Honor Magic V6 vs Xiaomi 15 Ultra

Honor Magic V6

The strongest camera in its foldable class, anchored by a stabilized 64MP 3x periscope. The ultrawide is the weak link, and it still trails the best slab phones on fine detail.

• A 50MP main (f/1.6, 1/1.56", OIS), a 64MP 3x periscope telephoto (70mm, f/2.5, OIS) and a 50MP ultrawide (15mm, f/2.2), with CIPA 6.5-stop stabilization.
• Despite the thin chassis Honor fitted a 64MP periscope telephoto with 3x optical, OIS and PDAF — very impressive given the narrow dimensions and great for far-off or low-light subjects.
• The V5 — and so the V6 — is the closest any manufacturer has come to a flagship camera system in a foldable.
• It loses some of the detail the iPhone picks up, and the iPhone's video is just more natural.
• The 50MP ultrawide camera is quite weak in low-light conditions.
• The 70mm 3x periscope telephoto is very impressive, and the main camera holds up well in low light with balanced contrast and no over-processing.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

The whole point of the phone: a Leica Summicron quad system — a 1-inch-type 50MP main, a 50MP 3x telephoto, a 200MP 4.3x periscope and a 50MP ultrawide. Reviewers overwhelmingly rate it the best phone camera of its generation, with the only soft spots being the ultrawide and a missing variable aperture.

• A Leica Summicron system: a 1-inch-type 50MP main (23mm), a 50MP 3x telephoto, a 200MP periscope (4.3x optical, ~100mm) and a 50MP ultrawide — the 1-inch main is an unexpected differentiator no one else uses in a globally available model.
• As far as phones personally used, this is the best camera experience bar none — if cameras are your top priority you cannot get better than the 15 Ultra.
• Main camera-wise the Xiaomi is the best overall, especially for daytime shots and depth of field; at 3x it captures the most detail and at 5x it has the least noise versus the S25 Ultra and iPhone.
• Xiaomi did get the best camera hardware, but the leather-camera look is mostly aesthetic — what makes a real camera good is a far bigger lens, and this is still a small smartphone sensor.

Honor Magic V6

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 with the best sustained behaviour in the foldable class — it holds frames far longer than rivals before any throttling.

• Powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the Magic V6 surpasses the Galaxy Z Fold 7 on performance.
• After 5 minutes of sustained load every competitor throttles 30–40%, but the V6 drained just 41% over 90 minutes of max load — best in class — with an AnTuTu sustained score of ~847,000, 18% ahead of second place.
• Honor of Kings averaged ~119–120fps at max graphics (3.45–3.65W, ~38–42°C); PUBG Mobile held ~119fps for 30 minutes.
• Genshin Impact at ultra/60fps for 30 minutes averaged 59.5fps with minimal fluctuation, the only trade-off being a screen-brightness drop to ~250 nits.
• Frame rates begin to throttle after about 10 minutes maxed out, but dropping graphics one notch locks a steady 59.74fps at just 41.5°C.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

Snapdragon 8 Elite with up to 16GB RAM and UFS 4.1 — flagship-grade and still excellent a year on. Real-world gaming holds ~57–60fps with acceptable power draw, though heavy synthetic stress tests show meaningful throttling.

• Runs Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite with up to 16GB RAM and 1TB UFS 4.1; 10 months on it's still an extremely well-balanced phone that feels like a true flagship.
• In ~50 minutes of gaming it held a stable ~57–60fps with 4–8W draw — acceptable for the 8 Elite — where some rivals throttle hard and drop to 30fps after 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes of real gaming with apps closing/reopening the CPU sat around 47°C with no overheating — heat only appears in synthetic 3DMark/throttle benchmarks, not realistic use.
• In a 3DMark stability run it scored ~70–76% stability (lowest loop ~4,335–4,542), holding 20–43fps.
• Under a punishing 60-minute 100-thread CPU throttle test it dropped roughly 40–50% in sustained performance, recovering only slightly better than the S25 Ultra.

Honor Magic V6

The headline: the biggest battery ever in a foldable, delivering slab-phone endurance in a 4mm-thin body, with fast wired/wireless charging and a 120W charger in the box.

• A 6,660mAh silicon-carbon cell (256/512GB) — the largest ever in a foldable — rising to a 7,150mAh Qinghai Lake battery in the 1TB China model, the first foldable past 7,000mAh.
• It lasted 7 hours 54 minutes from full charge to shutdown — over 2 hours longer than most standard phones — and beat the OPPO Find N5 (5h43m) and Vivo X Fold 5 (4h33m).
• After a full 5-hour mixed-usage test, 69% remained — securing first place on the foldable 5-hour battery leaderboard — with a Bilibili loop running to 13h23m before death.
• Over heavy Lunar New Year use — video, gaming, documents, social — only about 30% of the battery was used per day.
• 80W wired charging hit ~27% in 15 minutes and a full charge in ~49–55 minutes, plus 66W wireless and an included 120W GaN charger.
• More than 7 hours of screen-on time on the inner display alone, easily surpassing 10 hours mixed indoor/outdoor — eliminating battery anxiety.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

The global model's ~5,410mAh cell (vs 6,000mAh in China) is the phone's weakest area — many reviewers end the day under 30%, with a notable idle drain — though 90W wired charging fully refills it in roughly an hour and Chinese-variant users report much better longevity.

• The global variant has a smaller 5,410mAh cell vs the 6,000mAh China variant, and most days the phone is around or under 30% by the end of the day — it could have done with a bigger battery.
• With always-on display, 120Hz and intensive camera use it consistently achieved over 15 hours of usage on a single charge in real-world testing.
• On the global/Indian 5,410mAh battery, the in-box 90W charger refills it roughly: 18% in 5 min, 67% in 30 min, 90% in 45 min, and a full charge in about an hour.
• On the Chinese 6,000mAh variant with a power-efficient chip, the battery was still at 78% after not charging for three nights.
• There's a real idle-drain issue — 20 minutes of light morning use can drop 5–6%, and it persists even with extra-dim settings enabled.

Honor Magic V6

MagicOS 10 on Android 16 with a strong 7-year update promise and capable AI, but Honor's good ideas remain built around niche interactions and the imported Chinese ROM adds friction.

• Runs Android 16 with MagicOS 10 and a 7-year update commitment; the global version restores the Google home page and Honor AI.
• Owning a Chinese-ROM unit means real friction versus a global version — a key consideration since global availability is limited.
• MagicOS feels near-identical to Huawei's EMUI down to the icons — familiar to some, derivative to others.
• Honor's good software ideas are based on niche interactions — the only thing that takes the experience down a notch.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

HyperOS (now on the Android 16 / HyperOS 3 track) is the phone's most criticized aspect: it heavily mimics iOS, ships with quirks you must tweak, and carries small persistent bugs — though it adds genuinely useful touches like a Super Island and AI features, and Xiaomi has improved it via updates.

• Out of the box it gives a really iPhone-like feel and you have to go in and change things before it behaves how you want.
• Long-standing requests are still ignored — no combined notification/control center, removed options like front-camera switching while recording video, and the dropped variable aperture.
• HyperOS adds a useful Super Island (tap to expand or switch to a floating window) and direct drag-and-drop into chats, with OS 3 refining the control center.
• Xiaomi's animations are nearly iOS-level and arguably better than stock Android, but the software is still seen as subpar for the Western market.
• Xiaomi now offers a longer software-update commitment (reported up to 6 years) — a meaningful improvement for long-term buyers.
• HyperOS contained a lot of small bugs and one user's battery health dropped to 70% in two years of light use before they switched to Samsung.

Honor Magic V6

It out-specs the Galaxy Z Fold 7 on nearly every axis, but it's expensive and hard to buy officially in the West — value depends heavily on import pricing and config.

• Those who value long battery life, ultra-thin design and maximum durability will find the Magic V6 the more appealing option versus the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
• The base version starts at ¥8,999 in China — roughly £973 / ~$1,309 — with top configs far higher; pricing is expected to be expensive like the £1,699 V5.
• The Magic V6 beats Samsung to one of the most-requested foldable features.
• If the pricing works for you, the Magic V6 is absolutely worth considering.
• The Chinese version is typically about 20% cheaper than the global version.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

Roughly $893 in China and ~$1,220+ imported globally, it undercuts the Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone while comfortably winning the camera comparison. The catch is it's an import with no official US presence — a phone you 'probably can't buy' but the camera benchmark to beat.

• It launched at 6,499 yuan (around $893) in China; Xiaomi's Ultra line has always been more camera-centric than Samsung or Apple's top models.
• It combines top-tier hardware, excellent cameras and strong performance at a more competitive price point than its rivals.
• The Xiaomi wins the camera part comfortably, but the Galaxy S25 Ultra may be the better all-rounder — a 'maybe' that hangs on whether the S Pen matters to you.
• It's 'an excellent phone you probably can't buy' — one of the best devices that simply isn't officially sold in the US.
• The camera is absolutely phenomenal, but everything else about it sort of falls short for some owners coming from a Pixel.