Honor Magic V6 review

Design, build quality, handling

Honor Magic V6 is one of those phones that you immediately recognize even from afar. Especially the signature red version we have here for review. Let's take a moment to enjoy it.

The Magic V6 relies on a traditional foldable build - it has space-grade aluminum frame, stainless steel hinge, tempered glass on top of the cover screen, ultra-thin glass - on the foldable one, and eco-leather or fiber glass back. Okay, that's quite the assembly, but it's pretty much the standard for the modern foldable.

Honor has improved the build of the Magic V6 in some meaningful ways. First, it is now both IP68 and IP69 rated, a first for this segment. Those ratings mean the V6 is dustproof, water resistant, and can endure pressurized water jets.

The hinge was manufactured from high-tensile aerospace-grade alloy that Honor calls Super Steel. The mechanism can allegedly last over 500,000 folds and has 2,800MPa tensile strength. Honor demonstrated its strength by sending Joe Weller ziplining on a V6 (YouTube) and having an Honor manager doing pull-ups on a contraption with the Magic V6 hanging in its center and supporting the person's full weight.

There is also a cushioning system that disperses impact forces during drops, and it should make for a worry-free handling experience. Well, we just couldn't make ourselves drop this beauty, so please forgive us for not testing this particular Honor promise. Since torture-testing the Magic V3 on video (YouTube) a couple of years back, we are already sure Honor is on top of its game in this regard.

The hinge's exterior has a gold color and a subtle texture of tiny triangles.

Moving on, the ultra-thin flexible glass on top of the foldable screen has been improved to reduce the crease depth, and it also features better impact resistance. And we can confirm that we can barely feel the crease, and it's barely visible as well.

The screen has also received an anti-reflective layer for an even better viewing experience.

We tried putting the screens of the Magic V5 and Magic V6 next to each other, and there is a minor difference in the reflectivity, in favor of the V6 as promised.

The Magic V6 has Honor's anti-scratch NanoCrystal Shield on top of the cover screen, also featuring an additional anti-reflective layer. Doing a versus of the V5 and V6 cover screens yields an even more obvious edge for the V6 - its cover screen is noticeably less reflective.

Finally, the Magic V6 back panel has a different material depending on the color option. Our red one features eco-leather with suede-like finish. The whole thing looks expensive and premium, is fingerprint resistant. It is also incredibly grippy.

The black and gold version features fiberglass back panels. We've handled the gold one, and it's quite nice. Its frame is of the same gold colors as on the red model, but its back has the same texture as the hinge - numerous tiny triangles. The panel is not as grippy as the red one, but at least it's quite smudge-resistant.

Honor Magic V6 in Gold

The white model has aerospace special fiber, which feels like aluminum with a frosty finish. This model is lighter than the rest - 219g vs 224 grams.

Speaking of weight, the Magic V6 is advertised as the thinnest large foldable with a 4mm thin side and 8.75mm thickness when folded (as much as an iPhone 17 Pro Max). We can confirm that the V6 is indeed super thin when opened, except for the camera housing, which inevitably sticks out considerably. Its design is the same as on the Magic V5 - it mimics a large lug nut that begs to be unscrewed. It is a bit thinner than on the V5, which is nice, but remains quite thick, nevertheless.

And with that, we've completed our design inspection, so let's take a closer look and see if we'd spot something interesting.

The 7.95-inch foldable screen is on the inside, surrounded by the usual plastic bezel all around. It has a small punch hole for the 20MP inner camera and the crease is almost invisible.

The magnets have just the right force to make the Magic V6 click nicely when you close it. And the phone can stay open at any angle between 5 and 180 degrees.

Due to the relatively strong magnet force and the super slim design, the opening experience is not ideal as it's hard to stick your finger between the two parts. It's high time the manufacturers thought of an easier way to open these phones. Maybe etch a spot or two on the frame to make the process easier or implement something like electro-permanent magnets (Wikipedia) that can be disengaged with a press of a button.

The cover screen has incredibly thin bezels, and you can observe another perforation here for the 20MP selfie camera.

Now we can turn our attention to the back. Here the camera housing is the most interesting feature. It houses three camera lenses, a laser emitter and receiver for autofocus assistance, an LED flash and а color spectrum sensor.

The flat frame packs a lot of features, too. The top has one stereo speaker and one microphone.

The bottom has the other stereo speaker and a duo of microphones that also act as a mouthpiece. Also here you can see the USB-C port and the dual-SIM tray. The Magic V6 also supports eSIM, so it's not necessary to use physical SIM cards.

Finally, the left side is bare, while the right one accommodates the power/lock and volume keys. The always-on fingerprint scanner is integrated within the power key and works flawlessly.

Before we wrap up this section, we want to applaud Honor for the bundled case. It not only contains a super clever kickstand around the frame, but it also comes with the same finish as the back panel and a frame color that's perfectly matched to the phone's golden frame too.

Honor Magic V6 in its original Red case

If you get a model with fiberglass, you will receive the same case with an eco-leather back, with a matching color to the phone (gold, black, white).

Honor Magic V6 in its original Gold case

If you don't like the bundled case, or you did not get the red model, but you liked it, there is another option for you. Honor will be selling a premium aramid fiber case with a red Kevlar pattern.

The special-edition Red Kevlar case

The case was designed in collaboration with the former Hermès collaborating artist Yoni Alter. It is a catchy one with a horse made of different shapes, and it looks incredibly cool on the V6.

The special-edition Red Kevlar case

The case features magnets for MagSafe-like accessories like holders or wireless chargers.

The special-edition Red Kevlar case

Handling a foldable tablet like the Magic V6 is nothing short of a premium experience. The phone is as exceptional as most of them nowadays, with an incredibly thin profile, solid build and superb grip (for the red mode). It looks and feels like one of the best foldables on the market, so kudos to Honor.