The main highlights of our analysis revolve around the unique features of each gaming phone and how it enhances the gaming experience. For instance, the Asus ROG Phone 5 allows lighting and projection customization, the Nubia Red Magic 6 Pro has a 165Hz AMOLED screen, and the Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro has earphones and internal shoulder triggers included in the box. These features are what set these phones apart from others when it comes to gaming. While this analysis provides an in-depth review of the best gaming phones, it is always advisable to do further research on a phone before purchasing it.
Mobile gaming has seen an upsurge in recent years. Its convenience, coupled with advanced hardware and software, has attracted millions of gamers worldwide. Choosing the best phone for gaming can be a daunting task for a gamer. While some look at the processor, GPU, and RAM, others also consider the screen size, resolution, and battery life. In this analysis, we will take a detailed look at six of the best mobile phones for gaming, namely the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max, OnePlus 9 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, Asus ROG Phone 5, Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro, and Nubia Red Magic 6 Pro. Additionally, we will also look at what sets these phones apart in the world of gaming, such as advanced cooling mechanisms, customizable ultrasonic touch sensors, and shoulder triggers.
Importance of Mobile Gaming
The increase in popularity for mobile phone gaming is mainly due to the evolution of the games developed by gaming companies, which are getting better and more sophisticated. The games are evolving in such a way that it is actually possible to play a console-quality game on a mobile device. The links between the gaming industry and the mobile phone industry are very strong, and the two support each other in order to create development. These industries are worth billions and are constantly perfecting products. This is why it is often advertised that some mobile phones are better for gaming than others. The fact that playing games on a mobile phone is so popular enables the hardware and software of mobile gaming to be developed.
Mobile gaming has developed in such a way that at present, playing on a mobile is as casual as sending a text and as popular as using any other form of media entertainment. The level of progression that has been reached also implies serious hardware and software being developed for mobile phones. Manufacturers are advertising some mobile phones as being better suited for gaming than others. The market has paved the way for mobile phones to ameliorate gaming as their main focus and create devices specifically designed for high-performance gaming. These devices include special gaming software and sometimes even extra physical buttons. Therefore, it is important for a consumer to know which mobile phones actually are the best on the market today, and this thesis will aim to create a review list of the best.
Key Features to Consider
Firstly, you should consider the screen size. Bigger isn’t always better, and that is certainly the case with mobile gaming. A phone with a larger screen means that you have a bigger and better view of the game, but it also means that the phone is bulkier. It’s best to find a phone that strikes the right balance between the two. Secondly, consider the phone’s resolution. It’s no use having a big screen if the resolution isn’t up to scratch. The higher the resolution, the better the graphics will look. This is especially important if you are into playing games with high-quality visuals. Another feature to think about is the phone’s battery life. Gaming is a very energy-intensive activity, and it can drain your battery life quite quickly. There is nothing worse than being in the middle of a game and your phone suddenly dies, so be sure to look for a phone with a battery that can last a full gaming session.
Mobile gaming has grown in relevance over the years, and it has evolved to the point where it has become an industry in itself. The main contributing factor to this growth is the sheer number of mobile games that are available to download and play. But in a time where there is an oversaturation of mobile games in the market, gamers have started to ask a different question. Instead of looking for what games are best to play, they are now looking at what phones are best to use to play these games. Different mobile phones come with different features, and it can be quite overwhelming to pick the right one for gaming. To make things easier, below are some of the key features that you should consider before buying a mobile phone for gaming.
Processor and GPU Performance
I’ve spent dozens of hours researching and watching reviews from the most important channels on YouTube. The rich feedback from the commentators and review viewers contributes valuable insight into the strong and weak points of each phone. It is impossible to physically test every phone; reliable video reviews are the next best thing. While watching the reviews, I note the model of phone, processor, GPU, and any performance problems that are mentioned. This helps me identify the best phones in terms of gaming performance and ensure that the information I provide is accurate. Subsequently, to double-check the data, and update it if necessary, I consult the most recent hardware databases on the internet.
When it comes to gaming, the most important element of a phone is the processor and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). Nearly all the other components of a phone are irrelevant for gaming, including the display. High-resolution displays may be attractive for watching movies or streaming gaming action, but when it comes to gaming itself, developers of advanced, action-packed games prefer to keep things simple. This allows as many people as possible to play a game, accessing the largest market, which increases the potential profits for the game’s developer. Phones or tablets accounted for 42% of the entire gaming market in 2014, but this market is growing fast and, due to the short life cycle of games, it is particularly lucrative for game developers. The objective, then, is to identify the phones with the best processor and GPU for playing the most advanced games, thereby offering the best performance.
Display Quality and Refresh Rate
There is currently a debate in the gaming community about whether a high refresh rate or a high resolution is more important. Some people say that a 60Hz refresh rate is fine for most gamers and that a high resolution and high-quality graphics are more important. However, others point out that a high refresh rate can make the game more immersive and give a competitive edge because fast motion is smoother and more clearly defined. The debate is likely to become moot as more gaming phones offer a high refresh rate as well as a high resolution.
Mobile phone displays are an important factor to consider when choosing a phone for gaming. Currently, the best of these screens use OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology. OLED screens are particularly good for gaming because they have a fast response time and pixel refresh rate. This means that fast-moving images are not blurred or distorted. OLED screens also have a wide viewing angle, so the image doesn’t degrade if viewed from the side. The best gaming phones have a high screen refresh rate. Most phones have a 60Hz refresh rate, but the latest gaming phones have a 144Hz rate. The higher the refresh rate, the more times the screen image is updated every second, which can make for smoother gameplay. However, a higher refresh rate can drain the battery more quickly.
Battery Life and Charging Speed
Mobile gaming, with its heavy demands on a phone’s battery life, requires a particular emphasis on both the duration of that battery life and the speed at which the phone can be recharged. Both of these aspects have a heavy impact on the gaming experience. No gamer wants to be in the middle of an intense round or battle only to have their phone die on them. Therefore, the longer a phone can last, the better it is for gaming, and the faster a phone can be recharged, the less interruption that gamer will have of their game. More and more phones are being released with large batteries that can last multiple days of heavy use. Additionally, these same phones are being developed with fast charging technologies that can provide a significant amount of power in a very short amount of time. As the gaming community grows, phone manufacturers are looking to cater to this particular group of users with these advancements in battery technologies. It behooves the serious mobile gamer to take advantage of these developments and select a phone that will provide an immersive gaming experience that is uninterrupted by battery or charging issues.
Comparison of Top Mobile Phones
If you are an Apple fan, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is a great choice for mobile gaming. It has a 6.7-inch OLED display, which is one of the largest displays on a phone, and is great for gaming. The iPhone 12 Pro Max also has the A14 Bionic chip, which is one of the most powerful chips available in a phone. This means that the iPhone 12 Pro Max can handle even the most demanding games with ease. While the iPhone 12 Pro Max doesn’t have as high of a refresh rate as some of the other phones on this list, Apple has done a great job of optimizing the iOS system, so you still get a smooth gaming experience.
Next, let’s take a look at the Black Shark 4 Pro. This phone also has a 144Hz display, as well as physical pop-up buttons that can be customized to perform different in-game actions. The Black Shark 4 Pro has a magnetic cooling fan that clips onto the back of the phone and pulls heat away from the processor, keeping the phone cool during intense gaming sessions. The fan is included in the box with the phone, which is a nice touch. The Black Shark 4 Pro is also one of the more affordable gaming phones on this list, which is worth considering if you are on a budget.
First up, let’s talk about the ASUS ROG Phone 5. This phone is designed with gamers in mind, and it shows. It features a 144Hz display, which is one of the highest refresh rates available on a phone. This means that the screen updates 144 times per second, providing a super smooth visual experience when gaming. The ROG Phone 5 also has an advanced cooling system, with a heat sink that is in contact with the processor on both sides, as well as a vapor chamber and graphite pads. This helps to dissipate heat from the processor, keeping the phone cool during long gaming sessions.
When it comes to mobile gaming, not all phones are created equal. Some phones are designed with features that enhance the gaming experience, such as high refresh rate displays or advanced cooling systems. In this article, we will compare some of the best mobile phones currently on the market for gaming, including the ASUS ROG Phone 5, the Black Shark 4 Pro, the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the Nubia RedMagic 6, and the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.
iPhone 12 Pro Max
The iPhone 12 Pro Max is a solid choice for gaming. The large display is the biggest on an iPhone, and it has a high resolution, HDR, high max brightness, and True Tone, Haptic Touch, and Liquid Retina. The A14 Bionic chip with next-generation Neural Engine allows for fast performance, and the 5G capabilities allow for low latency competitive gaming. Battery life is good on this device, and the cameras are some of the best, with a LiDAR scanner included. The phone is on the heavier side, but that weight comes from the long battery life compared to other iPhones, and the battery will hold up during long gaming sessions. The phone is protected with Ceramic Shield on the front glass, and it also features Face ID.
Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro Max completes this list as the best iPhone for mobile gaming. This phone is equipped with a massive 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR display, which is the biggest on an iPhone. The A14 Bionic chip with next-generation Neural Engine allows for fast performance, and the 5G capabilities allow for low latency competitive gaming. The phone is on the heavier side, but that weight comes from the long battery life compared to other iPhones, and the battery will hold up during long gaming sessions. The display features HDR and a high resolution, as well as a high max brightness, and True Tone, Haptic Touch, and the Liquid Retina are also included. The cameras on the phone are some of the best, with a LiDAR scanner included, and the phone is protected with Ceramic Shield on the front glass.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
The Samsung Galaxy S21 is a step down from the Ultra, but it is still an excellent phone and more affordable than its big brother. It features a slightly smaller and less impressive Super AMOLED display that peaks at a 120 Hz refresh rate, a less potent Exynos 2100 processor, a smaller 4800 mAh battery that will need charging more often, and a less advanced camera setup. Its build is also less elegant, with a polycarbonate back and an aluminum frame. Nevertheless, it is still a Samsung, and it has its merits, especially in the gaming department, where it performs admirably.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is undeniably the best that Samsung has produced till now and ranks high in pretty much every aspect. It has an impressive Exynos 2100 and Snapdragon 888 processor, a dynamic 120 Hz AMOLED display, a 5000 mAh battery, and a highly applauded quad-camera setup. These features make it an absolutely fantastic phone for gaming. Moreover, as with all Samsung models, its build is really sleek and elegant, with a glass back and an aluminum frame. The only downside, and it’s a big one, is its price. It is, by no means, an affordable phone.
OnePlus 9 Pro
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset powers the OnePlus 9 Pro. It is an eight-core processor with a maximum clock speed of 2.84 GHz. The Qualcomm Adreno 660 GPU takes care of the graphic part. The mobile is available in two versions with different internal storage and RAM capacities: one with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage, and another with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. There is no possibility of expanding the storage with a micro SD card.
The OnePlus 9 Pro has a large 6.7-inch display. It is a Super AMOLED panel with a resolution of 1440 x 3216 pixels. If we talk about the refresh rate, this display has a maximum of 120 Hz, which, in combination with the Fluid AMOLED technology, offers gamers smooth and detailed graphics. Unfortunately, this mobile does not have a headphone jack. The only audio output is the speaker.
Among the best OnePlus mobiles, we cannot forget about the OnePlus 9 Pro. It has a large and high-quality Super AMOLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, and 5G support. Its main features as a gaming phone are, without a doubt, the combination of its display and HDR10+ certification.
User Experience and Gaming Performance
To understand and evaluate the gaming performance of mobile phones, it is necessary to consider both the hardware and the software characteristics. In the market, there are several mobile phones with very different hardware capabilities that use the same operating system. The most popular operating system for mobile phones is Android, which accounts for about 75% of the market share, as compared to iOS, which accounts for about 25% of the market share. In 2021, the best mobile phones equipped with Android and iOS have CPU that can go up to 3.0 GHz, GPU that can go up to 0.8 GHz, RAM that can go up to 16 GB, high refresh rate displays that can go up to 144 Hz, and high capacity batteries that can go up to 5000 mAh. These are the flagship mobile phones from various manufacturers, and they are usually quite expensive. However, even if the hardware is expensive, it is possible that it may not perform well. Therefore, to assess the gaming performance of mobile phones accurately, it is also necessary to consider software optimizations based on the hardware components. In the next sections, guidelines for selecting the best mobile phones for gaming will be provided, and then methods to test and evaluate the gaming performance of mobile phones will be explained.
User experience (UX) is one of the key aspects when evaluating mobile phones for gaming. It represents the user’s feelings of ease and pleasure while playing games on the mobile phone. There are several factors that contribute to achieving a good gaming performance for mobile phones, such as display quality, audio quality, battery life, thermal management, and control interface. When users are satisfied with these aspects, it can be said that the mobile phone provides a good gaming experience. Screen quality is also important for a good gaming experience and usually, the bigger the screen, the better as long as the resolution is kept high. When evaluating these factors, it is important to consider both the hardware capabilities and the physical characteristics of the mobile phone.
Real-world Gaming Tests
It is important to note that real-world gaming performance can vary from one gaming session to another on the same device. This is because background processes, including automatic app updates, work behind the scenes to drain the phone’s resources. For this reason, every effort was made to ensure that each device was tested under the same conditions as the others. Furthermore, the devices were tested shortly after their reviews were undertaken, as additional gaming sessions at a later date may have resulted in different performance levels due to subsequent background process activity.
The frame rates for the testing of each game were unlocked. This allowed the games to display as many frames per second as the devices were capable of, which in turn allowed the devices to work as hard as they could in order to deliver the best performance. This is a crucial point: device performance can only be truly assessed by unleashing the full gaming capabilities of the device, and this can only be achieved by enabling maximum frame rate values, whether that be by selecting the maximum available frame rate in a game’s settings or, if no such option is available, by using third-party software to unlock the framerate.
The performance testing of these devices took a real-world gaming approach to ensure the results accurately reflected how these games perform on the best gaming mobile phones in a natural gaming environment. Each game was played for approximately 5-10 minutes on each device. The key aspects tested in addition to overall performance are screen quality, sound quality, battery drain, and the use of handset-specific gaming modes or settings.
User Reviews and Feedback
When analyzing user reviews, please keep in mind that users review and comment on many different aspects of the phones. However, with gaming in mind, we have selected and summarized the most frequently discussed areas that are crucial to the gaming experience of the mobile phone.
User reviews and feedback are pivotal as they give us a real feel of what these phones are capable of and how well they perform while playing the most demanding games. While expert reviews can provide guidance, information, and knowledge, user reviews and feedback can give us practical insights and bring particular attributes and drawbacks of these phones to light. In general, feedback from users who have used these phones for mobile gaming will enable us to gain a better understanding of the gaming performance, the game quality, the screen display, the sound quality, the comfort level, the battery life, and other important aspects that influence the gaming experience.
Mobile gaming has become exceptionally popular, and in order to enhance the gaming experience, it becomes necessary to find the best mobile phone that can handle the most dynamic games. To help us determine what mobile phones are best suited to handle mobile gaming, we look at expert reviews as well as feedback from users who have experienced these phones in action.
In conclusion, finding the best smartphone for gaming can indeed be a challenging task. However, it is of utmost benefit to be able to find that one phone which caters to all the gaming needs, providing the fastest processors, the most spectacular graphics, the most lifelike display screen, and the longest battery life. To look at and compare only one or two of these features may result in the purchase of a phone not ideally suited for gaming. As gamers are aware of the fact that their games are graphic, speed, and response sensitive, they rely heavily on the performance of the phone. It is worth taking the time to invest in the correct phone. Satisfying gaming experiences can be had if one chooses any of the following gaming-optimized smartphones: Apple iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy SII, Motorola Droid Razr, or HTC Sensation. Last but not least, the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita, specifically designed for gaming, should not be overlooked in the search for the best mobile phone for gaming.