A brand-new gaming smartphone, the HONOR WIN, was released on Friday, December 26, 2025, by the Chinese smartphone manufacturer HONOR.
While its performance has been enhanced with gameplay in mind, featuring functions that break conventional smartphone norms, its usability as a general smartphone has also been greatly improved.
Powerful Smartphone Equipped with Top-Tier Snapdragon Chipset
The HONOR WIN is equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset.
This makes it one of the world's most powerful smartphones at this point in time.
The display is 6.83 inches and boasts a high brightness of 6,000 nits.
The screen is easy to see even when used outdoors, making it suitable for any mobile gaming scenario.
Additionally, the front camera is 50 megapixels.
Three cameras are lined up on the back, and the specifications are as follows:
- Wide-angle camera: 50 megapixels
- 3x telephoto camera: 50 megapixels
- Ultra-wide-angle camera: 12 megapixels
While I would have preferred all of them to be 50 megapixels, I am satisfied with the trade-off for the reasonable price of 3,999 yuan (approx. 572 USD).
The device features the following dimensions and weight:
- Body size: 163.1×76.6×8.3mm
- Weight: 229g
The sense of size is no different from a normal smartphone.
However, the HONOR WIN hides many features not found in other smartphones.
Achieving this size despite those features is proof of high technical capabilities.
Gaming is Comfortable with a Silky Smooth 185Hz Display
Now, let's look at the features of the HONOR WIN one by one.
The refresh rate is up to 185Hz.
While general smartphones are often 120Hz and even gaming smartphones are frequently 144Hz, the HONOR WIN is equipped with a display featuring a much higher refresh rate.
Note that 185Hz is only available in certain games.
As of the end of 2025, the only other smartphone equipped with this refresh rate besides the HONOR WIN is the ASUS ROG Phone 9 series.
Boasts High Heat Dissipation with a Built-in Air-Cooling Fan
There are three cameras on the back, but the other circular part is an air-cooling fan.
The HONOR WIN is equipped with a physical fan that quickly dissipates internal heat.
Also, if you look closely, there are slits at the bottom of the camera pedestal.
Here, air is taken in by a fan spinning at 25,000 RPM and exhausted from the bottom.
It is said to be able to lower the chipset temperature by up to 7 degrees.
The fan control can be operated in detail from the settings.
While the sound of the spinning fan can be slightly heard in quiet places, there is also a setting to automatically stop the fan when a voice call comes in during fan use.
This marks the fourth company to adopt air-cooling fans, following nubia's REDMAGIC series, Lenovo's Legion series, and OPPO's K13 series.
World First! Equipped with a 10,000mAh Battery
And the battery capacity is a staggering 10,000mAh.
Excluding toughness-type models, the HONOR WIN is the first general smartphone to reach the 10,000 mark.
It is also equipped with a dedicated chip for charging to prevent overheating.
With this much capacity, the battery seems likely to last a full day even when playing hardware-intensive games.
The fast charging is 100W wired and 80W wireless.
Launch Game Space with a Dedicated Button
In addition to power and volume adjustments, the right side of the body features a Game Space button.
Game Space is also adopted in gaming smartphones from other companies, and it can transform the HONOR WIN into a dedicated gaming machine.
Dedicated Game Menu and Gaming Settings Available
Inside Game Space, games built into the device are displayed in a list.
While apps other than games can be registered, it is best to think of it as a dedicated menu for using the device as a gaming console.
Device settings allow for detailed movements of the CPU and other components, screen tap enhancement, bypass charging, and even screen recording or screenshots.
It is also possible to set usage time to prevent playing games for too long.
In other words, fine adjustments that cannot be made on the smartphone's main settings screen are possible here.
Downloading and purchasing games can also be done from within Game Space.
When trying to find games on the Google Play Store, unnecessary apps are sometimes displayed, but only games are shown in the Game Space app store.
I have no complaints about the overall performance, and I feel the music playback performance is also high.
Given this, I find myself wanting game control buttons on the left and right when the device is held horizontally.
I would definitely like to see a higher-end model like an HONOR WIN Ultra released.
The Affordable Sibling Model HONOR WIN RT
While the HONOR WIN also has high cost-performance, a sibling model with slightly reduced performance, the HONOR WIN RT, was released at the same time. The differences from the HONOR WIN are as follows:
- The chipset is Snapdragon 8 Elite
- There is no telephoto camera
- Fast charging is wired only
The body weight is also slightly lighter at 215g.
Other features such as the 185Hz display, air-cooling fan, 10,000mAh battery, and Game Space button are equivalent.
The HONOR WIN RT is also sufficiently high-performance, yet the price is even cheaper at 2,699 yuan (approx. 386 USD).
At this point, it is only sold within China, but I definitely hope for a global rollout.
▼Photo & Written by Yasuhiro Yamane
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