Ongoing fighting in Iran is giving the world a look at what the country’s current military hardware looks like. As one would expect, there is a fair amount of Russian and Soviet-era technology, including MiG and Sukhoi fighter jets like the MiG-29 and Sukhoi Su-30. Additionally, Iran constructs most of its own ballistic missiles and drones. 

For the people who are just taking a look at what Iran is flying, it may seem odd that there are some American-made planes in Iran’s inventory, as Iran and the U.S. have been politically opposed for decades. 

Aviation enthusiasts especially may notice that F-14 Tomcats, F-5 Tigers, and F-4 Phantom IIs have made an occasional appearance in both conversations online and in footage from the ongoing war. The F-4 Phantom II saw extensive service in the Vietnam War. The F-14, of “Top Gun” fame, of course went out of service with the United States in 2006 after having served continually since the closing years of the Vietnam War in 1973. 

SlashGear has reported on how Iran got a hold of Tomcats and its extensive operational history during the Iran-Iraq War. 

Now, several decades after the war and more than 50 years after the Tomcat first entered service, Iran still fields the plane. Concrete information about how the planes are maintained and whether or not most of them are even airworthy is hard to come by. As late as 2007, Iran was able to still buy surplus F-14 parts until American lawmakers banned the sale of technology they deemed sensitive. The United States even went through great effort to destroy remaining parts. Since then, it has relied on smuggling and the black market. Plus, given the high-profile nature of the plane itself, parked Tomcats and Phantoms have a high likelihood of being targeted or destroyed during Israeli and American sorties. 

However, Global Security, a defense-related think tank, reported that Iran had as many as 43 Tomcats and 60 Phantom IIs in its inventory as of 2025. It is unknown how many have been destroyed since.

A few things remain consistent about Honor phones from year to year. They will be powerful, they will be very thin, they’ll have awesome cameras, and they won’t be coming to the Unites States. All of those look to be consistent this year as well. The Honor Magic V6, launched at MWC 2026, is another version of that same theme.

Lovely hardware and a long-lasting battery lead the charge for this phone to make it one you should definitely consider if you’re in the market for a new, book-style foldable. There are also a few common themes from last year, including extraordinary thinness, a camera island that has its own zip code, and a case with the same ring/stand for extra grip.

I’m a fan of Honor foldables, and I’m thankful for the chance to play with one, even though most of my fellow countrymen won’t get the same chance. It should be mentioned that this isn’t a full review (in the traditional sense) since the software on the phone is still not complete. As such, we can’t include camera samples or performance metrics. But I’ve been using the phone for two weeks, and these are my thoughts so far.

The Honor Magic V5 sample I got last year was black and has a vegan leather backplate. It came along with a case that covered the back, along with a flap over the hinge that was fun to play with, fidget-toy style, and added a ring stand that flips out from around the camera island and makes the phone easier to hold when it’s open. I primarily used it when reading, or when I wanted to stand the phone up to watch something.

This year’s phone case has all those same features which is great. My review sample is the gold colorway, which looks really nice — much preferred over black. There’s also a red colorway with a marble pattern to it that looks stunning, though some reports indicate it feels weird to hold. I haven’t tried that one myself, but if you’re considering that version, you might want to try to find it at a store to try out before you order it.

Both screens are AMOLED LTPO 2.0 with the dynamic refresh rater of 1-120Hz. They’re both extremely bright, with the outside screen reaching 6,000 nits and the inner screen achieving 5,000 nits of brightness at their peaks. Speaking of the screens, the outside screen checks in at 6.52 inches while the inner screen is just shy of eight.

Foldable screens are already a little crazy, but Honor has really outdone itself with the hardware this time. Starting off with the fact that this phone has a 6,660 mAh silicon carbon battery which is as insane as it sounds. I can’t speak to actual longevity numbers because of the beta software, but I found this was easily a two-day phone without breaking a sweat. I’ll have to wait until the production software rolls in, but this bodes well.

The phone itself is just 4mm thick when opened (not including the camera bump, of course), and 8.57mm when closed, with is by the way about the same thickness as an iPhone 17 Pro Max. It’s also a couple of dozen grams lighter than Apple’s biggest handset.

The folding screen has a crease that is just as visible as any other foldable on the market (though Samsung showed off a remarkably flat folding screen at CES 2026). The hinge is rated for up to 500,000 folds, though full disclosure — I didn’t test that actual metric.

Where this phone really stands out is in its IP68 and IP69 water resistance ratings. This is a book-style foldable that is achieving water and dust resistance ratings that were first reached just over a year ago on a bar-style phone — the OnePlus 13. Since then, a number of other phones have reached those same levels of dust and water resistance, but not in a foldable.

The closest we’ve gotten so far is in the Pixel 10 Pro Fold that has an IP68 water resistance rating. The difference between the two, is that IP69 is resistant to heated water jets. You can put this foldable into a dishwasher. Just let that sink in — no pun intended.

Again, in the interest of disclosure I should point out that I did not actually test that capability. I like testing phones to their extremes, but even that is a little too far outside the lines for me. Also, I tested this phone during the winter, so there were no trips to the beach for me. That is something I would happily test once the mercury climbs higher in Chicago.

One thing Honor is happy to talk about is how well its phones work with the Apple ecosystem. I feel like a broken record here, but as far as an Apple ecosystem is concerned, I do not have any Apple devices outside of the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and a last-generation iPad mini, so my capabilities in testing these features were negligible.

I could, and did, test the ability to transfer files between an iPhone and the Honor Magic V6 and it worked…fine. This is achieved via Honor Connect, an app that allows you to transfer files by way of a QR code. The app needs to be installed on the receiving iDevice, so this is not the seamless transfer that you can get with Airdrop, nor even the Airdthe drop functionality that Google built into Pixels.

Other Honor apps will allow you to connect an Apple Watch, or extend your MacBook’s screen to the phone, and even transfer a file from the phone to the MacBook by tapping it. Honor is directly addressing the fact that Apple does not have a folding phone yet, which is a gap that some people may want to take advantage of. The real question is how seamless it’ll feel in practice.

Overall, we’re hampered by the fact that we don’t have final software yet. We’ll be sure to update this article when more facts come to light. We don’t have camera samples, we don’t have battery tests, and we don’t have benchmarks. I can tell you that historically, Honor cameras are usually top notch, and Honor still makes my favorite portrait mode I’ve ever had on a phone.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which resides in the Magic V6, is still the undisputed king of phone processors. At last year’s Snapdragon Summit, it handily beat the best processors by Apple and MediaTek. So, this phone is a beast in multiple ways.

We still don’t know pricing, nor general availability, except that it won’t come to the U.S. But we do know that this phone is excellent in multiple ways, and the U.S. phone market is poorer for not being able to experience it. When I went to CES 2026, the Magic V5 was my main phone because of its camera and battery life, and it did not disappoint. When IFA and CES roll around next year, the V6 will likely take its place.