Honor Magic V5: New foldable falls short of weight claims in early review video
Honor is still a few days away from officially presenting the Magic V5 in China. Nonetheless, the company continues to showcase its latest foldable in various ways with a persistent focus on comparing it against the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7. In short, Honor is teeing up the Magic V5 as the world's thinnest and lightest book-style foldable.
As we have discussed separately, this is only true when excluding the device's huge camera housing. Ultimately, no smartphone manufacturer includes camera protrusions in their official measurements. A Magic V5 review video published on YouTube by Techtacle suggests that Honor is playing games again with its weight claims too.
For context, the Magic V5 must undercut the X Fold3 and X Fold5 to become the world's lightest smartphone. Officially, the X Fold3 comes in at 219 g; Vivo has only revealed that the X Fold5 is lighter than its predecessor. Thus, there have been suggestions that the Magic V5 will come in at around 217 g.
Conversely, Techtacle demonstrates that the Magic V5 weighs 224.3 g fresh out of the box. Unlike the Galaxy Z Fold6 or Pixel 9 Pro Fold (curr. $1,289.99 - refurbished on Amazon), the Magic V5 comes with a cover display screen protector pre-installed. This should only add a gram or two, though.
Consequently, we suspect that the Magic V5's foldable display protector accounts for most if not all of the remaining weight disparity. However, all manufacturers warn against removing this inner screen protector for fear of damage or warranty exclusions. As a result, this protection should be included in a device's overall official weight.
Honor is not alone in this regard. As far as we can tell, only Google has been honest about a foldable's weight in the past. Regardless, Honor's claims of the Magic V5 being sub-220 g seem rather hollow at this point.
