (folded), d: 4.0mm (unfolded white model) / 4.1mm (unfolded black, gold, red models) / 8.75mm (folded white model) / 9.0mm (folded black, gold, red models)

H: 156.7mm x w: 145.6mm (unfolded) / 74.5mm (folded), d: 4.0mm (unfolded white model) / 4.1mm (unfolded black, gold, red models) / 8.75mm (folded white model) / 9.0mm (folded black, gold, red models)

219 grams (white model), 224 grams (black, gold, red models)

219 grams (white model), 224 grams (black, gold, red models)

7.95-inch LTPO 2.0 Honor Super Armored Inner Screen w/ anti-reflective coating + stylus support

7.95-inch LTPO 2.0 Honor Super Armored Inner Screen w/ anti-reflective coating + stylus support

6.52-inch LTPO 2.0 Honor anti-scratch Nano Crystal Shield w/ anti-reflective coating + stylus support

6.52-inch LTPO 2.0 Honor anti-scratch Nano Crystal Shield w/ anti-reflective coating + stylus support

Inner display: 2352 x 2172, outer display: 2420 x 1080

Inner display: 2352 x 2172, outer display: 2420 x 1080

Foldables always come under fire from skeptics due to their complicated engineering, intricate hinge mechanisms, and softer, flexible displays, when compared to your conventional candybar smartphone.

Samsung’s debut Galaxy Fold had some serious durability issues, which forced the company to completely rethink how it approached constructing its devices. That served as a cautionary tale to rivals like Honor. As a result, we’ve since seen the entire industry invest more time and money into building folding phones that are actually equipped to handle the rigors of normal daily smartphone use.

In the case of the V6, despite its razor-thin profile, Honor has ensured it’s made for the real world. It's even brought receipts, with independent certification from recognized bodies including TÜV Rheinland and SGS.

Speaking to Cao, he dove into more detail on the engineering refinements at work, especially those underneath the phone’s elegant exterior.

“Targeting the issue of hinges being prone to failure, the V6 utilizes 2800MPa (up from 2300MPa on the Magic V5) Honor Super Steel to fortify the mechanical core, which is almost twice the strength of Samsung’s material. This is combined with an AI simulation system, which leverages tens of thousands of virtual drop scenarios, ensuring the structure’s absolute durability and long-term reliability.”

Like the V5, this newer hinge is again rated for 500,000 folds, but Honor’s also bolstered the phone’s construction with IP68 and IP69-certified water resistance. This level of protection is currently exclusive to the V6 in the foldable space, with IP69 in particular, being a rarity outside of devices from the likes of Oppo and One Plus.

Honor is no stranger to pushing the envelope on battery tech, but the V6 has legitimately raised the bar for the competition. That includes a larger and more energy-dense battery than any other foldable currently on the market. Even though the international version of the V6 comes with a smaller capacity offering than its Chinese equivalent, it still clocks in higher than any rival foldable right now.

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Despite its impressive 4.1mm thickness (4.0mm on the white version) when open, the Magic V6 still manages to house a sizable 6,600m Ah cell, up from 5,820m Ah on the Magic V5.

At the launch of the V6, Honor also showed off its fifth-generation ‘Blade Battery’. As thick as a playing card, this next-gen cell has found its way into the China-exclusive 1TB model of the V6, granting the foldable a record 7,000m Ah battery capacity.

Cao explained, “this [Honor’s Blade Battery] houses the world’s thinnest mobile phone battery cell, with a thickness of only 0.15mm, yet boasting a silicon content as high as 32%. This enables a maximum battery capacity of 7,000+ m Ah on the 1TB version sold in China, ushering the foldable category into the 7,000+ m Ah era. Underlying technical innovations include a “super glue” binder in the anode material, 4.57V cathode material, and the thinnest copper foil.”

Multitasking on a device like the V6 is already a freeing experience, compared to split-screen use or app switching on a conventional candybar phone (and even other foldables). But Honor has been gradually expanding its cross-device compatibility further than any other phone maker.

As much as the company undoubtedly wishes its users operated in an Honor-only bubble of personal tech, it knows that’s seldom the case. As Cao points out, “we are well aware that many high-end users are ‘dual-device owners’ (dual-phone users) operating across ecosystems.”

With their sights set on Apple users in particular, Honor has expanded the V6’s interoperability with the best i Phones; letting you mirror notifications between devices and activate an instant hotspot from the V6 when your i Phone’s signal is poor. What’s more, you can now mirror notifications from the V6 onto your Apple Watch, as well as extend the display of your Mac Book onto Honor’s hot new foldable.

The phone’s One Tap feature can wirelessly beam a 1GB file to your Mac Book in about 25 seconds. When you pair Air Pods with the V6, you get everything from a familiar setup animation to control over the buds’ noise cancellation modes and Find My support.

The Honor Magic V5 was arguably the most capable foldable of the last year, and the V6 looks on track to receive that same crown in 2026. The only fly in the ointment is that Honor hasn’t yet set a release date (or announced a price).

Despite its impressive new durability credentials, its sizable camera hardware, large displays (with stylus support on both), and new AI-backed functionality, its ambiguous on-sale date gives rivals time to bolster their 2026 foldable offerings, in an effort to thwart the V6’s promising lead.

From my time with it so far, it has a design with presence and a software experience that’s bursting with potential, I just hope we’re not kept waiting for the phone to actually make it to market.

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Alex joined as Tech Radar's Senior Phones Editor in June 2022, but brings over a decade's worth of experience to the role, with an expertise in smartphones, tablets and wearables. He's covered keynotes hosted by the biggest brands and attended the launches for some of the most influential mobile products of the last few years. His experience was amassed at some of the most reputable consumer technology publications out there, including GSMArena, Tech Advisor and Trusted Reviews.

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Key Takeaways

• Hands-on with the Honor Magic V6 — the stunning new foldable with 'world’s thinnest mobile phone battery'

• Plus, an interview with Honor product expert, Hope Cao

• When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission

• The Honor Magic V6 (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

• While Samsung’s foldables experienced a major glow-up in 2025, Honor has been refining its competing Magic V series with an unwavering consistency over the last four years