Why Galaxy Z Fold7 BEATS Honor Magic V5 | Review
Here are the top 3 reasons why the Galaxy Z Fold7 is better than the Honor Magic V5. Lots have already been said about how they compare in terms of specs and features, but I’m speaking from perspective which may not have been covered by most other tech reviewers.
For example, the audio quality from the speakers. And to bring some balance to this video, I’m also going to highlight why the Magic V5’s better than the Samsung, and it’s not because it’s thinner, because despite what they claim, it’s actually not.
Reason 1: Form factor
It turns out that Honor was using their own measurement system which excluded the screen protector, and the measurement was done at the bevels. In fact, if I press a perfectly straight scale ruler on the surface of both phones, we can see clearly that whether it’s folded or unfolded, or measured from the camera bump, there’s a gap on the Z Fold7, meaning the Magic V5 is thicker.
(Editor’s note: Honor has said that only the white version of the V5 is 8.8mm thin, and they’ve not counted the front and inside screen protectors in the overall thickness. However it is worth noting that they have not provided the thickness of the actual product delivered to customers. And it is clear that most V5s delivered to customers would be markedly thicker than the Z Fold 7.)
Realistically speaking, they’re almost identical in thickness that if you put them in your pocket, they’re not going to feel any different from regular phones. But if you were to ask me which of these foldables feel better design-wise, I’ll go with the Z Fold 7.
The slate design of the Samsung feels more solid, it also grips better in my hand, and there’s less of a crease on the folding screen, as in, it’s not as deep and obvious as the Honor. What I can say in favor of the Honor is that its camera bump is in the middle so, in its folded state, there’s less wobble on the table. But that aside, the Z Fold7 feels a little nicer, and that was the first reason I prefer it to the Honor.
Reason 1: Sound Quality
The second reason is that the Samsung sounds better. Well, you can’t really expect much from phone speakers to begin with, but the one area which I appreciate more on the Z Fold7 is that it sounds less boxy, and more smooth. The Magic V5 has more emphasis on the mids so it’s a bit louder, but there’s a boxiness to the vocals, and track separation is a little less clean. So the Samsung sounds less tinny, and more smooth compared to Honor’s speakers.
👉 Have a listen to the sound quality samples
Speaker placement is also different. It may or may not be better depending on how you look at it. On the Samsung, both speakers are only on one side of the fold. So if you’ve just opened it to watch something, the audio is only going to come from one side, unless you rotate the phone 90 degrees.
Honor’s approach is to place the speakers in a diagonal setup, so whichever way the screen is facing, the audio is coming from both sides so there’s proper centering of the sound. However, since the speakers are diagonal, you cannot get a decent spatial effect for gaming or watching videos, which the Samsung can deliver, provided you rotate the screen 90 degrees with both speakers on top, not being blocked by your hands.
EQ Settings
On the Samsung, you can also customize how the speakers sound, like add spatial audio effects with Dolby Atmos, and even use EQ presets or a graphic EQ. These are universal settings which also work on headphones and earbuds. The Magic V5 also has similar settings, called Honor Spatial and Honor Stereo, even with its own custom EQ, but it only works for headphones and earbuds, not the speakers. If you’re wondering about codecs, both phones only support the usual SBC, AAC and LDAC codecs.
Reason 3: AI Magic Eraser
And 3rd why I prefer the Z Fold 7 is its better Magic Eraser. The question is, is the AI able to understand what I want to cut, and how to fill in the blanks so that it looks natural and realistic. To test this, I use the face covering method. Can the Honor’s AI Magic Eraser simply remove my arm from the picture? Apparently not.
It can only cut out the whole person from the picture. Whereas the Samsung had no problem understanding that I want to remove the arm only and fill in the blanks. In fact, it did a great job patching in my face also. Is it because the Magic V5 can’t do it well, so Honor simply restricts this to hide the fact, or for some other reason? Whatever the case, Magic Eraser is simply better on the Z Fold7.
But there are some ways the Magic V5 outshines the Samsung. First, the camera.
Why Honor Magic V5 is better: Camera
It doesn’t have a 200MP main camera like the Samsung, but for people who don’t need to shoot for large format posters, that’s not really an issue. Instead, what they do need is something versatile, and that’s why I like the Honor’s camera.
All 3 rear cameras are 50MP and above, so even when shooting ultrawide or using the optical telephoto, the detail level is more consistent with the main camera. The difference is very obvious when shooting with the telephoto, because the Z Fold7 isn’t capturing as much detail, and at similar digital crop levels of zoom, the difference is pretty clear.
At the Samsung’s max 30x, the Honor has cleaner picture. And you can go even further in with the Honor, up to 100x digital crop. I don’t recommend shooting at 100x because even for the Honor it looks terrible, but what the extra range gives you is more flexibility with less of a sacrifice in terms of resolution.
This does apply to shooting videos too. The Honor’s camera shoots cleaner looking videos at all focal lengths, with comparable stabilization to the Samsung. The thing that Samsung does better is that it can reach in a bit further when shooting videos, at 12x vs 10x digital crop, and pictures are more natural looking, with the blacks looking closer to what I’m seeing with my eyes. But Honor’s camera can capture more detail in the ultrawide and telephoto ranges.
👉 Have a look at the video samples
Reason 2: Battery
The Magic V5 is about the same thinness as the Samsung, but it’s got more juice in the tank, and can charge faster because it uses silicon-carbon batteries. If you use Honor’s included supercharge power brick it can go as fast as 66W, or 50W with Honor’s Supercharge Wireless charger. The max the Samsung can do is 25W wired and 15W wireless. Still fast, but not rapid-juicing-up-from-zero-to-full-in-half-an-hour fast. The fact that the Honor is so thin in spite of that is pretty mindblowing.
Reason 3: Value for Money
And third, value. The Magic V5 is priced lower, but is comparable to the Samsung AND includes accessories like its Supercharge power brick in the box, and a soft case. For those of you who preordered it in Singapore, you got an even sweeter deal like a free Magic Pen and the Honor Pad 10 tablet. (Wow… Slow clap) But even without the preorder deal, it beats getting no powerbrick or case, but still paying more like the Z Fold 7.
Verdict
So that’s how the Z Fold7 compares to the Honor Magic V5. Personally, I dig Samsung more for the form factor and the sound features, but the Honor takes the cake when it comes to camera and battery. But what do you think?
Check latest price:
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 - https://amzn.to/4fdIOm0
Honor Magic V5 - Amazon Link TBA
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