10,000 mAh battery phones are finally coming, but not in the US. It’s okay, though.

10,000 mAh smartphones are not a fantasy anymore with yet another model, launched in the Far East — the Honor Win Turbo.

Honor Win Turbo is definitely a win with its massive 10,000 mAh battery

Another 10,000 mAh phone hit the Chinese market. | Image by Honor

This isn’t the first phone to feature such a huge battery. Honor officially debuted the Power 2 back in January, and that model featured a 10,080 mAh cell on board.The new phone is part of the Win lineup, which is limited mainly to China at the moment. The Win Turbo joins the vanilla Win and the RT variant. Both models launched last year and also feature the 10,000 mAh silicon-carbon cell that can be found in the new addition to the lineup.

What’s even more impressive is that this phone is just 7.98 mm thick and weighs 216 grams. Meanwhile, Honor managed to add IP68/IP69/IP69K dust and water resistance. This means the phone will survive deep submersion as well as high-pressure, high-temperature water jets.

Decent specs all around and an affordable price tag

The Honor Win Turbo comes equipped with decent specs. It features a 6.79-inch 1.5K AMOLED display with a higher 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+, up to 8,000 nits HDR peak brightness, 1,800 nits global peak brightness, and 3,840 Hz high-frequency PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) dimming.

There’s a 4nm MediaTek Dimensity 8500-Racing Edition with an ARM Mali-G720 MC8 GPU, 12GB/16GB LPDDR5X Ultra RAM with 256GB/512GB UFS 4.1 storage configurations, and the phone comes running Magic UI 10.0 based on Android 16 out of the box.

The camera setup relies on a 50MP main camera with OIS and an f/1.88 aperture, coupled with a 5MP ultrawide camera.

Prices in China start from CNY 3,299 (~$487) for the base model, which is pretty awesome. However, the Honor Win Turbo is not available outside China and is most likely never coming to the US.

When are we getting 10,000 mAh iPhones and Galaxy phones in the US?

Don’t expect 10,000 mAh batteries inside iPhones and Galaxy devices anytime soon. | Image by PhoneArena

That’s a very good question, and there’s no simple or easy answer. On one hand, there’s a federal aviation limit that caps smartphone batteries at 20Wh (around 5,000 to 5,400 mAh). There are also stricter regulations for storage of devices with larger batteries. 

Last but not least, the new silicon-carbon batteries (check out our dedicated article) are manufactured almost exclusively in China, and Chinese companies are several generations ahead of the competition when it comes to these high-capacity batteries.This forces US brands such as Apple and Google, as well as Samsung, to stick to smaller battery capacities and optimize battery life by other means. This includes energy-efficient screens and chipsets, among other things.

Do we really need 10,000 mAh phones?

Huge batteries not always lead to a better smartphone experience. | Image by Pixabay

Another, maybe more important question, is whether we need phones that can last two or three days on single charge.

Most people are charging their phones on a daily basis anyway, and having a phone that can last a day and a half, or two to three days, could actually break their habits and make them put extra effort into thinking when to charge.

I’m not playing Apple’s advocate here. I’ve tested quite a few phones in the past couple of years, including battery champions with 8,000+ mAh cells inside. They didn’t improve my smartphone experience significantly — charging every night and charging every other night are for all intents and purposes the same thing.

What about you? Would you like to see a 10,000 mAh iPhone that lasts three days, or are you okay with the current battery life situation?