The best gaming phone 2024: top mobile game champions

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Asus has risen to supremacy as purveyor of the market’s best gaming phones; built on a combination of cutting-edge hardware, intelligent software, and eye-catching designs and accessory ecosystems, all tailor-made for mobile gamers.

Previously, the recipe was always, more power, more battery life, more screen, more cooling, just more, but with the ROG Phone 8 series, the company has changed the course of its established gaming phone line by asking the question „what should a gaming phone be beyond good at gaming?“

The result is a device that still delivers some of the best gaming performance in the industry – with Qualcomm’s top-tier 8 Gen 3 chipset at its core, paired with up to an astounding 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage – but a slightly smaller battery than its predecessor to allow for luxuries like wireless charging, no actuated cooling vent to allow for IP68-certified dust and water resistance and a camera on a gaming phone that doesn’t suck. https://bogorupdate.id/

It would appear that the ROG Phone 8 Pro is less about gaming and more about everything else, but it hasn’t lost what made its predecessors so great, it just broadens the ROG Phone series‘ appeal to a broader audience than ever before.

Read our full Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro review

Nubia’s line of Red Magic gaming phones have always focused on delivering the latest hardware and the best available performance at an impressively competitive price. The latest Red Magic 9 Pro is no exception to this approach, while also being the first of the brand’s devices to serve up Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset at its heart.

The dedicated gaming mode switch, integrated RGB fan for active cooling, 520Hz touch response rate display and capacitive shoulder buttons all help reinforce the 9 Pro’s gaming credentials, which paired with that top-tier silicon truly deliver.

While improvements have been made, not everyone will love the RedMagic software running on the 9 Pro – even though it’s packed with helpful gaming features – but it’s hard for those serious about mobile gaming to argue with what’s on offer for the price.

Read our full Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro review

Although you might think 2023’s ROG Phone 7 Ultimate has been overshadowed by its successor, in a sense it’s Asus‘ last uncompromising gaming phone from top to bottom; for the time being at least.

As the name might suggest, it’s unapologetic in its intent to deliver the best mobile gaming hardware and software experience out there, and while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset running the show is no longer the latest and greatest, it still has more than enough power to push pixels around better than almost anything else currently on the market.

Along with a massive battery that makes it ideal for extended play sessions, unlike its successor, the Ultimate boasts what’s called the AeroActive Portal, a motorized port on the phone’s back that opens to reveal part of the device’s copper heat sink. When paired with the AeroActive Cooler 7 – a detachable fan accessory that slots on the ROG Phone’s back – cool air can be pushed directly at the internals of the phone, help mitigate heat build-up and thus improving performance. That fan also packs in a sub-woofer, which works great with the phone’s integrated stereo speakers, although there’s a headphone jack if you’d prefer too.

A killer gaming phone that opts for a bulkier design and forgoes flagship-class cameras in order to focus on offering up the best gaming experience its hardware can muster.

Read our review: Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate review

The best non-gaming phones for gaming

While the ROG Phone 8 is changing the narrative of what defines a gaming phone, generally by their very nature of putting gaming first they typically compromise in other areas that more conventional flagship phones don’t – like design, water resistance, wireless charging, update support and camera quality.

If you’d rather a phone that’s great for gaming, but one that isn’t necessarily marketed as a gaming phone (and thus offers a more balanced overall experience), then the options below might be more suitable than those we’ve already covered here.

Two things to note: you’ll likely notice overlap with our best phones overall list, because as part of these device’s all-round excellence, gaming prowess is naturally built in.

Samsung’s latest Ultra is, for the most part, an iterative refinement on its predecessor, however, one of the most notable upgrades from the performance doled out by its tuned Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 ‚for Galaxy‘ chipset paired to a vapor chamber that’s twice the size of the one found in 2023’s Galaxy S23 Ultra, for superior cooling.

The result – in artificial benchmarks at least – is graphical prowess that matches or surpasses what the likes of Apple’s latest iPhones and even the ROG Phone 8 can muster. A 5,000mAh battery delivers decent-enough longevity for most gamers and while Samsung’s gaming tools are lightweight within its One UI user experience, their presence is still wholly welcome.

For one of the most well-rounded flagship phones on the market right now, just be ready to pay a high price (or consult with our Samsung Galaxy S24 deals article for the latest discounts.

Read our review: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review

More than just an iterative upgrade on its predecessor, the iPhone 15 Pro Max brings in improved cameras, a 5x telephoto lens, a new Action Button, a titanium design, and most importantly for gaming, the new A17 Pro chip. 

With that slice of silicon the 15 Pro Max is more powerful than ever, delivering hardware-accelerated ray tracing for more realistic lighting in games, and the ability to run console ports of big games like Resident Evil: Village and Death Stranding on a smartphone.

Add in access to Apple Arcade – which is going from strength to strength – and the iPhone 15 Pro Max and iOS has demonstrated that it can deliver serious and unique gaming experiences. It doesn’t hurt that the 120Hz 6.7-inch display is also fantastic, with a design that makes the edges slightly smoother and thus more comfortable to hold than previous models.

All in all, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is a fantastic phone that can also handle gaming with ease. 

Read our review: iPhone 15 Pro Max review

OnePlus has often placed an emphasis on performance with its phones, and that’s certainly true of its latest flagship, the OnePlus 12. The same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset as you’ll find in the likes of the ROG Phone 8 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, along with a massive dual vapor chamber, huge battery and impressive 100W fast charging (80W if you’re in the US), make this a fast, capable phone for gaming.

OnePlus skips the latest trend of AI features and instead focuses on its performance-optimizing Trinity Engine, to keep the processor, memory and storage all operating in tip-top shape for as long as possible. HyperTouch and some other tools are on hand to enhance gaming responsiveness specifically and in more general use cases this also possesses one of the company’s best cameras yet.

It’s just a shame that that eye-catching design – with its tweaked physical alert switcher placement to improve antenna performance – isn’t as water resistant as some of the competition here.

Read our review: OnePlus 12 review

How to choose the best gaming phone for you

When you’re choosing a gaming phone, you need to think about which games you like to play. If your games benefit from extra controls, you might consider a phone with shoulder buttons. If you often play on the go and need amazing battery life and fast charging, look for a phone with a big battery and high wattage charging. If you’re looking for a serious gaming powerhouse with the fastest display and coolest look for gamers, that’s going to be the top phone on our list. Whatever you want in a gaming phone, we have a pick for all of your priorities.

Once you know what phone to buy, check out our shortlist of the best iPhone games and best Android games, to find plenty of titles to play. We’re constantly updating this list as well, so check back soon if you’re not set on any of the options here.

How we test

We only include phones on this list once we’ve put them through a full review and passed a final verdict on each one; so we know exactly how good they are and how well they’ll hold up. We then compare and rank them, factoring in their review scores, prices and specs – with a particular focus on all aspects important to mobile gaming.

What is the best gaming phone?

That depends on whether you want a phone specifically built for gaming, or a great all-round handset that also excels for gaming, but we’ve got picks for both.

What should I look for when buying a gaming phone?

The three main factors to consider are screen (particularly size, resolution and refresh rate), battery life, and processing power. Beyond that, look to extra features that might be useful when gaming, such as triggers or fans, and look to the library of available games, as it differs between Android and iOS.

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Alex joined as TechRadar’s Senior Phones Editor in June 2022, but brings over a decade’s worth of experience to the role, with an expertise in smartphones, tablets and wearables. He’s covered keynotes hosted by the biggest brands and attended the launches for some of the most influential mobile products of the last few years. His experience was amassed at some of the most reputable consumer technology publications out there, including GSMArena, TechAdvisor and Trusted Reviews.