HONOR Magic V6 - Hard to Break. Even Harder to Beat

So if you haven't heard, HONOR has just teamed up with One NZ as its first New Zealand telco partner. 

This is fantastic news.

I mean, it's fantastic news for HONOR and for One NZ - but it's really fantastic news for you because the deals they're doing on HONOR's latest and greatest handsets are pretty juicy.

You may have been tempted to dip your toe into the world of foldable phones before now but been put off by some of the rather steep price-tags on such devices.

Well, now's the time to snag yourself one of the most beautifully finished foldables I've come across yet.

As is often the way from one year to the next, outwardly, the HONOR Magic V6 doesn't seem like a wild departure from 2025's Magic V5, which in itself, is no bad thing.

The V5 was (and still is) an astounding feat of engineering, living up to some unprecedented claims around durability and performance I hadn't seen from other folding phones at that time.

But a year is a long time in tech and if you want to stay ahead of the competition, you have to keep innovating, refining.

Although HONOR is less than a year old in New Zealand, the brand hasn't become one of the smartphone world's most successful by standing still.

I could sense something exciting was happening as I unboxed the Magic V6, although, I'm not going to lie - I was a little disappointed my review unit was black and not the red-with-gold-trim version I'd seen in all the PR shots. It comes in white as well and I have to admit, even the "boring" black model is quite striking with its iridescent, yet remarkably fingerprint-proof rear panel and distinctive, octagonal camera module.

There's also a matching snap-on case included in the box, with a matte, leather-feel surface and a flip-down stand that folds flush around the camera housing when not in use to protect it. It's a cunning yet simple design that means you can easily prop up the Magic V6 when streaming video or perhaps participating in a video chat.

The case is also slim - which is essential as the phone itself is also incredibly thin - just a whisker over 4mm when open. This makes it just barely thick enough to accommodate its USB-C charging port for fast wired charging at up to 80W. However, given the Magic V6 is capable of charging wirelessly at a phenomenal 66W, surely it's only a matter of time before HONOR gets rid of that pesky port altogether so they make the phone even thinner.

As a result, you'd think the Magic V6 would feel somewhat fragile. I mean, yes, you want this phone to bend - but only down the middle, right? Well, the complete opposite is true. There's nothing flimsy about this handset, folded or unfolded.

The outer 6.52-inch display is protected by HONOR's anti-scratch "NanoCrystal" shield. The inner 7.95-inch screen uses a layer of reinforced UTG (Ultra-Thin Glass) that's so tough, it's been tested to withstand over 500,000 folds. The Magic V6 has a 5-star SGS drop resistance and screen anti-impact rating but most significantly of all, it carries the IP68 and IP69 water and dust resistance certifications. I've never seen a foldable you can literally drop in the sink before. Well - not one you can leave in there for 30 minutes, then come back, fish it out and still expect it to be in working order.

This heralds an exciting new age for foldables. There have always been two key factors that would be major disincentives to spending the thousands being asked for a phone like this - from day one, durability has been a big concern and now it seems like the Magic V6 can stack up against pretty much any other flagship phone in the "I'm so tough, how tough are you?" department.

The second thing that puts a lot of people off is camera quality. Why would a power user spend over three grand on a phone that can't take the pictures a non-bendy flagship can?

It's certainly a weird compromise I've never understood. Well, today I have something very interesting to show you.

The trail of condensation left behind a jet plane flying at very high altitude, on a brilliantly fine winter's day. Ever wanted a closer look?...

So, there's the plane and what do you know? Not one contrail but two. Quite spectacular results at 100x zoom from the 64MP periscope telephoto lens. This has been teamed up with a 50MP wide primary shooter and a 50MP ultra-wide sensor to finally give users the true, flagship-level photography someone shelling out in this price-range deserves.

By the time you add the processing power of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Mobile Platform chip and a truckload of onboard AI smarts, it's actually quite difficult to take a bad photo with this phone.

That applies to video as well, of course. You'll see me doing a bit of that out and about in the demo-vid below, as I shoot from both the primary camera and one of the two 20MP "front-facing" selfie-cams - although I can't remember which one; on the outer or inner screen? So many cameras.

And the great thing about the AI the Magic V6 has to offer is that it's there if you need it but easy enough to ignore if you don't. Beauty and bokeh settings for portraits aren't compulsory - but they're only the press of an on-screen icon away.

Then there are tools, as a very amateur photographer, I'd never even consider using to adjust lighting and exposure to get the most out of your shot - either as you take it or to edit it with after. This is a shot I snapped of my long-suffering best friend from across the room. As I lined it up, the Magic V6 gave me the option to enhance the lighting and clarity to mitigate the distance. I said, "Sure." I was only taking the picture as proof of life to send to Domestic Manager who was out while I was dog-sitting. She must have then shown the photo around because the next message back was, "Everyone wants to know what kind of phone this was taken with."

And of course, the cool thing about a phone like this, is you can show off your pretty puppy pics in all their glory, on that nice, big internal screen. Very nice, in fact; it can get wickedly bright - achieving 5000nits of peak brightness, with the outer display going up to 6000nits. And because HONOR has used something it calls 5600 Silicon Nitride Coating, both screens are unbelievably reflection-resistant, even in bright sunshine, reflecting just 1.5% of light. You can also use a stylus on either display, which will be music to any power user's ears.

I can't find a single reason not to love this phone. The challenge HONOR faces, given it hasn't even been in New Zealand a year yet, is convincing those power users a phone like the Magic V6 can genuinely stack up against other, more established brands. What I'm telling you today is not only does it stack up against other foldables, because of significant upgrades in durability and camera technology, it out-performs many other non-folding flagships too. Don't believe me? Get down to a One NZ store and try it out for yourself. I'm 100% confident you'll be as impressed as me.

    

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the HONOR Magic V6.