How The Honor Magic V5 Will Deliver Profit, Growth And A Foldable Revolution

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Honro Magic V5

Ewan Spence

During today’s launch event in London, Honor released the Honor Magic V5 into the global market. This follows a Chinese launch on July 2, so there are no huge surprises in the foldable’s hardware or specifications. While there are tweaks to the software — such as the inclusion of Google Play support for Western markets — the Magic V5 has arrived with the thin body and thick camera leading the discussion.

The Magic V5 is a halo device, showing off Honor’s engineering and design prowess. Its visibility will no doubt tempt consumers to look at the more traditional candybars such as the current Honor 400 and Honor Magic7. However, the Magic V5 has another, more strategic role to play.

It’s the smartphone that will build on Honor’s growing leadership in Europe and the United Kingdom.

The Honor Magic V5 Defines The New Market

The foldables market in Europe is relatively small — you won’t see the sort of sales numbers put up by popular models like the Galaxy A and vanilla iPhone — but it is growing. The technology behind foildables is evolving rapidly (such as the recent upgrading of IP protection across many ranges). As the hardware matures, shipments are expected to grow year on year.

On top of the rising numbers, the market share of foldables in the premium device space is projected to grow, potentially reaching ten percent of phones priced over €600 in the next three years. Honor is already one of the major players with the Magic V range, and as the space becomes more relevant, Honor has the opportunity to shape the market to its own benefit.

The Honor Magic V5 Competition

It’s at this point that Samsung enters the conversation. Actually, for a long time in Europe, Samsung was the only part of the conversation. The launch of the Galaxy Fold in 2019 set the tone for the global foldables market. The next few years of iteration from the South Korean company were performed with little competitive challenge. Three years later, Samsung’s market share in the larger ’ book-style’ foldables market, the space consumers generally regard as the foldables space, was a dominating 98 percent.

Last year, Samsung’s share dropped under 50 percent, even though it grew its own foldable sales by ten percent. The market is growing faster than a single manufacturer can deliver. That leaves space for a challenger. With the combined sales of the Magic V2 and V3, Honor captured 34 percent of the market.

There are other players in the market; Google has the Pixel 10 Pro Fold on the way, with last year’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold taking nine percent. The likes of Oppo, Motorola, and Tecno are in play, but there are only two thoroughbreds in play: Samsung and Honor. The market share indicates that, and media coverage leading up to the launch emphasises the head-to-head nature of the Z Fold7 and the Magic V5 to consumers.

The Honor Magic V5 Finds Room To Grow

One of the earliest decisions made by Honor that has helped this growth was the decision to not only have a strong direct-to-customer offering on its website, but also to build up strong relations with carriers, such as O2 in the United Kingdom, that would distribute the phones across the continent in retail stores. Even if a customer were not buying an Honor device, they would be prominent and help build brand recognition.

One of Samsung’s strengths is that it has effectively been a presence in the smartphone space for a long time and is a trusted name. When you are spending upwards of €2,000 you want to have confidence in who you are buying from. That remains one of Honor’s most significant weaknesses, ‘who are you and what are you going to be doing?’

The retail presence helps with the former. As for the latter, Honor laid out its “Alpha Plan” in the first quarter of the year ahead at Mobile World Conference. This was a five-year plan to transition the company from “phones” to “intelligent phones,” involving significant investment in AI for its entire hardware platform. A roadmap this detailed is again a push towards longevity and finding a market that is confident that Honor will always be there.

The Honor Magic V5 In Europe’s Two-Horse Race

These macro effects are influenced by smaller events, which ultimately lead back to the Magic V5. Sure, it’s another phone, and a foldable one at that, but it is a phone that stands out and begs to be compared to the single biggest rival: Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold7.

In the core hardware, there’s not a tremendous amount of difference between the two. The battle to be the thinnest phone is measured in fractions of a millimetre, where even the choice of paint finish impacts the results. Both companies need to promote their solutions as the best options to maintain their market lead and demonstrate that their chosen direction is the most beneficial for the market.

That’s likely the drive behind Samsung’s sudden interest in bringing the best camera possible to the Z Fold 7 — earlier models have been a step or two behind the Galaxy S Ultra models. It’s why you see Honor lean into longer battery life with fast charge capabilities on the Magic V5. The slim advantages are seized on by both and magnified to lure consumers to their handsets,

I’d much rather this approach than a single leading manufacturer producing marginal gains each year in the foldable space. Arguably, Honor has made Samsung’s Galaxy Z series more relevant than Samsung could have managed on its own. The Magics and the Folds will drive each other to new heights, and as such, the competitive market will bring in more users.

What they both bring next will grow the foldable market for the benefit of all.

Honor Magic V5 Looks To The Future

If we look further ahead, two key moments are approaching. The first will be when one of the top-tier foldables ducks below the psychological €999 price point. The second will be the introduction of an iPhone Fold from Apple. Combined, these will be the final signal that foldables are ready for significant expansion into the general consumer market. That’s the point when the market will be “locked in” to a vision of what it means to be a foldable.

Honor is pushing forward to be the defining smartphone when that moment arrives. And right now, the Magic V5 is leading the charge.

Now read more about Honor’s quest to make the Honor Magic V5 the thinnest foldable possible…