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Honor is set to launch its first-ever gaming phone, the Honor Win, on December 26. Before its launch, I got a hands-on look at the upcoming phone. Smartphone And the unique turbo cooling fan, which aims to solve an important problem in gaming phones: heat. Every phone must balance the performance of its processor with the heat generated by its chip. This is especially true for gaming phones, which can run for hours at maximum performance.
Honor has equipped the Win with a fan to remove some of that heat, allowing the processor to run at higher speeds for longer.
Gaming phone makers like Nubia and Asus (the two companies behind… Red Magic 11 Pro and Rogue 9 Pro phonerespectively) have their own cooling-focused features, but neither company has been able to fit a fan inside a phone rated for water and dust resistance.
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The Honor Win phone competes with these heavyweights in the gaming phone category through a cooling fan design that does not affect the phone’s durability. And it doesn’t feel like a brick either, despite the presence of a massive 10,000mAh battery – the largest phone battery I’ve ever tested. This giant battery will allow you to play for hours on your Honor Win without it overheating, and the phone itself is as durable as a flagship phone from Apple or Samsung.
There is no information on pricing or potential global release.
A gaming phone disguised as a premium phone
The Honor Win’s cooling fan is placed next to the camera module on the back, which helps it blend into the phone’s design.
The Honor Win has a built-in fan to help dissipate heat quickly. Honor calls its cooling system “East Wind Turbo Cooling.” We’ve seen a built-in fan in phones like RedMagic before, but Honor placed it directly above the processor to provide better cooling efficiency. There is an air channel that blows cool air directly onto the slide. The Win’s fan can spin at 25,000 rpm and lower the temperature by up to 7°C (44.6°F) during intense gaming sessions, according to Honor. Its fan and air duct have “a 10% increase in intake area compared to conventional cooling fans.”
I will note that the ROG Phone 9 Pro’s AeroActive Cooler accessory lowered its temperature by 5°C during a Fortnite gaming session at our site. review. So far, the RedMagic 11 Pro’s 24,000 RPM fan has the fastest airflow ever.
I wasn’t able to test the Honor gaming phone to its limits during my short hands-on period. I’m looking forward to comparing it to gaming phones from Asus and Nubia and seeing if there’s a noticeable difference.
I wasn’t able to play intense games for long periods during my hands-on, but I’m looking forward to testing it to the max.
Honor says that as phone chipsets become more advanced and mobile gaming workloads increase, the need for better cooling solutions increases. As a result, traditional vapor chambers, like the one inside the iPhone 17 Pro Max, are nearing their limits. An Honor representative said that the Win’s cooling system is based on those used in PCs.
But the fan isn’t the most impressive part of this design. It is Honor Win’s leading durability. The phone has ratings of IP68, IP69, and IP69K for dust and water resistance. This means it is able to stay underwater for up to 30 minutes, and withstand high-temperature water jets, like a new submarine. OnePlus 15It prevents pocket lint and dust from entering its body.
For context, the RedMagic 11 Pro was the first gaming phone with a cooling fan and is water-resistant with an IPX8 rating, but it lacks dust resistance because it has openings that may let dust particles in.
Huge battery without the bulk
This is sunlight hitting the back of the phone, not Honor’s design choice. The Honor Win looks quite “normal” for a gaming phone.
The Honor Win has a 10,000 mAh battery Silicon carbon cellbut its weight is less than iPhone 17 Pro Max. I couldn’t tell it had such a huge battery when I first held it in my hand. That’s a significant increase from the RedMagic 11 Pro’s 7,500 mAh battery, or the 7,300 mAh battery in the OnePlus 15.
At 229 grams, the new Honor is comfortable to hold and doesn’t dig into my palm like a phone Galaxy S25 Ultra. It has flat sides, but the curved corners make it easy to hold.
Win has a “breakdown charge” feature that works like a bypass charge to power the motherboard directly from the charger without touching the battery. This reduces heat buildup while gaming and allows the phone to deliver full frame performance during long sessions. Disconnecting charging also helps extend battery life.
While we’ll have to wait for the phone’s launch on December 26 for more information, an Honor executive revealed a number of other details on the Chinese social media site. Weibo. It has: a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite 5th generation A chip, three cameras and 16GB of RAM.