As mobile gaming continues to surge in popularity, 2025 has emerged as one of the strongest years yet for gaming-centric smartphones. With powerful chipsets, high-refresh displays, advanced cooling systems, and massive batteries, the latest flagships aren’t just phones anymore; they are pocket-sized gaming rigs. Whether you’re into competitive shooters, open-world RPBs, or intense battle royales, there’s plenty of great gaming smartphones to choose from.

So here’s our list of the best gaming smartphones of 2025.

Red Magic 11 Pro+

There are only a few brands that have a pure gaming pedigree, like Red Magic. So if you want a phone built from the ground up for performance and long gaming sessions, look no further than the Red Magic 11 Pro+. Unlike modern flagships that aim to offer a balanced experience, the Chinese brand goes all in on gaming.

It features a tall 6.85-inch 1.5K AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate for an immersive gaming experience. Powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, it pairs up to 24GB LPDDR5T RAM and up to 1TB UFS 4.1 storage, more than enough for even the most demanding mobile titles. But what truly sets it apart is the dual cooling system. Not only does it have an active cooling system with a physical RGB fan, but it also features a vapor chamber liquid cooling. You can even see this system in the words as the liquid moves around in the pipes on the back.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max

While Apple isn’t known to brand any of its devices as a gaming phone, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is a premium phone that delivers true flagship performance. Not only can you play some of the most intense mobile game titles, but Apple has also ported actual console-level games to its iOS platform.

So you can play popular games like Resident Evil 4, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Death Stranding, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and many more. So you have access to an impressive catalogue of games without relying on any particular streaming service.

iQOO 15

If you want flagship-class power without the premium flagship price, the iQOO 15 emerges as one of the best value flagships for gamers in 2025. It ships with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset that brings cutting-edge performance. Pair this with a tall 6.85-inch LTPO AMOLED display, and you get a smooth gameplay experience.

One of its highlighting aspects is the massive 7,000mAh battery pack that promises long, uninterrupted gaming sessions. While it may lack some of the dedicated gaming-phone trappings like active cooling or shoulder triggers, its value-for-money positioning makes it attractive for casual and competitive gamers who don’t want to overspend.

OnePlus 15

The OnePlus 15 strikes a sweet balance between raw performance, everyday usability, and gaming-ready hardware. It is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 as well, but it pairs it with an even higher 165Hz refresh rate. The smooth display kicks in while you run certain titles, which brings an advantage in various competitive games.

This model outshines the iQOO 15 with its gigantic 7,300mAh battery pack that supports 120W wired fast charging as well as 50W wireless fast charging. It even supports bypass charging, which allows the device to run on a wired connection to prevent any overheating, so the battery doesn’t get damaged, and there is no performance throttling.

Honor GT Pro

Rounding out the list is the Honor GT Pro. A device that often flies under mainstream headlines but deserves attention if you’re serious about mobile gaming. While not always hyped, the Honor GT Pro has built a reputation for balancing performance, display quality, and capable cameras.

Just like the rest of Android flagships in this list, you get the powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite and a huge 7,200mAh battery pack. Honor announced this model earlier in the year, so it arrived ahead of the current flagship generation. However, the brand marketed this as a dedicated gaming smartphone since it packed the Leading Edition variant of the Snapdragon 8 Elite along with a three stage cooling system that includes a 3D vapor cooling chamber, thermal conductive adhesive, and AI powered temperature control system.

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The post GizmoChina’s Best of 2025: Gaming Smartphones appeared first on Gizmochina.

Honor made a last-minute branding change to its upcoming midrange phone. What we were expecting to be the Honor GT 2 will now be the Honor Win smartphone, as revealed in a previous report.

Ahead of the launch, the first renders of the Honor Win have surfaced on the web, and they show a few features that immediately stand out.

Here’s your first look at Honor Win 

The renders show the Honor Win in black, blue, and cyan color options. On the back, there’s a horizontal matrix-style camera module that houses three cameras. The layout stretches across the width of the phone and extends all the way to the edge, similar to how recent iPhones integrate their camera islands. The module also includes an LED flash and a visible WIN branding.

What’s more unusual or interesting is an active cooling fan that sits in a cutout that visually blends with the camera module. Active cooling fans are still rare outside gaming phones, so this hints that Honor will position the Win series as a performance-focused device rather than a typical flagship.

On the inside, leaked information suggests the Honor Win series could be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile platform. The chip uses a 2+6 core architecture, with two super-large cores clocked as high as 4.6GHz. 

Moreover, the phone is expected to feature a 6.83-inch flat display with 1.5K resolution, paired with a metal frame. Honor may also include 3D ultrasonic fingerprint recognition and high-level water resistance.

Camera-wise, the Honor Win is tipped to use a 50MP large-sensor main camera, while charging could go all the way up to 100W fast charging. Perhaps the wildest claim is that it could come with a 10,000mAh battery, which would be massive for a phone of this class.

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HONOR is expanding the cross-device features of MagicOS, and iPhone notification sharing is now rolling out to users. The feature first appeared in the November MagicOS 10 update, which also added Face Unlock support for the Dynamic Capsule and video lock screen wallpapers.

MagicOS Product Director Kaopu Guige confirmed that iPhone notification sharing is already supported on several HONOR phones and tablets. Compatible devices include the Magic V5, V3, and Vs3 series, the Magic 8, 7, 6, and 5 series, and the HONOR 500, 400, and 300 series. It is also available on the HONOR GT, GT Pro, and MagicPad 3. More models will receive support through future system updates.

The feature is designed to sync notifications across devices. Once paired, users can view iPhone system alerts and app notifications directly on their HONOR device. This helps users who carry both devices stay updated without switching screens all the time. HONOR says the goal is to keep the experience stable and useful in daily use.

To use the feature, HONOR devices must be running MagicOS 10 or later, and the iPhone must be updated to iOS 15.6 or above. The setup process is simple. Users install the HONOR Connect app on the iPhone, create a QR code inside the app, and scan it with the Smart Connectivity option on the HONOR device. After pairing, users can choose which notifications they want to sync.

Early user feedback says the feature works smoothly, with alerts coming in on time and without changing how notifications behave on either device. HONOR says it will continue improving the feature based on user feedback and plans to add more cross-device functions to make MagicOS work better with other platforms.

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If you’ve noticed a pattern with Honor’s budget lineup lately, you’re not wrong. The company has been rolling out both its X7 and X8 series phones with simple alphabetical suffixes. 

Today, we’re looking at the Honor X8 line, which began with the original model back in 2022 and has since continued with predictable additions: the X8a, X8b, and X8c.

The latest entry in that sequence is the Honor X8d, which has quietly surfaced on a retailer’s website in Kyrgyzstan. Even with a low-key debut, it’s enough to give us a good look at what the phone brings.

Honor X8d Specifications

The Honor X8d features a 6.77-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 × 2392. It’s powered by the Snapdragon 6s 4G Gen 2 chipset, which is making its debut next week. And yes, that’s the real name of the silicon. 

Memory option includes 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The listing shows no higher-capacity variant, so storage expansion or additional models remain unknown.

Honor has included a 7,000 mAh battery, which is larger than what’s typical in this segment. The phone supports 45W wired charging. The X8d also carries an IP65 rating, offering basic dust and splash resistance.

On the back, the phone includes a 108MP main camera along with a secondary 5MP sensor. On the front, there’s a 16MP selfie camera. The device weighs 188 grams and measures 162.9 × 76.3 × 7.5 mm.

As for software, the phone is likely based on Android 16 with MagicOS 10 on top. The device comes in Black, Blue, and Silver shades.

The X8d hasn’t been formally announced yet, so there’s no pricing or availability information at the moment. However, the quiet listing suggests a launch may not be far off.

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(Via | Source)

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HONOR has launched the Magic 8 Pro in the GCC market after its global debut in October. The announcement took place at an event in Dubai, where the company highlighted the phone’s focus on AI imaging, battery life, performance and next-generation connectivity.

Hardware and Performance

The Magic 8 Pro is the first smartphone in the UAE to run on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Mobile Platform. HONOR said the chipset brings better processing efficiency and better thermal control compared to earlier models.

The device runs on a 7,100mAh silicon carbon battery. It supports 100W wired SuperCharge and 80W wireless charging. HONOR confirmed that the Magic8 Pro is the first 5.5G ready smartphone in the UAE. It is supported through partnerships with telecom operators such as Etisalat by e and others. Connectivity also includes Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, USB Type C USB 3.2 GEN1 and dual SIM support. Navigation standards include eidou, GPS dual band, GLONASS, Galileo triple band, QZSS dual band, NavIC dual band and A GNSS.

The phone includes AI tools such as an AI Button, AI Search and AI Documents to improve daily productivity.

Camera System

The Magic 8 Pro features a 200MP AI Ultra Night Telephoto camera that is designed to improve clarity for long distance and low light shots. The rear camera setup includes a 50MP wide camera with an f/1.6 aperture, a 50MP ultra wide camera with a 122 degree field of view and 2.5 cm macro support, and a 200MP telephoto camera with a 1/1.49 inch sensor, an f/2.6 aperture, 3.7x optical zoom, 100x digital zoom and OIS. The rear cameras support 4K video recording at 60fps and use a single LED flash.

The phone features upgraded AI Ultra Night Portrait algorithms that manage exposure and color accuracy. AI Magic Color and the new AI Editor allow users to enhance colors and edit images directly on the device.

Photographer Riadh Maghni demonstrated the camera’s low light performance during the event. The front camera uses a 50MP sensor with an f/2.0 aperture, a 3D depth camera and supports 4K 60fps video.

Display and Build

The Magic 8 Pro has a 6.71 inch quad curved OLED screen with a 1.5K resolution of 1256 x 2808 pixels. The display supports a 1 to 120Hz LTPO refresh rate, HDR10 plus, up to 1800 nits global peak brightness, up to 6000 nits HDR peak brightness and 4320Hz high frequency PWM dimming. It is protected by Rhino Glass.

The phone has an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, an infrared sensor, dual stereo speakers with DTS:X Ultra, and IP68, IP69 and IP69K ratings for dust and water resistance. The device measures 161.15 x 75 x 8.32 mm and weighs 219 grams.

Pricing and Availability

Pre orders for the Magic 8 Pro in the UAE start on 11 December 2025. Color options include Sunrise Gold, Sky Cyan and Black.

The pricing is as follows:

• 12GB RAM and 512GB storage for AED 3,999 ($1,089).
• 16GB RAM and 1TB storage for AED 4,699 ($1,279).

Pre order customers receive a package worth AED 2,299. It includes the HONOR Watch5 Ultra, HONOR VIP Care Plus with 12 month damage protection and a three month Google AI Pro trial.

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