In 2024, popular online mobile game COD: Mobile did its own version of Spotify Unwrapped, letting you know how often you’ve gamed and what your stats are. Sadly, I discovered that I’d logged into the game on over 90% of the days in this year (no-one tell my family, please).
That stat isn’t as obsessive as you’d think, when you consider that I test mobiles for TechRadar. I’ve been grinding out those gold camos on everything from the best smartphones around to the best cheap phones on the market and everything in between, and it’s helped me understand the breadth and depth of what different devices can handle with gaming.
So to justify those 330+ days of gaming as ‘research’, I’ve compiled a list of the five most important factors you should consider when buying a new gaming phone. These are just as useful for purchasing a mobile that’s designed for mobiles games, as they are for a normal device that’s equally apt at a bit of COD: Mobile.
The shape of gamer
I’ve used literally hundreds of smartphones over the last few years, and gamed on most of them, and the shape of a phone is the single most important important factor in making a gaming phone worthwhile.
I’ve used many phones that are too big, and it can be hard to reach the on-screen buttons that COD: Mobile uses. I’ve played on phones with bezels that are too small, so your fingers laying over the top of the phone can accidentally tap buttons at the top. I’ve opened on-screen minimaps far more than I’d care to admit. I’ve also played on handsets with giant rear camera bumps, which makes holding your phone comfortably a challenge.
Some issues can be overcome by getting used to gaming on a mobile, but there are devices that I’ve tested for ages and never grown accustomed. Sometimes minor design annoyances ruin the gaming experience, and a surprising number of annoying design flaws can be found on devices intended for gaming.
So what’s the solution? Well ideally, I’d say that you should try out a phone and hold it in your hand before you buy it, maybe by going to a brick and mortar shop or finding an online retailer that allows easy returns. Decide how it feels, try to play games without accidentally opening the minimap, and see if you end up smudging the camera lens.
What are the charges?
A battery could be the make or break feature for a gaming phone. A big battery doesn’t just ensure that you can use your mobile throughout a whole day of use. It can also dramatically increase your gaming time. I’ve used phones with a short battery life, and the worry of running out of charge has paused my gaming with those
Gamers should look for a phone with a battery of at least 5,000mAh – this is pretty easy in 2024 given that the vast majority of mobiles tick that box. A larger battery cell means you’ll get more gaming time, nice and simple.
Charging speed is important for the same reason, as it means you can quickly boost up your mobile if you’re in a fix – battery anxiety goes away. The ‘fast’ part of ‘fast charging’ is important because normally, plugging in your mobile while gaming will simply cause it to discharge slower, but if your device powers quick enough then you can actually gain battery power while playing. For the fastest charge, I’d recommend looking for mobiles that charge at 60W or above.
Looks that kill
You’d think that your phone’s screen would be one of the most important aspects of a gaming phone – after all, it’s the thing you’re staring at for 100% of your gaming session. And while it is useful, I’ve never used a mobile and thought “wow, this screen looks awful for gaming” which is why it’s not higher on this list.
Almost every mobile out there right now has a 1080p screen, and most games output at this resolution – by default, COD: Mobile uses this resolution. I’ve tested it on higher-quality resolution settings and I don’t think the quality jump changes the gaming experience that much.
What you should look for in a screen is a high max brightness. If you can make your display brighter, the contrast is more pronounced, and this has a noticeable effect in-game. It means you can spot other players (ie, enemies) against their backgrounds, so you can react to situations that little bit quicker.
I have tested a phone screens with low max brightness, and recall finding it hard to make out enemies when playing COD: Mobile as a result.
Getting triggered
Some gaming phones come with physical triggers on the top of the device, that you can map to commands to give you extra controls. Different makers do this in different ways, some with physical triggers and others with haptic areas that you tap.
When triggers work well, they super-charge your gaming experience. I’ve played COD: Mobile with triggers that made me feel like I was playing with cheats enabled: I was able to react so quickly in matches that it felt unfair.
However, I’ve also used triggers that held me back because they didn’t work well: I’d have to tap multiple times for it to pick up a command, or there would be a delay, so my response times would be worse than normal.
In general, I’d recommend physical triggers as a fantastic bonus for hardcore gamers. Haptic triggers, on the other hand, have proven less reliable in my testing, and I tend to steer clear of these. It depends on the games you’re playing though: in COD: Mobile, triggers can work wonders, but on non-action titles it’s less important.
Chips(et) and dips
A chipset is the ‘brains’ of a smartphone, and you’d think that a smarter phone would be better at handling complicated games. However I’ve tested phones with top-end and bottom-end chipsets, and have come to realize that this isn’t actually that important.
That’s because most smartphone games seem to be optimized to work on all manner of phones, so if you’re playing on a $200 Android, the game won’t feel much worse than on a $1,000 iPhone – sure, you might get some lagging and freezing here and there, but not as much as high-end phone makers would have you think.
In fact, your ping (or network connection strength) will impact the speed and responsiveness of your gaming experience much more than the chipset, especially on a multiplayer title like COD: Mobile.
Improved phone internals will bring a few benefits: you’ll be able to play games using higher-quality graphics options, if the title offers that, and loading titles might be quicker if you’ve got more RAM. However, I often prefer mobiles with mid-range chipsets, as the extra cost of a top-end one is rarely worth it.
