Redmi is lining up a new gaming-focused flagship, and the K90 Ultra is tipped to combine Snapdragon 8 Elite, a cooling fan, a battery larger than 8,000 mAh, and 100 W charging, while staying in the 2,000-3,000 yuan range. Xiaomi president and mobile chief Lu Weibing has already teased the device, and the pitch is simple: fast enough for gamers, cheap enough to sting rivals.
That pricing target matters because the premium Android market has been creeping upward, and brands are trying to hold the line somewhere below the eye-watering ultra-flagship tier. Redmi’s answer is not a shiny new chip, but a very un-2026-sounding mix of old-school brute force and active cooling. In other words: if everyone else is bragging about AI, Redmi is bringing a fan.
Snapdragon 8 Elite and active cooling
According to the leak from Digital Chat Station, the K90 Ultra will use Snapdragon 8 Elite rather than the newer Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. On paper that sounds like a downgrade, but the added fan is the interesting part: it could let the phone sustain performance for longer instead of spiking once and throttling down like a bored lapdog.
That also gives Redmi a cleaner story against gaming phones from Honor, which are said to be its main targets. The betting here is that consistent performance will matter more than a newer chip in a phone that is clearly meant to stay under pressure for long sessions.
Redmi K90 Ultra battery, charging and build
The rest of the package sounds very close to the previously released Redmi K90 Max: an ultrasonic 3D fingerprint scanner, full water resistance, a metal frame, stereo speakers and a strong vibration motor. If the rumors are accurate, Redmi is trying to make the Ultra feel less like a stripped-down gaming phone and more like a proper all-round flagship that just happens to prioritize cooling.
- Chipset: Snapdragon 8 Elite
- Cooling: fan-based active cooling system
- Battery: more than 8,000 mAh
- Charging: 100 W
- Expected price band: 2,000-3,000 yuan
Launch window and rivals
Lu Weibing says the phone will arrive before the end of June, which gives Redmi very little runway to keep the details under wraps. If the final device really comes in cheaper than the K90 Max, it could be one of the more aggressive value plays in the gaming-phone segment this half of the year.
The open question is whether buyers will care more about the newer chip label or the promise of sustained performance. Redmi seems to think the answer is obvious: for heavy gaming, a cooler phone with a huge battery beats a hotter one with a fancier number on the box.