Back in October, we lamented that no phone met our 2025 Phone of the Year criteria. A very late entrant, the Honor Magic V5 Foldable changed all that.
It’s a foldable from a pretty unknown brand in Australia, but Honor (formally part of Huawei and spun out in 2020) assures us that it’s here to stay.
While our criteria mainly relate to speeds and feeds (hardware) we also test the software and added value features.
Let’s recap on our fifteen 2025 phone of the year criteria
| Criteria | Honor Magic V5 Fold |
| Current and reasonably powerful AI-capable processor. We have favoured Qualcomm, but MediaTek is catching up. | Qualcomm SD8 Elite (fastest in 2025) |
| 10-bit/1.07 billion colour AMOLED screen, low PWM-sensitivity. | Yes, 5000 peak nits, Dolby Vision, no PWM |
| 12 or 16GB RAM. | 16GB LPDDR5X |
| 256 or more storage. | 512GB UFS 4.1 blazingly fast |
| USB-C 3.1 or 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) or 2 (10Gbps) with Alt DP (audio/video screen mirror) and external mountable storage. | Easy to repair, Superb build quality |
| All-day battery and fast charge (no charger supplied). | 5820mAh (largest in a fold) No charger supplied (no points lost) |
| Fast Wi-Fi 6E or 7. | Wi-Fi 7 uses MLO for maximum speeds. |
| City, Suburbs, regional and rural phone reception strength. | The strongest reception we have seen for city, suburbs, regional and rural use. |
| eSIM and SIM, DSDA (dual active). | Dual SIM or SIM and eSIM or dual eSIM. DSDA dual SIM, dual active Dual ringtone |
| Decent range of Bluetooth Codecs (some aptX and LDAC). | All aptX codecs and LDAC |
| Rear camera with wide, ultra-wide/macro and telephoto. | 50+50+64MP read camera, laser AF, OIS and AI assistance. 2 x 20MP selfies. Excellent DXO Mark score. |
| Build quality, reliability and repairability. | Easy to repair, Superb build quality. Premkum materials. |
| Android 16, value-added UI, and decent warranty, OS upgrade and security patch policies | Android 16 and MagicOS 10 2+7+7 years warranty, OS upgrades and security patches |
| Simple English, benign privacy policy and terms of use (not several nested policies that mortgage your firstborn). | Yes, and has been adapted for world regions including Australia. |
| Price: Nominally from $1000 to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. | $2599 presents superior features and value to other foldables. |
In fact, the Honor Magic V5 will help to shape the future Phone of the year criteria as we come to grips with AI and what it can do.
Our full review (6300 words) It is an Honor Magic V5, sir. This is the best foldable phone of 2025 (review) shows the results of over 70 tests and gathers over 300 data points.
If you want a fold, this is it, with the caveat that we don’t know what it coming in 2026.
Harvey Norman has it for $2599 and is throwing in an $879 bonus pack of an HONOR Pad 10 Android tablet and an HONOR Watch 4, via redemption. But hurry as the bonus won’t last.
2025 Phone of the Year, 2025 Phone of the Year, 2025 Phone of the Year, 2025 Phone of the Year
