Best TV in Australia 2026: Samsung, TCL, Hisense, and LG tested

With every major brand now launching its new TV range in Australia, we’re currently flat out testing the latest and greatest technology. RGB LED is emerging as a strong competitor to OLED in terms of colour accuracy and picture quality, so it’s an exciting time for TV enthusiasts. While we’re still working our way through some of the major 2026 releases, we’ve updated our recommendations for the best TV in Australia across a range of different categories.

Buying a new TV can be confusing, with all manner of acronyms and buzzwords to decipher. Using our tips, you’ll know exactly what to look for when visiting the shops.

GadgetGuy tests the locally available TV models in Australia, meaning we review what you can buy off the shelf. Sometimes, TVs share similar model numbers to overseas products, which can be confusing when reading reviews from international publications. Differences between Australian and international TVs can be subtle or drastically different. That’s why it’s so important to test and provide local information so you can make an informed decision.

These are the TVs we’ve tested and recommend across different categories and budgets. An OLED doesn’t always suit everyone’s needs, for example, so a Mini LED might be a better choice. Where possible, we recommend multiple models per category, just in case you find one on sale when the other isn’t.

Read on for a glossary of common TV technologies, including RGB LED, OLED, Mini LED, and LED, to help you find the best TV available in Australia.

Best TV in Australia

• Best OLED TV
• Best Mini LED TV
• Best value TV
• RGB LED vs OLED vs Mini LED vs LED: which TV should you choose?

Best OLED TV in Australia

Samsung S95H OLED TV

Image: Chris Walsh.

Price: from $5,295 at The Good Guys

Read the Samsung S95H OLED TV review

It used to be that OLED TVs had the best colour, contrast, and viewing angles, but struggled in brightly lit rooms. Historically, OLEDs didn’t produce very bright pictures due to the technology not using backlights. Over the years, TV brands have made big improvements, and the Samsung S95H is proof that OLEDs aren’t just for dim rooms anymore.

It’s even 30 per cent brighter than last year’s S95F model, which had already punched a hole through the ceiling of OLED brightness. This means you can throw open the curtains and let natural light in without worrying about it ruining your TV viewing.

Samsung’s anti-glare technology also comes in clutch here. Even in a bright room, the S95H doesn’t show any reflections. Instead, it diffuses light into a soft, barely perceptible glow that all but vanishes the moment you turn the TV on.

TVs may not be known for their sound quality, but this one punches above its relatively slender weight. A soundbar will sound the best, but the S95H’s eight built-in speakers perform surprisingly well, especially with dialogue clarity.

Samsung recently upgraded its TVs with Google Cast support, letting Android phones and tablets easily beam media to the bigger screen. It joins the existing AirPlay support, providing casting compatibility with a wide range of mobile devices.

Replete with plenty of HDMI 2.1 ports and a 165Hz refresh rate, the S95H is also an excellent gaming TV. As a result, you benefit from smooth gameplay, fast response times, and wide viewing angles OLED is known for.

LG G6 OLED TV

Image: LG.

Price: from $3,995 at The Good Guys

LG continues to make fantastic OLED TVs, and the latest G6 model is proof. You can’t go too far wrong with the base-level B6 or the mid-range C6 either, but if you want the best of the best with the brightest picture output for bright rooms, the G6 is one of the best OLED TVs Australians can get.

Again, brightness is a big point of difference in modern OLED TVs. Gone are the days when you needed a dedicated dimly lit home theatre room to enjoy a movie; TVs like the LG G6 are all-day TVs for any type of content you can think of. This year’s model is more than 20 per cent brighter than 2025’s G5. Like Samsung, LG’s high-end OLED TVs were already bright, and now they go even further.

If you don’t like the matte anti-glare coating used by various TV brands, the LG G6 is an alternative worth considering. It uses a different polarisation technology designed to absorb light, retaining deep black levels while reducing glare.

There’s Dolby Vision support when watching compatible movies and TV shows, which provides great-looking HDR performance, including bright highlights and deep colours. LG’s 165Hz VRR support also lends nicely to gaming on modern consoles and PCs.

You aren’t left wanting with LG’s extensive app support via the G6’s webOS platform. All the popular streaming apps are compatible, like Netflix and Disney+, in addition to more niche services, including Dropout. Both Apple AirPlay and Google Cast are natively supported, too, so it’s easy to cast content from other devices.

We’re currently working on a full review of the LG G6, but our time with it so far has been impressive.

Best Mini LED TV in Australia

Sony Bravia 7 II RGB LED TV

Image: Valens Quinn.

Price: from $2,695 at The Good Guys

Read the Sony Bravia 7 II review

Sony’s first foray into RGB LED technology is a strong one, with the Bravia 7 II a great mid-range TV for Australian living rooms. Powered by RGB Mini LED backlights, the Bravia 7 II produces excellent colour levels, along with strong contrast and brightness, making it a well-rounded display for all uses.

It’s reasonably priced, even more so if you can find the Bravia 7 II on sale. Reflections are probably the only downside to this TV. Sony’s pricier Bravia 9 II gets an anti-reflective coating, something the more affordable model lacks. But if you mostly use your TV at night, or in a light-controlled room, this won’t be a problem.

If you’re coming from a Google TV and like the user experience, then the Bravia 7 II is worth a look. Based on the Google TV operating system, Sony’s mid-range RGB TV plays nicely with other Google smart devices, and even Apple gear, too. Both built-in Google Cast and Apple AirPlay come included, making this TV a streamlined multimedia hub.

Its barely-there bezel makes for an attractive design, looking at home on a TV cabinet or wall-mounted. Keep in mind that the panel is a bit thicker than some, largely a result of the burgeoning RGB LED technology.

Gamers get plenty out of the Bravia 7 II, too, with 4K at 120fps support. When paired with a game console, like the PS5 Pro, the TV automatically does the HDR tone mapping for you. If you’ve ever struggled to get the HDR looking right while playing a game, you’ll appreciate how helpful this feature is.

Best value TV in Australia

We’re currently testing a bunch of different TVs that are frontrunners for Australia’s best value TV. While we’ll have some more comprehensive analysis soon, here’s what we’re looking at and have heard good things about so far.

Hisense U7SAU ULED Mini LED TV

Image: Hisense.

Price: from $1,599 at The Good Guys

Hisense has a strong track record of making well-priced, well-rounded Mini LED TVs. Bright, good for Australian living rooms, and versatile, Hisense’s Mini LED TVs tend to excel at sports and gaming.

The sequel to last year’s Hisense U7QAU TV, the U7SAU promises to be more of a good thing. Equipped with four HDMI 2.1 ports, a 165Hz refresh rate, and Dolby Vision IQ for automatic picture optimisation when watching compatible movies and TV shows, this is a strong contender for Australia’s best value TV.

Stay tuned for our full review of the Hisense U7SAU soon.

TCL C8L SQD-Mini LED TV

Image: TCL.

Price: from $2,999 at The Good Guys

TCL isn’t following the crowd this year. While most other TV brands are dabbling in RGB LED technology, TCL is trying something different with its Mini LED range: Super Quantum Dot (SQD) technology.

TCL claims that its SQD-Mini LED TVs only need blue LEDs to reach 100 per cent of the wider BT.2020 colour range, which equates to a thinner and more energy-efficient panel. We’ve seen some of these TVs, including the C8L, in person, and they certainly looked impressive at first glance.

I’ve also seen several discounts already, so if the TCL C8L holds up in review conditions, expect it to be a good value TV throughout the year.

RGB LED vs OLED vs Mini LED vs LED: which TV to choose?

With so many buzzwords, acronyms, and tech-heavy jargon to sift through, choosing a TV isn’t easy. One of the biggest points of difference to look out for is a panel’s backlight technology. To help demystify things a bit, let’s explain three of the most prominent TV technologies currently available.

Starting with LED, or light emitting diode, TVs with this type of backlight tend to be the most affordable. They’re cheaper to manufacture and therefore get used in most entry-level models.

There tend to be two main types of LED TVs: edge-lit, and full-array. Edge-lit, as the phrase suggests, sees the LED backlights positioned around the edges of the display.

TVs like the LG QNED81 use this technology, which helps keep the cost down. It does mean you encounter blooming, where a halo-like effect appears around a bright subject against a dark background. Meanwhile, full-array LEDs are spread more evenly across the panel, producing a more consistently lit picture.

Mini LED

Mini LED is the next step up, and is currently the brightest mass-market TV technology. These TVs use thousands of rice-grain-sized backlights to produce an image. This creates a greater level of control based on the number of dimming zones a panel has.

Generally speaking, the more premium a TV is, the more dimming zones it’ll have, minimising blooming in the process. Mini LED’s brightness makes it the perfect option for living rooms with lots of natural light and glare, particularly during daytime viewing.

OLED

At the top end is OLED, short for organic light emitting diode. Unlike other technologies, OLED doesn’t rely on dimming zones or individual backlights. This is because it lights up on a per-pixel basis, producing the most precise image of any mainstream TV. There’s little to no blooming on an OLED TV because it can switch pixels on and off as needed.

The drawback is that OLED is more expensive than other types of TVs. It’s also not as bright as Mini LED, which can make things tricky in a well-lit room. Once upon a time, there were fears about OLED burn-in, or image retention issues, where visible image artifacts remained on the screen after prolonged use. These days, the technology has progressed to imperceptibly shift the lit pixels regularly, so it’s only a risk in extreme edge cases.

OLED TVs also consistently have the best contrast, colour representation, and viewing angle. If you want to watch something as the director intended, you’ll likely get the closest depiction on an OLED. On some other TVs, if you miss out on the best seat and watch from an angle, you’ll likely notice a loss of colour and distorted lighting. OLED, on the other hand, produces an almost identical picture no matter where you’re sitting.

With all that in mind, there’s no ‘correct’ TV to choose. Each one has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. Above all else, the two most important things to consider are price and what your main use will be. Keep these factors in mind, and you’ll be happy with whichever TV you pick.

RGB LED

Among the many TV technologies is one that several brands are pushing towards: RGB LED. It’s referred to by various names, depending on the brand. Samsung’s variant is “Micro RGB”, LG has “Micro RGB evo”, while Hisense opts for “RGB Mini LED”.

Each has its subtle differences, but the common ground is the use of coloured backlights. Traditional LED uses a series of white backlights, while RGB LED swaps them out for tiny red, green, and blue backlights.

Hisense recently took the RGB LED trend further, announcing a high-end TV that also includes a fourth, cyan-coloured, LED as part of its array. What TV makers hope to achieve with the emerging RGB technology is greater colour accuracy, so that the depicted imagery looks truer to life.

To add further confusion into the mix, Micro LED is a different technology altogether. Instead of using backlights, it employs coloured LED pixels, drawing similarities with OLED in terms of its pixel-level precision. However, consumer-level Micro LED is still in its infancy, with TVs costing in the tens of thousands of dollars.

GadgetGuy occasionally uses affiliate links and may receive a small commission from purchased products.

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New-look dual recording mode on Galaxy Z Fold 8 is pretty neat

Samsung is going to great lengths to promote how the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s design fits into everyday life. I like how easily the smaller foldable fits into my pocket, but what about everything else it does? You can add dual recording to that list, because I think the Z Fold 8 makes using the front and rear cameras easier than ever.

Samsung’s phones have supported dual recording for a while, but the way it works on the upcoming foldable range feels more intuitive. With both a front and back camera perspective, you can easily preview both views across the main inner display, while letting the subject see the preview on the front screen.

Most helpful is the addition of a split-screen view that lets you see a full view of each camera side-by-side on the main screen. Here, you can also arrange the perspective to be picture-in-picture or one on top of the other. I think it’s pretty neat, and you can see how it looks on GadgetGuy‘s Instagram account.

Valens Quinn attended Galaxy Unpacked in London as a guest of Samsung Australia.

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What I learned making the most of three hours of free power

Many Australians can now get three hours of free power in the middle of the day, but don’t assume that it’s always a good deal.

Thanks to the federal Solar Sharer Offer for NSW, South Australia and South East Queensland, along with Victoria’s upcoming Midday Power Saver offer, most Australian households with a smart meter can opt for an electricity plan providing free power between 11 am and 2 pm every day.

The reason they’re prepared to give away free electricity is that, thanks to renewable energy sources, we now have more power than we know what to do with in the middle of the day. Solar feed-in tariffs continue to fall, and instead people are investing in batteries to save their solar energy and spend it after dark.

Is three hours of free power a good deal?

Everybody loves getting something for free, but free electricity actually comes at a high cost, so it’s important to crunch the numbers.

Plans with a free power window charge more for power at other times of day. They also slug you with a higher daily supply charge, while further reducing the paltry solar feed-in tariffs.

There’s concern that the power network will continue to hike daily supply fees over the coming years, wiping out the significant savings that battery early adopters are relying on to make it a worthwhile long-term investment, even with the solar battery rebate.

All of this means that you need to be sure that three hours of free power actually saves you more money than all the extra charges on your electricity bill. It certainly won’t stack up for some homes.

Websites like Energy Made Easy and Victorian Energy Compare are great for comparing electricity deals, with the ability to feed in your usage data over the last 12 months. Make sure you also look for the best gas deals.

Independent government comparison sites make it easy to shop around for a good deal on gas and electricity.

Unfortunately, looking at your recent usage data is of limited use if you’re thinking of switching to an electricity plan with free power, because your daily habits will change. Relying on last year’s data can make a plan with free power seem more expensive, assuming in future you’ll be able to shift some power usage to the middle of the day.

If your spreadsheet kung fu excels, you can probably pull down 12 months of raw data from your electricity distributor and estimate your shifts in demand to make more accurate predictions.

How I saved money with three hours of free power

I’ve had three hours of free power for two and a half years, so that’s been plenty of time to change my power usage habits and reduce my bills.

For my household, a free power window is a no-brainer. I work from home, plus I use a lot of electricity in the middle of the day to charge my Tesla Model Y and top up my Sigenergy home battery.

Of course, many homes are empty during the day as people head off to work or study, perhaps taking their EV. That makes free power much less attractive.

If the best you can do is schedule your dishwasher and dryer to run at lunchtime, then a free power window is probably not worth it. Looking up the power consumption of those appliances should give you a rough estimate of what they cost to run.

The numbers improve if you can also schedule your electric hot water service and swimming pool heater to run in the middle of the day.

I switched to a plan with three hours of free power when I got my Tesla more than two years ago. Even though the car is away from home most weekdays, big free weekend top-ups are enough to ensure I pay very little to charge it.

Free power is very attractive when you have an EV in the driveway and a home charger. Image: Adam Turner.

When I got my Signenergy battery last year, I changed to an electricity plan with both a free power window in the middle of the day and a cheap EV window between midnight and 6 am.

This allows me to top up the battery overnight on the cheap, so I don’t risk paying top dollar for power if the battery runs flat before 11 am. I can also top up the car if it doesn’t have enough for the next day.

I also manually run the dryer and dishwasher in the middle of the day to help the battery last longer overnight. My south-facing backyard gets absolutely no sun in winter, so there’s no choice but to put sheets and towels in the dryer. I don’t feel guilty about it because I pay extra for 100% GreenPower from renewable sources, which includes my free power window.

Switching to a plan with both free and cheap power windows drove up my peak and daily usage charges even further, but I ran the numbers, and it was still the best deal for my home.

It was such a great deal for battery owners that, not long after, my power retailer scrapped that plan. My deal expires next month, and unsurprisingly, it seems no one offers those plans any more, so you need to choose between a free midday window or a cheap overnight window.

A cheap overnight charging window is great for topping up your battery in winter. Image: Adam Turner.

Make sure you choose wisely. I’m sticking with a free window, but the new plan will still drive up my power bills by about 50%. Not just in higher charges, but also because there’s no point topping up the battery overnight in winter if power remains the same price until 11 am.

I’m actually opting for a plan with four hours of free power, which sounds amazing but again comes with higher charges elsewhere.

Also keep in mind that many plans limit your three hours of free power to 24 kWh, after which they start charging. That’s a challenge when most homes can pull down at least 14 kW per hour, which is easy to do if you’re charging a battery and car at the same time.

Are you already getting three hours of free power?

Of course, the elephant in the room is that, if you have solar panels on your roof, you’re probably already getting free power in the middle of the day. There’s no point in changing plans unless you will consume/store more power in the middle of the day than your panels produce – so you need some insights not just into your usage but also how your solar performs during the year.

Rooftop solar already offers free midday power for many homes. Image: Markus Spiske on Unsplash.

Once again, it’s a no-brainer for me, because I live at the bottom of a valley with a narrow, mostly east-west roof. This limits how many panels I can squeeze on the roof and how much power I can squeeze out of them.

My solar panels can cover the air conditioning in the middle of summer, but not the heating in the middle of winter. They’d never be enough to fill my mid-sized 24 kWh home battery, so its return on investment is reliant on a free power window to top it up.

Then of course there’s charging the Tesla. My solar system can pump out 5 kW at best, while the car wants to pull down 7 kW by default when charging at home – so a free power window really comes in handy.

Looking to the future

Just as I’m losing my cheap early-morning top-up window, I’m also losing access to the great Charge HQ app that I’ve been using to schedule my car charging. It’s been acquired by energy retailer Amber, which is rudely shutting it down for non-Amber customers.

Charge HQ is much more advanced than Tesla’s built-in scheduling, for example letting me set different charge limits for different times of day. This means I can top up to 30% overnight when it’s cheap, but then aim for 100% in the middle of the day when it’s free. 

At this point, I wish I’d known enough to buy a smart EV charger for home, rather than opting for a dumb Tesla Gen 3 wall charger.  

Without Charge HQ, my best option for complex charging schedules seemed to be combining Home Assistant for home automation with EVCC for smart car charging. It’s a steep learning curve, even for a techie like me, and I’ve already run into challenges. (If you’re looking for something less complex, Tessie might do the trick for US$6.99 p/m, but I haven’t used it).

For example, I wanted to use TeslaBleHttpProxy running on a Raspberry Pi to wake the car via Bluetooth for charging from EVCC, but Teslas will only connect to three BLE devices simultaneously. That’s fine during the day, but a problem at night when we have three smartphones at home which all run the Tesla app and talk to the car via BLE for keyless access.

Instead, I’ll need to use Tesla’s Fleet API to wake the car over the internet. After a lot of messing around trying to cobble this together, I decided it was easiest to pay $45 a year to link Home Assistant to Teslemetry (which simplifies using Tesla’s Fleet API), and then optimise my automations to ensure I don’t spend too much on API credits when sending commands to the car and checking its status.

Home Assistant has a loyal following but gets quite complicated.

I’ve been putting off setting up a Home Assistant server for a few years. Partly because I didn’t want to overcomplicate things, and partly because it plays into my OCD tendencies to get a bit too enthusiastic about optimising things.

That said, more integrated and granular home automation will let me claw back some of my rising power bills. For example, I can slow down the car charging if it looks like the house battery won’t fill up in the free window. I can also optimise overnight car top-ups from the battery in autumn and spring, when I have a little power to spare.

A four-hour free window will also reduce the need to slow car charging in favour of the battery. Plus it will ensure the battery lasts an hour longer before running flat in winter, whilst buying me more time to power-hungry appliances like the dryer.

Remember, free power sounds too good to be true, but you need to do your homework to ensure you’re not spending more than you’re saving.

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PSA: What you need to know about Monday’s AusAlert test

Australia’s new emergency alerts system will get a workout next Monday, ahead of the official launch of AusAlert.

Scheduled for Monday 27 July 2026 at 2:00 PM AEST, AusAlert will send a test “Critical Alert” to every mobile device in the country. Devices — including phones, tablets, and smartwatches — will vibrate and play a siren-like sound for 10 seconds. Because it’s only a test, it won’t require any further action.

Designed to warn Australians during times of emergency, like a natural disaster, AusAlert will officially launch in October 2026 as the new national warning system. Monday’s test is part of ensuring it’s ready to go in a few months’ time.

Once fully operational, AusAlert will serve multiple purposes. As the national test will demonstrate, it can be used by the Australian government to warn people about national emergencies. For location-specific dangers, state and territory emergency services can also send an alert.

Alerts under the new system fall under two categories: Critical and Priority. Critical, the type being tested next Monday, indicates that immediate action is needed, like evacuating during a bushfire. Priority still refers to a high level of potential danger, but is intended as a “watch and act” warning to prepare for danger. Priority alerts can be disabled, but not Critical alerts.

Here’s what Monday’s Critical Alert test will look like. Image: Australian Government.

If Monday’s alert may impact someone’s safety, the AusAlert website states that they can either turn off their mobile device or enable aeroplane mode.

Schedule for the AusAlert test per state and territory

According to the official advice, some people will receive the test alert immediately, while others may get it later. Here’s when the test Critical Alert is scheduled for each Australian state and territory:

• Australian Capital Territory: 2 PM AEST
• New South Wales: 2 PM AEST
• Queensland: 2 PM AEST
• Tasmania: 2 PM AEST
• Victoria: 2 PM AEST
• Northern Territory: 1:30 PM ACST
• South Australia (including Broken Hill): 1.30 PM ACST
• Western Australia: 12 PM AWST
• Christmas Island: 11 AM CXT

Due to the nature of the test, some people may not receive the alert. This may stem from factors such as location, device, or not running the latest software.

As the government’s website explains, “the purpose of testing is to understand these real-world differences, confirm the system is working as intended, and improve public information before AusAlert is used in real emergencies”. There’s also a feedback form for those who encounter any issues with the test.

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Delightful Lego Donkey Kong set has me feeling sentimental

Have I mentioned that I love Donkey Kong? In case this is your first time reading my work, I’m a big fan of Nintendo’s lovable ape. On an entirely, completely, and utterly unrelated note, Lego has officially revealed a set depicting the original Donkey Kong arcade game.

Launching on 1 August, the $279.99 set includes 1,371 pieces that construct a mini replica of the 1981 arcade classic. It’s a fairly sophisticated-looking bit of kit; the joystick and buttons actually move Jumpman across the ‘screen’ as barrels roll down the girders in a loop.

Lego enlisted the help of Steve Wiebe, former Donkey Kong world champion, to star in a reveal video for the set. If you’ve watched The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, you’ll recognise Wiebe as the main rival to Billy Mitchell in what was a contentious time for the competitive arcade scene.

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While I never strove to compete for high scores, Donkey Kong holds a strong place in my heart. When growing up in regional South Australia, my dad would use his lunch breaks to take me to the local arcade to play the game, plus all manner of pinball machines I was too young to be any good at.

Those early years instilled a love of gaming that persists to this day. Every time I see Donkey Kong in any form, I’m reminded of how involved my parents were (and still are) in my life.

Is it silly to feel sentimental over a nicely assembled collection of small toy bricks? Nah, I think it’s human nature to enjoy charms and trinkets that ascribe meaning to our lives.

It’s probably obvious by now, but my mouse pointer is dangerously poised over that pre-order button right now. If it’s anything like the Lego Game Boy set, I’m going to have a great time building this one.

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Samsung’s fun My FanCam brings K-pop action to your phone

Taking its South Korean heritage to a new level, Samsung’s My FanCam feature is one of the more fun additions to the Galaxy Z lineup shipping with the One UI 9 software update.

Inspired by K-pop fandom culture, My FanCam lets you record videos and then choose what to focus on afterwards. For example, if you record a group of people dancing, you can select a person via the Galaxy AI menu, and it will then automatically centre them in the frame, regardless of where they move.

I can also see My FanCam being handy for school concerts or sports, when you want to easily keep your child the centre of attention in videos to send to friends and family. Within the setting, there are options for different aspect ratios, too, automatically reframing the video in 9:16 or any other common orientation you want. You can see my efforts via GadgetGuy‘s YouTube channel — just don’t judge my moves too harshly!

Valens Quinn attended Galaxy Unpacked in London as a guest of Samsung Australia.

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Honor Magic V6 review: Great foldable but lacks software support

7.9

Well-built and packed with grunt, the Honor Magic V6 folding phone stacks up well against the foldable heavyweights, yet it suffers from a painful Achilles Heel.

While they still generate plenty of interest, foldable smartphones are no longer the ‘Next Big Thing’. It’s eight years since the debut of the Royole FlexPai, seven since the first Samsung Galaxy Fold took foldables mainstream and four since Honor threw its hat in the ring.

Over that time, Samsung has remained the foldable king ahead of Google, Motorola, Oppo, Honor and others. There’s even more competition now, after Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and it will be interesting to see if Apple finally comes to the party this year.

As with all new gadgets, the first few foldable iterations saw rapid innovation, but revolution has settled into evolution as the form factor has matured.

As it is with the $2,999 Honor Magic V6, which bumps up the price on last year’s $2,599 Honor Magic V5. In the process, it makes a few strategic improvements that might win over those prepared to look beyond the usual suspects when spending top dollar on a foldable.

Of course it’s not the only foldable contender. Right now, the Magic V6 is up against the $2,699 Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold, $2,799 Motorola Razr Fold, $2,899 Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and $3,299 Oppo Find N6.

Table of contents

• First impressions
• Specifications and price
• Features
• Quality
• Who is the Honor Magic V6 for?

Honor Magic V6 first impressions

While Honor tends to ape Apple’s design principles, the Honor Magic V6 doesn’t attempt to mimic how you’d imagine a folding iPhone might look.

At first glance, there are certainly similarities to the Honor Pro 600’s Apple-esque unibody aluminium matte frame with sharp edges. The Honor Magic V6 has the power and volume buttons on the right but, surprisingly for a flagship, you miss out on the Pro 600’s programmable Apple-esque touch-sensitive Quick Button.

With a 6.52-inch display when closed, and only 8.75 mm thick, the Magic V6 is barely larger than the Pro 600 and still fits very comfortably in your hand. It’s great to see the fingerprint reader built into the power button, so you don’t need to reach down for an onscreen reader and risk the phone toppling out of your hand.

From the side, the Honor Magic V6 sticks with a standard button layout. Image: Adam Turner.

Fire up the Honor Magic V6, and you’re faced with a bright and vivid 2420 x 1080 pixel external display, at the standard 20:9 aspect ratio. Stepping up to LTPO 2.0 OLED, the screen offers 10-bit colour and an adaptive 120 Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling. 

With Global Peak Brightness of 2,000 nits and HDR Peak Brightness of 6,000 nits, it’s designed to do justice to High Dynamic Range content including HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. Plus you’ve got the advantage of an anti-reflective coating.

Folded closed, the Honor Magic V6 fits nicely in your hand like a standard smartphone. Image: Adam Turner.

At the bottom of the handset, you’ll find got a USB-C port, alongside a dual nano-SIM port with the benefit of eSIM, but no microSD card support. The handset features dual speakers for stereo, but you miss out on an old-school headphone jack.

Turn the handset over, and you’re presented with a very prominent triple camera array that certainly doesn’t look like it was borrowed from an iPhone. If anything, it’s actually more reminiscent of the Oppo Find N6.

The Magic V6’s back is also very distinctive, relying on different materials depending on the colour you choose: the Red model pictured features vegan leather with a suede-like feel, the White is built from an aerospace-grade special fibre, and the Black and Gold variants feature a durable fibreglass. Keep in mind, Gold isn’t available in Australia.

Open or closed, the Honor Magic V6’s back certainly won’t be mistaken for an iGadget. Image: Adam Turner.

The phone also comes with a protective case with a ring around the camera array that folds out to act as a stand.

Of course, the split around the edges of the handset alludes to the fact that there’s more to the Magic V6 than meets the eye. The front screen folds open to the left like a book, quickly awakening the 7.95-inch screen within, with a barely visible fold. 

Thanks to magnets, the hinge has enough resistance that it won’t fold open by accident. You can’t simply flick it open with your thumb, but it’s not too difficult to pry apart with two thumbs. A slight indentation to help your thumbs get purchase would be appreciated.

The inner screen is a squarish 9.75:9 aspect ratio, apart from which it retains the same impressive specs as the external screen. When folded open, the phone is about the same size as Samsung and Oppo’s foldables.

Folded open, the Honor Magic V6 offers a generous amount of screen real estate. Image: Adam Turner.

The open device is thin and light enough that it’s still comfortable to hold in one hand, although you’ll want a steady grip considering the hefty price tag. Again, at 219 gm about the same weight as Oppo and Samsung’s alternatives.

Unfortunately, it has significant wobble when you lay it flat on the table, due to the rear camera array. To be fair, that’s obviously difficult to eliminate on such a form factor.

Viewed side-on, the Magic V6 is an impressive bit of engineering – currently the thinnest foldable on the market at 4.0/4.1 mm (depending on which colour you buy). It’s about as thin as a device can be while still retaining a USB-C port, so we’ve probably reached the limit unless a competitor is brave/foolish enough to opt for wireless-only charging. It will be interesting to see how they respond.

You’d struggle to make a foldable much thinner. Image: Adam Turner.

Honor Magic V6 specifications and price

Display size	External screen: 6.52 inches, 20:9 aspect ratio, 406 ppi Inner screen: 7.95 inches, 9.75:9 aspect ratio, 403 ppi
Display resolution	External screen: 2420 x 1080 pixels Inner screen: 2352 x 2172 pixels
Display technology	External screen: OLED HONOR Anti-scratch NanoCrystal Shield HDR Peak Brightness: 6000 nits Global Peak Brightness: 2000 nits Inner screen: foldable OLED HONOR Super Armored HDR Peak Brightness: Inner Screen 5000nits Global Peak Brightness: Inner Screen 1300nits AI Defocus Display, 4320Hz PWM Flicker Free Dimming, Dynamic Dimming, Circadian Night Display, Nature Tone Display
Bands	5G(NR), 4G (LTE TDD/LTE FDD), 3G (WCDMA), 2G (GSM)
Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Mobile Platform Octa-core: 2×Prime 4.6 GHz + 6×Performance 3.62 GHz
GPU	Adreno 840
Rear cameras	50MP Ultra Wide Camera (f/2.2)
	50MP Ultra Wide Camera (f/2.2)
	64MP telephoto Lens Camera (f/2.5, OIS)3x optical zoom, 100x Digital zoom
Front cameras	20MP Wide Camera (f/2.2) (Interior screen)
	20MP Wide Camera (f/2.2) (Exterior screen)
RAM	16 GB
Onboard storage	512 GB
Connector	USB Type-C, DP1.2 and USB 3.2 GEN1
SIM	Dual Nano SIM + eSIM
Charging	80W wired HONOR SuperCharge fast charging up to 20V/4A SuperCharge 66W wireless HONOR SuperCharge fast charging
Battery	6660 mAh (typical value), 6510 mAh (rated value)
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 7 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be 2.4GHz/5GHz/6GHz2x2 MIMOSupport WLAN Hotspot and WLAN Direct RF Enhanced Chip HONOR C1+
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 6.0, Bluetooth Low Energy, LE Audio, Auracast, SBC, AAC, LDAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, LC3, LHDC5.0/4.0/3.0, ASHA, LE Audio Hearing Aid
Operating system	MagicOS 10 (Based on Android 16)
Security	Fingerprint reader, Face Unlock
Ruggedness	IP68, IP69
Dimensions	Height 156.7 mm Width folded: 74.5 mm Width unfolded: 145.6 mm Depth folded (White): 8.75 mm Depth unfolded (White): 4.0 mm Depth folded (Other): 9.0 mm Depth unfolded (Other): 4.1 mm
Weight	White: Approx. 219 g (including the battery) Other: Approx. 224 g (including the battery)
Colours	Red, White and Black
Price	$2,999 RRP
Warranty	2 years
Official website	Honor Australia

Features

The Honor Magic V6 runs Android 16, customised with Honor’s very iOS-esque MagicOS 10 that includes the brand’s take on ‘Liquid Glass’.

Here’s the potential deal-breaker: Honor says the Magic V6 will only receive two major Android OS updates and three years of security patches in Australia. That’s outrageous considering that Europeans get six years of coverage for the exact same device.

It’s bad enough that the $1,499 Honor 600 Pro only gets three years of security updates, but it’s absolutely unforgivable on a $2,999 flagship device. Especially when Google, Samsung and Motorola offer an industry-leading seven years of updates for flagship devices like their foldables. Oppo makes it six years.

It’s bad enough that Motorola skimps on updates for its budget phones, without Honor selling Australians short on its $2,999 flagship.

When pushed for a justification for treating Australians as second-class citizens, Honor says it is “continuing to evaluate based on market and consumer needs”.

Looking back, the Magic V5 got the same rough deal in Australia, so I guess Honor has decided it can get away with it. It would be a damn shame if Magic V6 sales flop in Australia over this issue,  forcing Honor to be a bit more generous in future.

The Honor Magic V6’s hinge is subtle when the handset is folded closed. Image: Adam Turner.

Moving on, a look under the bonnet reveals the Magic V6 packs Qualcomm’s flagship octa-core Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform and Adreno 840 GPU. You’ll also find a generous 512 GB of storage and 12 GB of RAM. 

As you’d expect at these prices, the Magic V6 also boasts a decent triple-lens rear camera array. There’s a 50 MP main shooter, 50 MP ultrawide and 64 MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, 100x digital zoom and the benefit of optical image stabilisation.

Around the front are 20 MP wide lenses on the inner and external screens, both lacking autofocus. They stick with an old-school punch-hole design rather than a notch, although MagicOS still replicates Apple’s Dynamic Island with Magic Capsule.

When it comes to the main shooter, the Magic V6 falls short of the 600 Pro, just as Samsung and Google’s foldables can’t quite match the photographic credentials of their non-folding flagships.

As for connectivity, it’s a sub-6 5G phone with the benefit of dual nano-SIM and eSIM. You can take advantage of Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, with an impressive spread of audio codecs, including aptX Lossless, thanks to the Qualcomm silicon within.

The phone packs a reasonably generous 6660 mAh battery, which should be good for 24 hours even if you’re using the large inner display. As for charging, it can take advantage of 80-watt wired and 66-watt wireless (no Qi2), but there’s no AC charger in the box.

Quality

Sporting the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the Honor Magic V6 should easily outgun the Honor 600 Pro, which relies on the previous Snapdragon 8 Elite. The benchmarks tell a different story, but you need to dig deeper to unlock the Magic V6’s true potential.

Out of the box, the Magic V6 returns underwhelming Geekbench 6 scores of 1,582 single-core, 6,013 multi-core and 16,057 OpenCL. Interestingly, performance is set to Balanced by default under the battery menus.

Switching to Performance mode unleashes the 8 Elite Gen 5’s real potential, with Geekbench 6 results leaping to 3,604 single-core, 8,132 multi-core and 23,208 OpenCL.

Device	Geekbench 6 CPU Single-Core	Geekbench 6 CPU Multi-core	Geekbench 6 GPU
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra	3,770	11,422	23,805
iPhone 17 Pro Max	3,768	9,443	45,451
Motorola Razr Fold	2,617	9,177	17,754
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7	2,663	8,586	19,567
Honor Magic V5 (Performance mode)	2,334	8,313	18,025
Honor Magic V6 (Performance mode)	3,604	8,132	23,208
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7	2,375	8,038	19,121
Honor Magic V6 (Balanced mode)	1,582	6,013	16,057
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold	1,949	4,698	N/A

Geekbench 6 results (sorted by CPU multi-core).

When it comes to photography, the 50 MP primary shooter does an excellent job, delivering sharp and vivid images that don’t look too overblown or overprocessed – although it doesn’t quite match the contrast of the Pro 600 (thanks to its improved sensor). It’s great to see no drop in quality when switching across to the 50 MP ultrawide.

1x zoom on the 50 MP main shooter produces decent results in complex lighting, but doesn’t quite match the Honor Pro 600. Image: Adam Turner.

The 100x super zoom with 3x optical zoom is also impressive, basically matching the results from the 120x super zoom 3.5x optical on the Honor Pro 600. The Honor Pro 600 might be able to zoom in a bit further, but here the Magic V6 matches it on detail and contrast.

A semi-open doorway roughly 150 metres away looks quite detailed with 100x zoom. Image: Adam Turner.

Like the Honor Pro 600, the Magic V6’s low light capabilities are impressive but work a bit too hard in some situations.

The photo below was taken at 10:30 pm mid-winter. The clear sky should be black; thankfully, at least one star is visible (at least on my MacBook Pro if not here). The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra handles this challenge better, but not as well as the iPhone 17.

The sky should be black. Image: Adam Turner.

When it comes to selfies, the results are respectable, but by default you still see tell-tale signs of beautification if you open the image on your computer.

The selfie camera bucks the trend of ironing out wrinkles, but zooming in reveals a slight touch-up compared to the 600 Pro. Image: Adam Turner.

Who is the Honor Magic V6 for?

Not that you’d be in a rush to upgrade, but the folding Honor Magic V6 is a decent upgrade from Magic V5 in terms of performance, battery life and durability. It also stacks up well against foldable heavyweights from Samsung, Google, Motorola and Oppo, although we’re waiting to see what they all do next.

The Honor Magic V6 is a worthy contender, right until you remember that you’ll stop getting software updates in only three years (including two years of OS upgrades), simply because you live in Australia. Meanwhile, Samsung, Google, and Motorola have Aussies covered for seven years. This alone makes it hard to recommend the Honor Magic V6 to Australians, and is why an otherwise decent foldable gets such a low value for money score.

Honor Magic V6

The ultra-thin Honor Magic V6 is a worthy foldable contender, but questionable value for money when Australians are denied extended software and security updates.

Features

8.5

Value for money

4

Performance

9

Ease of use

9

Design

9

Positives

Slender design

Barely visible fold

Plenty of grunt

Rugged

Negatives

Australians only get three years of updates instead of six

Photography not best in class

7.9

The post Honor Magic V6 review: Great foldable but lacks software support appeared first on GadgetGuy.

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