Our choices of the best mobile devices to play on the go. Here are the top 10 best gaming smartphones of the moment.
The best smartphones on the market are generally the best for gaming with their high-end datasheets, accurate screens, and great autonomy. Quality console 3D games are now the norm on the phone, as with Fortnite and PUBG Mobile, and you will need a high-quality device for the best gaming experience. The best gaming smartphones are not just good to play, they will maintain visual quality and performance at the top for the next few years. See the phones below as the assurance of an exceptional experience until at least 2022.
Our recommendations are based on CPU and GPU speeds, RAM quantity and quality, and other criteria and details. They are also based on the ecosystem of available apps, which is why Apple iPhones are frequently at the top of the list. They usually have access to a few more games than Android and often get multi-platform titles first. But there are “gaming smartphones” that have emerged in recent months, and that is… really cool, so we put them on the list.
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The best phone for gaming with reviews and affordable deals at Amazon
If you want high-end technical specifications AND small “gamer” touches like RGB lighting, you’ll be delighted. We looked at all the options and selected the best phones for gaming according to the criteria above. After having shown you the top 10 best gaming notebooks and the guide to the best VR (virtual reality) viewer for smartphones, we will offer you in our final selection the best gaming smartphones to play at maximum power!
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
The best smartphone in the market right now for everything, including heavy games
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus is the new flagship of the giant and has a number of very interesting features that put it at the top of the category. First of all a beautiful 6.4 “AMOLED display with a double hole for the dual front camera, 2K + resolution, and curved edges. There is the ultrasonic fingerprint reader below the display and there is also a nice audio jack for those who can’t do without it.
Under the body beats a powerful Exynos processor with 8 GB of RAM and very high memory cuts up to touching in the ceramic version as much as 1 TB of internal space. The triple rear camera is 12 Megapixels with a variable aperture, accompanied by a 12 Megapixel 2X zoom sensor and a 16 Megapixel Wide-angle sensor.
We close the circle with the 4100 mAh battery, even reverse wireless charging, and Android 9 Pie with the new OneUI to make everything easier and more accessible. Samsung Galaxy S10 is definitely one of the best on the market.
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iPhone XS Max / iPhone XS
The biggest screen, and the greatest autonomy for heavy gamers
This is another of the best gaming smartphones on the market. The iPhone XS Max is the bigger and more powerful big brother of Apple’s new flagship smartphone on a few points, but if you choose one of these models for the game, both take the best. The 6.5-inch screen of the iPhone XS Max is larger than its 5.8-inch brother and its larger battery manage to hold nearly an hour longer than that of the standard iPhone XS.
These settings will give you a clear advantage over the iPhone XS, but both models take advantage of the real benefit of this new generation of smartphones Apple: A12 Bionic processor. We have a lot of hopes for the performance evolution since last year’s iPhone X and its A11 processor as Apple has announced that it is 40% more efficient and 50% more powerful than the previous processor. In our tests, Clash Royale and PUBG shipments proved to be even faster, and the loading speed is crucial in online gaming. All in a sleek and modern design typical of Apple, for the highest price of the mainstream smartphone market, even without the options.
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Samsung Galaxy Note 9
Great. Powerful. Splendid.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is the sequel to a smartphone that evolves very regularly and has small touches, but do not deduce that it is not the best Android smartphone in the market for the game. It does not only have one of the biggest, brightest screens with one of the best resolutions on the market but it’s all supported by the latest Snapdragon and Exynos processors on the market.
You will have a clear advantage over your opponents in games like Fortnite because you will be able to see much more clearly, and with more images per second. And even when you stop playing, you will not be ashamed to walk in public with Note 9, because unlike devices more oriented to the game, its aesthetic remains modern and smooth.
Although the Note 9 does not have fancy accessories or RGB lighting as the next phones in this list, more gaming-oriented, it has a clear advantage: availability. You can get a Note 9 in most physical gadget shops as well as online. Our apologies to the phones Asus ROG and Razer.
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Asus ROG Phone
Top technical features and many mobile gaming accessories
This is another of the best gaming smartphones on the market. The Asus ROG Phone may look like a Transformers Decepticon, but despite its exterior appearance, this device is a powerful phone with many extras that will delight gamers. It is also a correct phone as such and has significant advantages over the relatively similar Razer Phone 2.
Its technical characteristics are very strong for a phone released at the very end of 2018: an overclocked Snapdragon 845, 8GB of RAM and a battery of 4,000mAh, and a screen with a refresh rate of 90hz, surpassed only by the 120hz Razer Phone 2.
And in terms of gaming, the “AirTrigger” buttons on the top left and top right of the phone (when held in landscape mode) allow cool and customizable gameplay that no conventional smartphone.
True to the Asus Republic of Gamers brand, you can purchase a range of accessories to enhance your mobile gaming experience. These include a resealable box with a bonus screen, a pair of half-shifters that snap to the sides of the device, and a docking platform that extends the phone with a big screen like a Nintendo Switch. There is even a fan that is clipped and that reduces the temperature of the device involved.
The external design of the ROG Phone is one of those we love or hate, and we could not blame you for dodging it for a more classic model. But its advances, like the AirTriggers, should not be taken lightly when choosing a phone for high-level gaming.
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Razer Phone 2
Gaming features that eclipse the most classic
The first Razer Phone was a strong attempt by the brand to establish itself in the world of smartphone gaming, but a few minor flaws pushed it down the list. This second version has tuned some of these, and appears as a more viable mobile device, although it still primarily targets players.
But what does it mean? The camera and screen are not nearly as impressive as other phones at the same price, so casual gamers will not have a major interest in getting this type of device. But if you want to play relatively seriously on mobile and you can afford it, it remains a very solid choice.
In appearance, the Razer Phone 2 does not change much from its predecessor, even if it allows you to switch to a chip Snapdragon 845 and back glass for Qi wireless charging. A steam chamber has also been added to cool the device during the game.
In the end, the powerful processor, 8GB of RAM, great speakers, a screen with a refresh rate of 120hz, and a battery of 4,000mAh, as well as many options to adjust the battery life and performance, make this device an excellent choice for gaming.
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iPhone X
Everything revolves around the App Store
This is another of the best gaming smartphones on the market. While the iPhone XS has dethroned the iPhone X for almost a year at the top of Apple smartphones, it remains an excellent choice supported by high-performance hardware. If you find it on sale (it is no longer available on the Apple website), the 5.8-inch iPhone OX display will give you plenty of room to play, as well as exceptional contrast ratios, making the scene beautiful when playing with shadows and lights.
Although other phones might be slightly better than the iPhone X, the main advantage of Apple phones for gaming lies in the App Store. This is partly due to the love of the developers: the iPhones almost always get the best games first, like Fortnite, released exclusively on iOS at first.
Apple is also poised to offer the first useful and mainstream augmented reality experiences, including gaming multiplayer support actually augmented with iOS 12.
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iPhone 8 Plus
Big screen and a lot of power
We will not hide it: Apple has two incredible phones with large, accurate screens and high-end hardware. The same internal capabilities and the App Store have raised the iPhone X to the top making the iPhone 8 Plus an excellent device.
The iPhone 8 Plus has a full HD screen a little less striking, but in our experience remains perfectly viable for gaming. The 5.5-inch screen is quite spacious. The A11 Bionic CPU and Apple’s graphics chip offer an awesome gaming experience, and the ARkit gives gamers a little extra with an augmented reality option. This is one of the devices to get if you want a gaming phone with a home button and you do not want to spend a breathtaking amount on the iPhone X.
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Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus
The best Samsung screens
This is another of the best gaming smartphones on the market. We bundled the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus because they offer virtually the same amazing gaming experience on smartphones with a slight difference in screen size.
The Snapdragon 845, the Adreno 630 graphics chip, and 4GB of RAM (6GB in the S9 Plus) make these two phones incredible devices, whether in play or out of them. And, as other Android phone markets have not yet caught up with the new Snapdragon 845, Samsung has a good head start in this area.
But the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus do not belong in the rankings only to powerful processors. The S9 has a very spacious and precise 5.8-inch screen with a resolution of 1440 x 2960, and the S9 Plus even offers a 6.2-inch wider screen with the same resolution. Both are Super AMOLED displays and work with HDR10 technology for stunning graphics.
The new Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus also offer Samsung’s Game Tools, which can help you take screenshots, record game videos, and block unwanted notifications. Do not forget that Samsung also has an impressive Gear VR that offers a super precise virtual reality experience that benefits from the very high-resolution screen of Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus.
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Google Pixel 2 XL
The biggest screen of Google
The biggest and best of Google’s smartphones, the Pixel 2 XL, is also on the road when it comes to mobile gaming. Its 6-inch screen offers plenty of room to play without your thumbs covering the entire surface. This screen has a pOLED slab of 1440 x 2880 pixels, the graphics are very contrasted and accurate.
Like many other phones in this list, the Pixel 2 XL works with a Snapdragon 835, which offers fluid performance in play in most mobile games. Of course, the Pixel 2 XL is also capable of delivering VR content with the Daydream View headset. The large 3.520mAh battery capacity is also handy for long-distance play, while Google’s Project Fi network (which Pixel owners can sign up for) has impressive coverage that can help eliminate fears of disconnections during your games online games.
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Xiaomi Black Shark
This is another of the best gaming smartphones on the market. The design of this Xiaomi Black Shark is clearly linked to the gaming world and could not be otherwise. The body is made of metal and is decidedly aggressive but everything has been designed to be comfortable during game sessions. There is also a convenient physical key called the Shark key that can activate the high-performance mode.
What is interesting is the Shark Gamepad accessory, a small module to be connected to the base of the smartphone to add an analog stick and a few useful buttons for gaming sessions. The gamepad also offers 150 mAh of battery to keep the smartphone’s life.
The rest of the specifications are just the classic mind-boggling ones to make every kind of game imaginable travel at the speed of light thanks to the Snapdragon 845 processor and its 8 GB of RAM. The 4000 mAh battery will withstand even the toughest sessions.
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Is there a category of video game devices?
As already mentioned, with the evolution of the world of video games also on mobile, a new category of devices purely dedicated to video games was born: gaming smartphones. It was launched by Razer and many others have arrived since the Razer Phone. They are distinguished from normal phones by a much more aggressive design (sometimes characterized by additional LEDs on the body) and by exclusive features that are sometimes not found on normal devices.
Some of the best gaming smartphones support the connection of additional accessories with which they have exclusive compatibility, such as controllers for playing games. In our buying guide, we have divided gaming smartphones between devices specifically dedicated to this activity and normal mobiles that can guarantee similar performance in video games thanks to their components.
Also, see our reviews of the best GPS and Glonass smartphones, waterproof smartphones, and smartphones with a better camera on the market.