Honor Magic V5 vs Motorola Razr Fold | TechTalkTown
Honor Magic V5 vs Motorola Razr Fold
Honor Magic V5
Honor
8.6
The best book foldable of 2025
Motorola Razr Fold
Motorola
8.3
Best US book foldable, big battery
Honor Magic V5
What Reviewers Agree On
The best book-style foldable of 2025 — top creators independently call it the best folding phone on the market.
World's thinnest book foldable (8.8mm folded / 4.1mm open) that feels like a normal flagship when closed.
Class-leading foldable battery — the ~5,820mAh silicon-carbon cell out-endures the Z Fold 7 and Oppo Find N5.
Dual 5,000-nit OLED LTPO 120Hz displays — a huge brightness jump over the Magic V3.
An industry-leading 7-year OS and security update commitment.
Deal Breakers
Pros & Cons
Honor Magic V5
Pros
The best book-style foldable of 2025 — top creators independently call it the best folding phone on the market.
World's thinnest book foldable (8.8mm folded / 4.1mm open) that feels like a normal flagship when closed.
Class-leading foldable battery — the ~5,820mAh silicon-carbon cell out-endures the Z Fold 7 and Oppo Find N5.
Dual 5,000-nit OLED LTPO 120Hz displays — a huge brightness jump over the Magic V3.
An industry-leading 7-year OS and security update commitment.
Detailed Comparison
Design & Build
Honor Magic V5
The headline: the world's thinnest book foldable that feels like a normal flagship when closed — though the camera bump it excludes from the measurement is hefty.
It's the thinnest inward-folding phone on the market — 8.8mm folded and 4.1mm open (ivory white), taking the crown from the Oppo Find N5.
It's the thinnest only if you ignore the rather hefty camera bump, which isn't included in the measurements.
The frame uses Honor's Resource 7-series aluminium and aerospace fibres for strength without bulk, with a signature rectangular camera module.
It feels like a normal flagship when closed, then delivers a genuinely useful big-screen upgrade when opened.
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A hefty camera bump that the thinness claim conveniently excludes, making it considerably thicker than a Pixel 9 Pro Fold with bumps included.
The telephoto's reach was shortened to ~70mm, and the camera isn't quite flagship-tier for a $1,600+ phone.
MagicOS pushes AI heavily with bare-minimum customization, plus patchy (China-first) global availability.
Motorola Razr Fold
What Reviewers Agree On
Best battery life of any notebook-style foldable — roughly 14h31m (16h10m optimized), far ahead of the Galaxy Z Fold 7's ~10h44m
DxOMark's #1 foldable camera (≈164 points, ~8th overall), with a triple 50MP system Motorola made a genuine strength
Standout software — multitasking, laptop mode and a Pixel-meets-Samsung balance reviewers repeatedly praise
Excellent, very bright displays — an 8.1-inch ~6,200-nit inner panel and a 165Hz ~6,000-nit outer screen
Active stylus support (Moto Pen Ultra) that works even on the cover screen, a Z Fold limitation
Undercuts the Galaxy Z Fold 7 by about $100 ($1,899 / £1,799) and includes a case plus a 90W charger in the box
Best book foldable you can actually buy in the US, since the Oppo Find N6 and Honor Magic V6 aren't sold there
Deal Breakers
Uses the non-Elite Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 in a $1,899 flagship — a clear cost-down some reviewers find disappointing
Heavy at 243g (≈28g more than the Galaxy Z Fold 7) and only IP48/IP49 rated, not full IP68
Motorola's poor track record for timely updates, plus a genuine source conflict over whether it gets 7 years or only 3 years of OS updates
Foldable repair costs and Motorola's screen-peeling warranty history are recurring trust concerns
Cons
A hefty camera bump that the thinness claim conveniently excludes, making it considerably thicker than a Pixel 9 Pro Fold with bumps included.
The telephoto's reach was shortened to ~70mm, and the camera isn't quite flagship-tier for a $1,600+ phone.
MagicOS pushes AI heavily with bare-minimum customization, plus patchy (China-first) global availability.
Motorola Razr Fold
Pros
Best battery life of any notebook-style foldable — roughly 14h31m (16h10m optimized), far ahead of the Galaxy Z Fold 7's ~10h44m
DxOMark's #1 foldable camera (≈164 points, ~8th overall), with a triple 50MP system Motorola made a genuine strength
Standout software — multitasking, laptop mode and a Pixel-meets-Samsung balance reviewers repeatedly praise
Excellent, very bright displays — an 8.1-inch ~6,200-nit inner panel and a 165Hz ~6,000-nit outer screen
Active stylus support (Moto Pen Ultra) that works even on the cover screen, a Z Fold limitation
Undercuts the Galaxy Z Fold 7 by about $100 ($1,899 / £1,799) and includes a case plus a 90W charger in the box
Best book foldable you can actually buy in the US, since the Oppo Find N6 and Honor Magic V6 aren't sold there
Cons
Uses the non-Elite Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 in a $1,899 flagship — a clear cost-down some reviewers find disappointing
Heavy at 243g (≈28g more than the Galaxy Z Fold 7) and only IP48/IP49 rated, not full IP68
Motorola's poor track record for timely updates, plus a genuine source conflict over whether it gets 7 years or only 3 years of OS updates
Foldable repair costs and Motorola's screen-peeling warranty history are recurring trust concerns
Including each device's camera bump, the Magic V5 is considerably thicker than the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and slightly thicker than the Z Fold 7 in non-white colourways.
Honor still includes extra goodies in the box, a nice touch at this price.
Motorola Razr Fold
Motorola's first book-style foldable trades the iconic flip for a Samsung-like book form, with a Material Expressive look, a flat-folding hinge and a notably heavy body.
Motorola's first book-style folding phone is a premium option, not the budget-friendlier alternative the category could use, with a 6,000mAh battery, top-tier chipset and serious camera hardware.
At 243g it's about 28g heavier than the Galaxy Z Fold 7, largely because of the camera array, though it feels balanced and not heavy in the hand.
The design is Google Material Expressive instead of a misguided attempt to match Apple.
Motorola leveraged decades of hinge engineering to pull the screen taut, resulting in a surface that is startlingly flat and masks the crease.
The build feels relatively sturdy with a zero-gap hinge and flush closure, though the soft inner screen still makes dust and dirt a concern.
Displays
Honor Magic V5
Dual OLED LTPO 120Hz panels with a class-leading 5,000-nit peak — a huge brightness jump over the Magic V3 and well ahead of the Z Fold 7.
Both the external and internal screens hit a 5,000-nit HDR peak with 120Hz and high-PWM dimming for less eye strain.
5,000 nits on both screens is a massive jump over the Magic V3's ~1,800-nit inner display.
Against the Galaxy Z Fold 7, it's 5,000 nits peak versus 2,600 — a decisive display-brightness win.
Both displays are OLED LTPO panels at 120Hz with dynamic refresh, smooth visuals and no eye strain during long sessions.
Motorola Razr Fold
A pair of excellent, exceptionally bright panels — an 8.1-inch inner screen and a fast 165Hz outer screen — though lab tests fall short of Motorola's 6,000-nit headline claims.
Unfolds to a massive 8.1-inch 2K 120Hz inner panel rated ~6,200 nits, with a ~6,000-nit outer screen running at up to 165Hz.
Motorola rates both displays at 6,000 nits peak brightness, but Future Labs tests found the numbers considerably lower.
The 6.6-inch outer display runs 2520×1080 at 165Hz versus the Z Fold 7's slower 120Hz / 2,600-nit panel — a clear advantage.
The inner display gets very bright at up to ~6,200 nits — a very impressive panel few foldables can match.
Cameras
Honor Magic V5
A genuinely improved system over the Magic V3 — strong main and excellent subject separation — but the shortened telephoto reach and a high price keep it short of true flagship-camera status.
It's a triple 50MP main + 50MP ultrawide + 64MP periscope telephoto, with dual 20MP selfie cameras.
Cameras were a Magic V3 weakness, but on the V5 the camera is brilliant in 90% of situations with subject separation better than even Samsung and iPhone.
The main camera is the same as last year and the telephoto now has a shorter ~70mm reach.
At $1,500–$2,000 for a folding phone it should have the best camera sensors — there's a real sacrifice in the other two cameras here.
Video tops out at solid 4K60 (no 8K) with consistent colours and smooth lens switching while recording.
The large camera dish buys optical versatility rather than crop zoom — a deliberate trade for the thin body.
Motorola Razr Fold
Historically the foldable Achilles heel — but Motorola invested in hardware and software here, and DxOMark ranks it the best camera in any foldable.
DxOMark rates the Razr Fold the #1 camera among foldables — roughly 8th overall across all phones — with a Gold Label.
A 50MP main (f/1.6, OIS), a 50MP ultrawide (12mm, 122° FOV, f/2.0) and a third 50MP camera — all selfies can use the best 50MP main.
This is without question the best Motorola camera I've ever used.
Comes up just short of modern flagships like the iPhone 17 Pro, Find X9 Pro and Xiaomi 17 Ultra, with a DxOMark score of 164 points.
Took it for a street-photography spin and came away genuinely impressed — the camera hardware was what caught attention.
Performance
Honor Magic V5
Snapdragon 8 Elite delivers flagship-grade performance, with a default-off performance mode that conserves battery and heat at the cost of peak speed.
It runs the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite, so you can count on flagship-grade performance.
The high-performance mode is disabled by default to conserve battery and minimise heat; enabling it significantly raises performance.
Gaming with the full-HD inner display fully stretched out changes everything — though the battery does start to drain a little under sustained play.
Everything from form factor to software, support, battery, optics and AI feels very polished and mature.
Same-chip foldables behave differently on power output — efficiency gains from the 8 Elite plus the foldable software show in real endurance.
Motorola Razr Fold
Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 with 16GB RAM — fast for everyday use and surprisingly good in long sessions, but the choice of the non-Elite chip in a $1,899 phone is the headline criticism.
Motorola stuck Qualcomm's excellent Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 (16GB RAM, 512GB) inside its first full-fold flagship.
With a phone this expensive it is a bit disappointing Motorola couldn't go all the way with the Elite chip.
In a 20-minute stress test the Z Fold 7's 8 Elite was ~10% better on the first loop, but the Razr Fold ran better through the 20 minutes and ended ~20% ahead on sustained performance with similar thermals.
Recording 4K120 for a long time makes the Snapdragon CPU run quite hot, though it cools down fairly fast.
The non-Elite chip, 243g weight and IP49 dust rating could be causes for concern, even if the experience is smooth.
Battery & Charging
Honor Magic V5
The Magic V5's defining strength: a thin-but-dense ~5,820mAh silicon-carbon cell that wins extreme drain tests against the Z Fold 7 and Oppo Find N5, with fast 66W wired and 50W wireless.
In an extreme multi-task drain test it finished first at 7h31m, beating the Oppo Find N5 (7h27m) and the Galaxy Z Fold 7 (5h57m).
It's the first foldable that consistently delivered over 10 hours of screen-on time — all-day heavy usage mixing inner and outer screens.
It beat the Galaxy Z Fold 7 by almost 1h35m of battery and even defeated the Oppo Find N5 in a super-extreme test.
The ~5,820mAh silicon-carbon cell charges at 66W wired (full in roughly an hour, >90% in ~40 minutes) plus 50W wireless.
One content reviewer never got it close to dropping below 5% in a heavy day's usage — exceptional for a foldable.
Wireless and wired charging both require Honor's proprietary chargers to hit peak speeds.
Motorola Razr Fold
The standout: the largest battery in the book-foldable space delivering class-leading endurance, plus 80W wired charging — three times faster than the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
Lasting an impressive 14 hours 31 minutes, the Razr Fold is officially the best notebook-style foldable for battery life (16h10m with refresh-rate optimized).
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 managed only 10h44m in the same test, with a 4,400mAh battery versus the Razr Fold's 6,000mAh cell.
I found the battery basically impossible to kill in a single day, even with the Fold's hotspot supplying an entire office internet connection over 12 days.
It charges at 80W wired — over three times as fast as the Galaxy Z Fold 7's 25W — plus 50W wireless and 5W reverse, with a 90W charger and a case included in the box.
The 6,000mAh cell is colossal — about 20% larger than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold's — though there's also more display to power.
Software & AI
Honor Magic V5
MagicOS with a class-leading 7-year support promise and strong sync/sharing — but AI is pushed everywhere and customization is bare-minimum.
Honor promises a total of seven years of OS and security updates — an amazing support policy for a foldable.
The OS includes easy device sync and content-sharing capabilities baked in.
Customization is bare minimum — no lock-screen widgets, and you can't even remove the step counter without disabling the whole health suite.
A year of MagicOS updates has been focused on pushing AI into every corner of the device.
Just about every aspect of the device is superior to the Galaxy Z Fold 7, with software the main subjective exception.
Motorola Razr Fold
The surprise strength — Motorola's foldable software is widely called the best balance of Pixel simplicity and Samsung multitasking, undercut only by Motorola's update-timeliness history.
Motorola nailed the software — it feels like the perfect middle ground between the Pixel and Samsung approaches to book foldables, with a laptop mode that turns the bottom half into a trackpad.
The Razr Fold is winning me over with something not on the spec sheet — superb multitasking software.
Given Motorola's awful track record for timely updates, you've got to be ready to live with the little launch bugs for a while.
Motorola promises 7 years of Android version and security updates — best-in-class and a huge jump from last year's 3-year commitment.
Counterpoint: Motorola is only committing to 3 years of Android upgrades and 5 years of security patches, so versus Samsung's 7 years it's really no contest.
Value vs Competition
Honor Magic V5
Repeatedly named the best foldable of 2025 and a more appealing spec than the Z Fold 7 — but a high import price and China-first availability temper the value.
It's the best foldable in the world right now — as close to perfect as a folding device currently exists.
It's literally the best folding phone on the market.
It continues to be one of the best foldables on the market with a much more appealing specification than the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
Import pricing currently ranges between $1,600 and $1,700, placing it against the Z Fold 7 and Vivo X Fold 5.
Its one clear loss to competitors is availability — initially limited to China before a wider rollout.
It's cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold while arguably being the better phone.
Motorola Razr Fold
At $1,899 it undercuts the Z Fold 7 and is the only premium book foldable many US buyers can actually purchase — value hinges on whether the non-Elite chip and update questions matter to you.
At $1,899.99 / £1,799.99 it undercuts the Galaxy Z Fold 7 by about $100/£100, and the pre-order Moto Pen Ultra bundle adds real value — the sum of its parts is the best foldable on the market.
If you're tired of Samsung-only or have no interest in the Pixel Fold, this may be the best folding phone you can get in the US right now — the Oppo Find N6 and Honor Magic V6 aren't available there.
It could be called a disappointment, especially compared to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold and Honor Magic V5 — it should have offered something more compelling to stand out.
If Motorola drops the price by even two or three hundred dollars within the first few weeks, this phone suddenly becomes a much stronger contender.
It competes fairly well with the Oppo Find N6, which is amazing to see.