Honor is set to release its first-ever gaming phone, the Honor Win, on Dec. 26. Ahead of its launch, I went hands-on with the upcoming smartphone and its unique turbo cooling fan, which aims to solve a crucial issue in gaming phones: heat. Every phone has to balance processor performance and the heat its chip generates. This is especially true with gaming phones, which can be played for hours at maximum performance.
Honor has equipped the Win with a fan to remove some of that heat, which would allow the processor to run at higher speeds for longer.
Gaming phone-makers such as Nubia and Asus (the companies behind the RedMagic 11 Pro and ROG Phone 9 Pro, respectively) have their own features focused on cooling, but neither company has managed to place a fan inside a phone that's rated for both water and dust resistance.
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The Honor Win takes on these heavyweights in the gaming phone category with a cooling fan design that doesn't compromise on the phone's durability. It doesn't feel like a brick either, despite the presence of a massive 10,000-mAh battery -- the largest phone battery that I've ever tested. That behemoth battery will allow you to game for hours on the Honor Win without it overheating, and the phone itself is as durable as a flagship phone from Apple or Samsung.
There is no word on pricing or a possible global release.
A gaming phone disguised as a premium phone
The Honor Win's cooling fan is placed alongside the camera module on the back, helping it blend into the design of the phone. Prakhar Khanna/CNET
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 before on phones like the RedMagic, but Honor placed it directly above the processor to provide better cooling efficiency. There's an air duct that blows cold air straight onto the chip. The Win's fan can spin for 25,000 rotations per minute and reduce the temperature by up to 7 degrees Celsius (44.6 F) during intensive gaming sessions, according to Honor. Its fan and air duct have a "10% increase in intake area compared to traditional cooling fans."
I will note that the ROG Phone 9 Pro's AeroActive Cooler attachment lowered its temperature by 5 C during a Fortnite gaming session in our review. Until now, the RedMagic 11 Pro's 24,000 rpm fan has had the fastest airflow of any phone.
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