Folding phones are dominating CES 2026, largely thanks to Motorola's first ever side-folding smartphone, the Razr Fold. It has a 6.56 inch external display that turns into an 8 inch, 2K internal screen. And it looks beautiful!
It's the latest in a clutch of new foldable phones to hit the market, and as someone who's been using the Honor Magic V5 foldable phone for the last few months, I can tell you, the hype is real, and well justified.
4 things I love about my foldable phone
The first thing I love about the Honor Magic V5 is it that it is a great tablet and phone combo. 'No duh!' I hear you say. Well, that's obviously how it's meant to be used, but there are a lot of products that are meant to be used one way, that just don't cut the mustard.
After using the V5 as my only phone for three months, it's also dominated my tablet use time. I have an iPad Air (M3), which I think is the best iPad that's been made, and yet I found the V5 encroaching in on my normal iPad time. It's definitely what I use for commutes to work (though mobile gaming is still an iPad Air affair only).
I also only use the Air for watching films, for that bigger screen. But I’ve found myself using the V5 for YouTube watching (my main online vice), and it’s also great for using Maps when out and about, as you can see so much more on screen than on a rectangle phone, and looking at and editing photos (for the same reason).
The second thing I love is the Honor Magic V5 is incredibly easy to customise. From changing how the display clock looks to altering the size and shape of the app icons, there are loads of possibilities to customise this thing. As a life-long Apple iPhone user, I just didn’t know that this was a thing.
Thirdly, by using a foldable phone you're constantly reminded that you are using a cutting edge bit of kit, and that’s something I haven’t felt with my iPhones for a long time… since getting the iPhone X back in 2017. This is a recent tech innovation, and it's exciting to use. That's a great feeling.
And fourth, it comes with a case/stand combo – for free! This may seem trivial, but it makes the user experience so much easier and effortless from the get go. There's ease of mind as the phone is protected at all times (though it really feels fantastically thin when out of the case) and I can use the phone with the built in stand as an extra display, propped up on my desk, or on a train table when I’m commuting.
Apple: take note!
The 1 thing I hate about it...
Now the one thing that I genuinely hate about the Honor Magic V5 is the camera.
Not the camera as a whole, rather a part of the camera that affects all your photos and cannot be switched off. I hate the smoothing effect that gets applied to all my photos (of people and things) whether I want it to or not (and I really don't).
There are plenty of things to like about the V5's camera. But this one thing ruins the experience.
Only after a month or two using it (and the sporadic Google search) I realised that I can reduce it by choosing 'Pro' option, as opposed to the default 'Photo'.
But that's to reduce the smoothing, not disable it. And for £1,400, this is an unforgivable oversight from Honor.
So there you have it. If you want a new phone and a new tablet, especially for streaming, getting a foldable phone is a great idea.
But if you're going to use it for photos (and who doesn't?!) then look into whether it also applies unwanted smoothing effects to your pics.
If I were to buy this cameraphone again, and I knew about the smoothing, I might have waited until the new Motorola Razr Fold.
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