On the hunt for a foldable with the best camera, thinnest design or longest update guarantee? Allow me to reveal which handsets have the edge in these key areas.
If you want to get the benefit of a foldable’s form factor so that you’ve got a large screen available to you when needed, your options are few and far between right now. In this comparison, I put three top handsets through their paces: the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, the Honor Magic V5 and the Google Pixel 10 Pro.
Design and display: lightweight Samsung comes out on top
Google: 💚💚💚 Honor: 💛💛💛 Samsung: 🩵🩵🩵🩵
Our three contenders vary significantly when it comes to their design. Instead of hard edges, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold boasts a rounded design that fits comfortably in your hand. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the Magic V5 are narrower, making them easier to use with one hand when folded shut. Overall, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the Magic V5 are significantly thinner (around 9 millimetres) and lighter (around 220 grammes) than Google’s foldable (260 grammes, 10.8 millimetres). Incidentally, Samsung’s sacrificed stylus compatibility to make its foldable so slim. This means Honor’s phone is the only one that can officially be paired with a stylus that does more than just substitute a fingertip.
From left to right: Google, Honor and Samsung
There’s a downside to the Honor Magic V5’s noticeably large camera module. When the phone’s unfolded, it wobbles violently when you put it down. So although it wins as the thinnest foldable, you definitely feel the cameras’ impact. If you set down all the phones on a flat surface, the Pixel is the most stable.
All three handsets are kitted out with top-of-the-line OLED displays, with a refresh rate of up to 120 hertz. There are only minor differences between the three models, regardless of whether you consider the internal or external screens. They all achieve a similar typical brightness of 1,800 nits. When it comes to peak brightness, Honor’s foldable, coming in at 5,000 nits, beats Google’s and Samsung’s, which only reach 3,000 and 2,600 nits respectively.
Watching a video on the displays: the Honor handset (middle) boasts the darkest black, but Google’s (left) and Samsung’s (right) foldables are very good too.
Hinge and fold: always a trade-off
Google: 💚💚💚 Honor: 💛💛💛💛 Samsung: 🩵🩵🩵
All three manufacturers have done a stellar job with the hinges. The fold’s most clearly visible on the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold because of the way it’s designed. On the flipside, its IP68 certification means it boasts the best dust and water protection of the three phones.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7’s U-shaped hinge is a significant upgrade on its predecessor. Although the fold’s still visible, it’s only a very minor nuisance during day-to-day use. Plus, it’s IP48-certified. In other words, it’ll survive 30 minutes of submersion in 1.5 metres of fresh water. Just be careful it doesn’t come into contact with solid foreign bodies measuring less than one millimetre in diameter.
Watertight or not, these hinges are little masterpieces.
The Honor Magic V5 sports a waterdrop hinge. As a result, it has the least visible fold of any handset in this comparison when open – and it’s super thin. What’s more, it boasts an IP58 certification, meaning it’s as well protected against water as the Samsung phone. It’s also better at staving off dust particles.
Evidently, the manufacturers have had to make trade-offs between design and stability and protection.
The hinge dilemma: Google’s foldable (left) is waterproof, but has the most visible fold. Honor’s mid-range device has the darkest display and the most discreet fold, but it isn’t waterproof.
Cameras: from high-quality lenses to AI
Google: 🔌🔌🔌🔌🔌 Honor: 💛💛💛💛 Samsung: 🩵🩵🩵
Equipped with a 200 MP main camera, the Samsung foldable is the clear winner on resolution. The standard settings reduce that resolution to 12 megapixels as a result of pixel binning. This supposedly improves the quality of photos taken in poor lighting.
Some of the cameras are quite bulky, but the results pack a punch.
The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s resolution is strikingly modest. Its lenses are combined with AI-supported post-processing, sometimes creating good results. The Honor Magic V5’s setup strikes the best balance.
Here are the lens specs for all the foldables:
Without any special settings enabled, I’m most impressed with the Google Pixel Fold’s main camera. It offers the most natural colour rendering, producing photos that are neither yellowish nor over-sharpened. The Samsung Galaxy Fold’s photos look as if there’s a fine mist over them, appearing blurry towards the corners. While the Honor Magic V5’s snaps look nice at first glance, they’re overly sharp. In some areas, they’re also overexposed.
The Google handset gives you that golden middle ground.
All of our contenders’ ultra-wide-angle cameras produce decent photos. I’d say Google’s foldable strikes the best balance, but Samsung’s model is similarly good. While the Honor phone’s ultra-wide-angle camera also takes cool photos, they again have some overexposed areas.
All of the foldables’ wide-angle cameras impress me.
While the Pixel Fold’s telephoto camera boasts five times the focal length of the main camera, the Galaxy Fold and Magic V only offer a 3x zoom. In my hands-on comparison, Honor’s 3x zoom comes out on top, allowing for the richest range of details. Google’s foldable comes in a hair’s breadth behind it. The Samsung phone’s telephoto camera, on the other hand, trails way behind its rivals. Google and Honor have thrown in a little gimmick in the form of a 100x digital zoom. Though astoundingly useful as binoculars, the feature isn’t necessarily good for taking high-quality snaps.
Honor’s foldable has the best 3x zoom.
When testing the phones’ selfie cameras, I limit my focus to portrait mode. All three foldables have minor issues with this, as the digital bokeh doesn’t cut out my hair properly. Honor’s phone delivers by far the worst result, completely misrepresenting the background. However, I do think it does a really good job of rendering colours. Meanwhile, selfies taken by Samsung’s foldable have a fine mist over them. All in all, Google’s phone takes the coolest shots.
The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold would be my go-to for consistently good selfies.
The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold takes the best nighttime shots, complete with natural-looking colours and crisp details. Samsung’s foldable is the worst nighttime performer, delivering blurred, overexposed snaps. The Honor model’s night photos are fine, but sometimes too dark to make out enough details.
Google’s main camera would be my number one for nighttime photography.
Overall, Google’s the front-runner across all camera specs, with the Pixel 10 Pro Fold delivering consistently good results. Samsung and Honor, on the other hand, fall short in a few areas.
Battery: Honor’s foldable is fast and long-lasting
Google: 💚💚💚💚 Honor: 🔌🔌🔌🔌🔌 Samsung: 🩵🩵🩵
The Honor Magic V5 features the largest battery (5,820 mAh) and supports the fastest charging speed (66 watts). The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold takes the middle spot when it comes to power storage, containing a 4,700-mAh battery with only 30 watts. Meanwhile, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 has a 4,400-mAh battery and 45 watts.
Battery life is a much more important metric than battery size. The Pixel and the Honor are ahead in this regard, with their batteries each lasting 15 hours. Samsung’s foldable, on the other hand, only manages to hold out for just under 12 hours. When all’s said and done, all of the foldables in our comparison last long enough to get you through the day.
As far as charging goes, Honor’s foldable is the clear winner. It only takes 46 minutes to fully charge. Giving the Google and Samsung foldables a power boost takes twice as long, with each model requiring 90 minutes of charging time. All of the phones support wireless charging. The Honor handset charges wirelessly at up to 50 watts with the right charger. Now that Google’s foldable has been equipped with the Qi2 standard, it charges at up to 15 watts. Samsung’s model features the regular 7.5-watt Qi standard.
Chip and other hardware: Qualcomm has the edge
Google: 💚💚💚 Honor: 💛💛💛💛 Samsung: 🩵🩵🩵🩵
Samsung’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chip has a computing core that clocks higher than the regular version. Although it delivers great results in benchmarks (Geekbench 6), it isn’t noticeably better or worse than its competitors in day-to-day use.
The Honor Magic V5 is kitted out with the regular Snapdragon 8 Elite, achieving similar results to Samsung’s foldable in benchmark tests. That being said, you do need to go out of your way to turn on performance mode in the battery settings to get that result.
The Pixel 10 Pro Fold features Google’s Tensor G5, a chip heavily geared towards AI functions. While it may not offer first-class performance in graphics benchmarks, it’s impressive when it comes to AI tasks such as live translation, image editing and smart assistance.
Software: Google’s foldable is the most up-to-date
Google: 🔌🔌🔌🔌🔌 Honor: 💛💛💛 Samsung: 🩵🩵🩵🩵
The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s software is the closest to a «pure» version of Android 16 – and gets the latest features first. Many apps have now also been adapted to the foldable display’s form factor, a rarity in the days of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7’s also equipped with Android 16, but comes with Samsung’s One UI. This user interface provides a variety of multitasking and ecosystem functions (DeX) that are well suited to the display when unfolded to its full size.
Many apps are tailored to foldables, allowing you to do things like play games on a split screen.
With Android 15, the Honor Magic V5 is lagging behind its rivals. Combining this with the MagicOS 9 UI, however, has given the device more features in recent years. Compared to Google and Samsung’s handsets, the software on the Magic V5 is less established. It initially seems really cluttered, with a bunch of pre-installed apps on the home screen.
All three foldables come with commendable software support guarantees. In fact, each one gets seven years of software and security updates.
Each device has its own UI. The Honor foldable’s interface (middle) looks overloaded compared to Google’s (left) and Samsung’s (right).
As far as AI features go, Google’s are the most wide-ranging – and developed in-house at that. This means the Pixel 10 Pro Fold covers an extremely wide range of applications, from the Gemini assistant to live translations to photo editing.
Samsung’s decision to combine Google’s AI functions with its own Galaxy AI has given its foldable plenty of features too. Plus, the AI functions are now more subtly integrated into the device’s ecosystem.
With its new Magic AI, Honor’s mostly focused on energy management and performance optimisation. The AI also provides context-related suggestions, such as the most frequently used apps on the home screen.
Since each handset has its own UI, rating this category is very much a question of personal taste. I, for one, like Google’s really tidy, stripped-back design. It’ll also be the first of the foldables to receive new Android updates. With this in mind, it deserves an extra heart.
Final scores and verdict: make sure you define your priorities
Total scores: Google: 23/30💚 Honor: 23/30💚 Samsung: 21/30🩵
Regardless of which foldable you go for, you’ll have to make trade-offs. Honor and Google’s handsets have come out neck and neck in my evaluation. Even so, the Honor Magic V5 clearly falls short in some areas. Apart from being slightly bulky, the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold doesn’t have any serious weaknesses. With this in mind, it’s all a question of priorities.
Choose the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold if you’re looking for the smartest software. This is especially true for photography – just think of that unbeatable digital zoom. IP68 certification also gives the foldable the best protection during day-to-day use. Plus, it’s good for long days, with a battery life of around 15 hours.
If design and fast charging are high on your priority list, go for the Honor Magic V5. It’s the clear winner when it comes to slimness, weight and charging performance. It also takes cool photos, though you’ll have to stomach its hefty camera bump if you want the benefit of that.
If you’d rather have a thin foldable without a massive camera bump, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7’s your best bet. It provides a whole host of integrated AI features to boot. Just bear in mind that you’ll have to be stingier with your battery consumption.
In my world, Super Mario chases Stormtroopers with a unicorn and Harley Quinn mixes cocktails for Eddie and Peter at the beach bar. Wherever I can live out my creativity, my fingers tingle. Or maybe it's because nothing flows through my veins but chocolate, glitter and coffee.
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