‘Massive’ investment in R&D leads China’s Honor to launch world’s thinnest foldable phone

The thinness of Magic V5 has become possible through innovations in the silicone and carbon battery, which accumulates the cells with a thickness of 0.2 mm only to create a thin battery like a bank card. The new phone is also light: at only 217 grams, Magic V5 weighs less than iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Behind these innovations, there is a “huge” amount of research and development. luck Before launching Magic V5.

Honor has invested 1 billion Chinese yuan ($ 139 million) towards searching for silicon and carbon batteries technology. The company invests more than 10 % of its total revenue towards research and development every year.

“In terms of materials, structure, craftsmanship … everything is very expensive from the research and development perspective,” said Cao.

The folds represent a small but expanded slide quickly from the Chinese smartphone market. Sales in this category grew 27 % last year, according to CounterPoint research. The remains of the book, which open along the longest edge to create a larger screen, are especially common.

CAO suggests that this corresponds to the preference of the Chinese consumer of multi -use devices for both work and entertainment. The largest screen means more space for productivity applications, which means that users can do their work on a foldable smartphone instead of a laptop. The rise of “short drama” – the high opera designed to watch it on the phone and easily share it on social media – pushes shoppers to invest in larger screens.

Honor was once the smartphone section of the Huawei budget. The US sanctions forced the Chinese technology giant to empty the company in late 2020. The company had a 13 % stake in the smart phone market in China in the first quarter of 2025, according to Counterpoint, near Vivo, OPPO and Apple.

The brands of the Chinese budget are now roaming in the excellent market, as they seek to grow from the sale of higher value phones, rather than a greater size of the cheapest models.

However, it is the return of Huawei to the smart phone market in 2023 that affects Honor’s works. Counterpoint Huawei research puts first in the smart phone market in China, along with Xiaomi.

The success of Huawei also weighs Apple, which once dominated the Chinese market. Local smartphones now offer iPhone designs and features that have been tried from Apple for matching. Apple plans to release a foldable phone similar to the book in 2026, Information It was mentioned last year.

The iPhone maker is also struggling to launch artificial intelligence services in China. Earlier this year, Alibaba announced that it would be a local Apple partner to provide Apple Intelligence for users. However, it was reported that the deal attracted the audit in both Washington and Beijing.

Artificial intelligence soon became a major discrimination for Chinese smartphones, including those designed by honor. The Chinese company experiences AI on the device, or services that work on the phone instead of the cloud. Honor plans to invest 10 billion dollars over the next five years to develop artificial intelligence for its product formation, which hopes to expand to include computers, tablets and wearable devices.