Honor Magic V6 beats Galaxy Z Fold 7 not by being thin, but with a 6,660 mAh battery [Gallery]

Ben Schoon | Mar 1 2026 - 5:00 am PT

The Honor Magic V6 has arrived and, rather continuing to be obsessed with a thinner device, Honor took a new route in focusing in on a massive battery, because you’d never guess that this phone is nearing 7,000 mAh.

At first glance, the Honor Magic V6 looks a lot like the Magic V5 we just reviewed a few months ago. The core design is just about the same, as is the bulk of the spec sheet. There’s a 7.95-inch inner display, a slightly bigger 6.52-inch outer display, and a familiar 50MP + 64MP telephoto + 50MP ultra-wide camera setup. There’s, of course, the upgrade to the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and also some other expected hardware improvements such as the jump to IP68/69 – just beating out Google’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

But what really stood out to me was the simple fact that Honor Magic V6 isn’t chasing for the thinnest possible design anymore.

The Magic V5 had already lost ground in that department, measuring 9mm while watching Samsung take the crown with its Galaxy Z Fold 7. Honor Magic V6, the company says, measures in at 9mm for its red, black, and gold color variants, with the white option apparently being 8.7mm when folded. That’s not at all “losing” the battle for thin foldables, but Honor clearly wasn’t chasing major improvements this time around. And rightly so! I love foldables and the thin form factor was a major reason I bought the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but I am very much of the opinion that most foldables are thin enough now. The race is over, and everyone won.

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But where Honor didn’t push the envelope on making the phone thinner, it did take advantage of every last bit of that space by packing an absolutely massive battery inside.

6,660 mAh.

That’s the battery capacity of the Magic V6. In a world where a ton of flagship smartphones are still barely getting over 5,000 mAh, incredible. And compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s measly 4,400 mAh battery, Honor is basically pointing and laughing. That added size, of course, comes from the use of a silicon-carbon battery and it supports up to 80W fast charging, while also supporting wireless charging too.

And the battery life is predictably great. Honor Magic V6 easily powers a full day of use with no stress, which is something I’ve rarely enjoyed with book-style foldables. Of course, there are diminishing returns here given that the Magic V5 last year already had a 5,800+ mAh battery inside, but this is still a notable increase. Depending on how you use the phone, based on my very limited usage thus far (on early software), I could easily see a lot of people squeezing two days of use before needing to charge, but it’s too early to tell – this isn’t a full review, after all.

Circling back to the hardware, it really is impressive that Honor is able to manage this sort of battery capacity, and battery life, from such a thin chassis.

And a gorgeous one at that.

The red & gold colorway I’ve been using is truly stunning in person, with the faux suede leather on the back hitting that perfect level of grip.

As for the displays, Honor has been teasing this device as crease-less. Put simply, it’s not. The inner display has a crease, as every foldable today does, but it’s certainly very close to being invisible – the company specifically claims a 44% reduction in the crease.

But there are more meaningful improvements beyond that.

The inner display is now even less reflective, while a new structure for the inner display layer is supposedly more impact-resistant and overall durable. The outer display also g ets some improvements to durability with a “silicon nitride–based NanoCrystal Shield glass with up to 5,600 ultra-precise coating layers” also featuring some anti-reflective properties. Honor’s stylus works inside and out, too, and you’ll get the usual benefits of an Honor smartphone display such as 4320 Hz PWM dimming and other eye comfort tweaks.

On the software side, Honor Magic V6 ships with MagicOS 10, based on Android 16. I’m personally not a fan of all of the shoehorned-in Liquid Glass mimickry, but Honor is really trying to appeal to Apple’s ecosystem with new sharing tools that can transfer files to iPhone or Mac wirelessly (requiring an app download on the Apple product). Magic V6 can also act as a second display for a Mac, and you can mirror notifications from Honor’s phone over to an Apple Watch.

The Honor Magic V6 will be launching later this month, starting in China, with a global release over the course of the second half of 2026, “subject to each market’s timeline,” Honor says.

Other announcements at MWC 2026 for Honor include the company’s new MagicPad V4, a 12.3-inch Android tablet that takes the record for thinnest slate at just 4.8mm. The tablet is available for pre-order in the UK starting at £499.99 today, while it will be €599.99 in Europe.