Only 1,350 Yuan! I Just Scored Huawei’s Final Gaming Laptop — and Its Value Exceeded All Expectations

Xiaolei recently bought an Honor Hunter V700.

Not because there was any grand plan behind it—rather, Huawei’s latest product launch reignited my curiosity about laptops from the Huawei ecosystem. That spark of interest eventually led me straight to this machine.

Launched on September 16, 2020, the Honor Hunter was Honor’s first high-performance gaming laptop. Just two months later, in November, Honor officially separated from Huawei. That timing makes the Honor Hunter V700 essentially the one and only true “gaming laptop” ever produced under the Huawei umbrella—a final chapter that now feels almost symbolic.

While browsing a familiar second-hand marketplace, Xiaolei barely swiped a few times before stumbling across a listing that seemed almost too good to be true. An Honor Hunter V700 in reportedly good condition, equipped with an i5 processor, GTX 1660 Ti GPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD—priced at only 1,350 yuan.

For context, when this model debuted in 2020, its official starting price was 7,499 yuan.

Seeing a once-premium machine drop to less than 20% of its original value, how could a tech enthusiast like me possibly resist? Curiosity won immediately.

I didn’t hesitate. I hit “Buy Now.”

When the massive SF Express box finally arrived at my doorstep, reality kicked in. The excitement faded just enough for the most basic question to appear: what exactly does one hope to gain from spending just over a thousand yuan on a four-year-old gaming laptop?

And so, this spur-of-the-moment review was born.

A Huawei Gaming Laptop?

Most people would probably assume this phrase refers to some random knock-off. After all, Huawei laptops are known for sleek, thin, business-class designs, not RGB-infused gaming machines.

Yes, Huawei released the MateBook GT last year, but its true power still depends on an external GPU dock. It doesn’t fit the image of a self-contained, full-power gaming laptop.

But the Honor Hunter V700 is different. It was created before Honor split from Huawei, making it Huawei’s first and only true gaming laptop—built with performance and cooling as top priorities. It was the first device from the Huawei–Honor ecosystem to challenge traditional gaming laptop makers head-on.

Honor actually envisioned it as something more than just a gaming machine.

Visually, the Honor Hunter V700 doesn’t fully embrace typical gaming laptop design cues. Its matte metal lid features a glowing logo at the center but otherwise keeps things minimalist. With its Phantom Night Black color and clean, angular lines, it looks more like a beefed-up business laptop than a flashy gaming rig.

Inside, the V700 houses an impressive display for its time: a 16.1-inch, 1080p panel with a 144Hz refresh rate and 100% sRGB coverage. Aside from slightly warm color temperature and some visible brightness falloff at the edges, the display holds up surprisingly well.

The keyboard also impresses. Built with four-zone RGB backlighting, a full number pad, and a generous 1.8mm key travel, typing gives you a satisfying, tactile response.

But the biggest selling point back in 2020 was its thickness. At just 19.9mm, it was remarkably slim compared with the bulky gaming laptops of that era. Even its compact 200W power adapter felt futuristic—far from the brick-sized chargers we were used to seeing.

The metal chassis adds a premium feel and stronger rigidity than many plastic-bodied laptops in today’s budget segment. However, despite its slim profile, the laptop isn’t light. At 2.45kg, it's substantial enough to make daily commuting feel like a mini-workout.

One of the most talked-about innovations is its “Lift-Up Wind Valley” cooling system. When the screen is opened, part of the base automatically lifts, creating an 8.5mm intake gap. Cool air is pulled in from both the bottom opening and vents above the keyboard, while heat escapes through four exhaust ports along the edges.

At the time, only the ROG Zephyrus IceBlade 4—costing over 20,000 yuan—offered a similar mechanism.

Some may worry about hot air circulation, but real-world testing shows otherwise. Even under extreme load—running CPU and GPU stress tests simultaneously for 20 minutes—the keyboard remained around 42.4°C, and the hottest spots avoided the WASD area entirely.

The CPU held at 83°C and 2.7GHz, while the GPU sat comfortably at 68°C.

But there’s a catch. The fans are extremely loud—reaching 63 decibels, noticeably higher than most gaming laptops. Using headphones isn’t just recommended; it’s practically mandatory.

Connectivity is solid as well. Apart from lacking a PD charging port, the laptop includes everything from USB 3.2 Gen1 to HDMI 2.0, RJ45 Ethernet, and a Type-C port that supports DP 1.2 video output.

The configuration of this unit is the entry-level option: an Intel i5-10300H paired with a GTX 1660 Ti GPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 512GB PCIe 3.0 SSD. A respectable setup in its prime.

Performance numbers reflect its age but remain serviceable. In Cinebench R23, the i5-10300H scores 4609 (multi-core) and 1150 (single-core), trailing even the more modern i5-1135G7 in some tests.

The GTX 1660 Ti, meanwhile, performs roughly on par with a non-ray-tracing RTX 2060. Benchmarks show it outperforming the modern entry-level RTX 3050/3050 Ti in several scenarios, thanks partly to its 6GB of VRAM.

Real-world gameplay corroborates this. Titles like League of Legends and CS2 run at a locked 144 FPS on high settings at 1080p.

In Black Myth: Wukong, using FSR 3.0 on Quality mode, the game hits around 64 FPS at high settings. Some motion artifacts appear due to frame interpolation, but overall playability remains solid.

Cyberpunk 2077—even known as a “benchmark killer”—runs at nearly 86 FPS on high settings at 1080p (FSR 2.1 Quality), rarely dipping below 72 FPS.

Forza Horizon 5 performs close to 90 FPS on high settings with FSR 3.0.

Thanks to 6GB VRAM, this laptop even runs small local AI models. Using koboldcpp with Qwen-3.0-4B-Uncensored, each short conversation generates a response in about 15–20 seconds. Z-image can also run, though a 1K image may take 5–10 minutes.

Surprisingly, for local AI workloads, this machine could outperform even some of Huawei’s newest laptops.

Fast-forward to 2025: with storage prices rising, new gaming laptops with decent specs typically start at 6,000–7,000 yuan. For students or budget-conscious buyers, the used market is becoming an increasingly practical choice.

So, is the Honor Hunter V700 still worth buying?

Objectively, in the 1,000-yuan bracket, its strengths are undeniable: excellent build quality, a still-capable GTX 1660 Ti, and a high-quality display. Few new laptops at this price can deliver smooth AAA gameplay the way this one can.

But its weaknesses are equally clear. The quad-core i5 struggles with multitasking and strategy simulation games, and early units were notorious for a “high-temperature black-screen” failure that must be verified before purchase.

The verdict is simple:

If you understand hardware and can find a unit that has already had its circuitry issues repaired, the V700 is an incredible value machine.
If you’re inexperienced with computers, do your homework first and confirm the unit’s condition thoroughly.

Looking back, the Honor Hunter V700 feels like Huawei’s bold first step into high-performance laptop territory. The product line never continued under Huawei, but Honor’s recent MagicBook Pro 16 2025 HUNTER Edition hints that the legacy might not be completely abandoned.

And who knows—once domestic chip manufacturing truly takes off, perhaps one day we’ll see Huawei revisit the world of extreme-performance gaming machines once again.