A fresh leak from China says Redmi is preparing a new phone with an active cooling fan, while OnePlus is reportedly still deciding whether to follow the same route. Tipster Digital Chat Station says several major brands, including OPPO, Honor, vivo, and Huawei, have already moved into phones with built-in fan cooling, and Xiaomi’s sub-brand is next in line.
The idea here isn’t just about novelty. According to the leak, cooling fans are becoming more attractive as chip performance gains get harder to unlock and component costs keep rising. Instead of relying only on pricier flagship silicon, brands may be able to pair a standard chip with better sustained cooling and still deliver more aggressive Pro-level performance in real use.
That performance-first angle lines up with what a lot of gaming-focused users actually want. Better thermal control can help keep frame rates steadier, reduce throttling during long sessions, and make high-refresh displays more meaningful outside of short benchmark bursts.
The comment thread added a few extra clues. One user joked about whether the fan could run even when the phone isn’t under load just to act like a tiny desk fan in hot weather, and the tipster replied that one brand already supports all-scenario fan activation. Another user asked whether ultra-premium phones with dual periscope cameras are still coming later this year, and the answer was yes, with Huawei and OPPO both said to be staying on that path.
IT Home previously cited the same source saying that an upcoming MediaTek Dimensity 950 phone may combine a 1.5K 165Hz display, an independent graphics chip, an active cooling fan, a large battery in the 8,000mAh class, symmetric speakers, and an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. That device is widely expected to be the Redmi K90 Extreme Edition.
For now, this is still leak territory rather than an official announcement. Even so, the report makes it pretty clear where the market is heading: brands are looking for new ways to deliver stronger sustained performance, and built-in cooling could become a bigger part of that strategy.
