The Best Gaming Phones to Buy in 2024

The best gaming phones allow you to play all the greatest mobile games, on the go, whenever you want, wherever you want. Sure, a great gaming PC or gaming laptop can provide plenty of entertainment and immersion, but sometimes you just need to get your hands on a game when you’re lounging on the couch or traveling on the bus.

With high processing power, plenty of RAM, and a decent GPU, you can enjoy mobile gaming on the best gaming phones, like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Jump to a detailed look at the best gaming phones, or check the list below:

TL;DR – These are the Best Gaming Phones:

Since gaming phones come in all shapes, sizes, and budgets, you can find the right phone for your needs. In fact, some of the best smartphones double up as gaming phones; just be sure they offer decent battery life, RAM, a powerful CPU, GPU, and of course, a stunning display.

Check out our guide to the best phone controllers for accessory options.

The Best Gaming Phone

1. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Best Gaming Phone

Pros:

• Excellent performance
• Long battery life

Cons:

From its unbelievably sturdy Titanium chassis and stunning display to the boarding-on professional cameras, powerful processors, and AI tools, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra shines as one of the best Android phones. All that greatness also translates into a top-tier gaming champion.

Under the hood is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC featuring an 8-core CPU and a GPU with 1,536 shading units. That’s paired with 12GB of RAM, so the Galaxy S24 Ultra won’t break a sweat running the most intensive games at top settings and can easily switch between apps without lag. A Game Booster mode even helps you manage and monitor performance, making this phone a mobile gaming maven.

Further enhancing your gaming experience is the gorgeous and massive 6.8-inch AMOLED display that can achieve a wild peak brightness of almost 2,600 nits for enjoyable viewing anywhere. That screen has a 1440p resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate, ensuring crisp, ultra-smooth action. And with an “Adaptive” setting, your display automatically adjusts the refresh rate based on what you’re doing, helping conserve battery.

2. Asus ROG Phone 8

Best iPhone Alternative for Gaming

Pros:

• Outstanding performance
• Wireless charging

Cons:

The Asus ROG Phone 8 mellows down its gamer aesthetic compared to the ROG Phone 7 but still delivers a complete gaming package, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible on a mobile device. With it comes a 3rd-Gen Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 chip and 12GB of RAM, making it perfectly snappy and responsive in games and your everyday tasks. No matter what, it’s sure to impress.

A 6.78-inch AMOLED display provides a crisp, bright play area, while a refresh rate of up to 165Hz ensures smooth sailing through all the action. Flanking the screen are air triggers—a signature feature of the ROG Phone series. These buttons provide console-like precision and support for a variety of gestures. There’s even the potential to improve your gameplay with X Sense, an AI feature that automatically performs certain tasks in games.

Gaming marathons get toasty, so luckily, the ROG Phone 8 is ready to cool things down with a revolutionary cooling system. Fueling those marathons is a 5,500mAh that’ll easily last through the day depending on usage, and 65-watt quick charge capabilities keep downtime to a minimum.

3. iPhone 15 Pro

Best iPhone for Gaming

Pros:

• Lightweight
• Beautiful display

Cons:

• Not significantly different to older models

With the plethora of games, including some major AAA titles, on iOS, we can’t blame you for wanting the best iPhone to play them on, the iPhone 15 Pro. Its beefy A17 Pro processor provides all the speed and power you need to cruise through most games with their settings cranked to the max. Apple even claims this chip has enough power to enable ray-tracing lighting effects—though we haven’t fully tested this just yet.

The iPhone 15 Pro’s impressive processor also helps power the stunning, bright 6.1-inch OLED display, offering wide color support, HDR, and haptic touch. The screen’s refresh rate hits a max of 120Hz for stutter-free action and scrolling, while Apple’s ProMotion allows it to adjust dynamically. That helps conserve battery life. The battery does perform decently when gaming. Just be prepared for the phone to get a little toasty.

Beyond gaming, Apple’s latest iPhone has made the switch to USB-C, finally ditching the lightning port. You also get a more durable Titanium chassis, and a ​new customizable Action Button replaces the toggle used to go from vibrate to ring. Of course, the cameras are still exceptional, and new software makes them even better.

4. iPhone SE (2022)

Best Budget iPhone for Gaming

Pros:

• Great value for money
• Thin and lightweight

Cons:

• Screen is a little too small

You can actually get a fairly strong gaming experience without having to fork out for the most expensive iPhone. The recently released third-gen iPhone SE offers tons of performance prowess thanks to the incredibly fluid A15 bionic chip powering it, yet it still manages a $429 price tag that’s hard to beat. And, since it’s running on iOS, you get access to a treasure trove of games not found on Andriod as well as the collection in Apple Arcade.

To be honest, the screen on the iPhone SE definitely lacks some luster. It’s only 4.7-inches with thick bezels matching the specs of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8. If you’re afraid of using too much screen space when gaming, though, pair it with a phone controller to reveal more of the display. There is also limited storage with only 64GB, however, you can go up to 256GB. Cloud gaming is an easy solution to this issue, especially with the phone’s support of 5G when not connected to Wi-Fi.

See our guide to the best cheap smartphones.

5. OnePlus 12

Best Everyday Phone for Mobile Gaming

Pros:

• Solid battery life
• Great performance

Cons:

For a great phone that doubles as a gaming beast ready to give flagships from Samsung and Apple a run for their money, grab the OnePlus 12. Starting at only $800 while boasting robust internals, a refined design, respectable cameras, and elegant software, this is a hard-to-beat mid-range phone.

The OnePlus 12 offers a massive 6.82-inch AMOLED display that has crisp, clean visuals and hits a stunningly bright 4,500 nits for easy viewing from anywhere. You’ll welcome the adaptive refresh rate from 1Hz up to 120Hz for smooth gaming when you need it and battery savings when you don’t.

Running the whole shebang is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor ready to rip through everyday operations and all your favorite games. It even runs Genshin Impact at almost 60fps with max settings. Just be prepared for this phone to get hot when you push it to the limit.

6. Sony Xperia 5 IV

Best Ultrawide Gaming Phone

Pros:

• Premium feel
• Excellent display

Cons:

The aspect ratio on most phones is 16:9, but the Sony Xperia 5 IV switches it up with an unorthodox 21:9 display. It’s one of the only phones providing these dimensions, so if your thumbs tend to get in the way of visuals, this design helps keep them away from the center of the gaming action. That ultrawide, 6.1-inch OLED display also delivers a 120Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling.

There’s plenty of oomph under the hood to power that display, like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip paired with 8GB of RAM for snappy performance. A Game Enhancer feature will even let you Livestream all your game’s action but be prepared for your phone to get a little toasty during some of those heavy tasks. However, you’ll still be good to game for quite a while without charging up, thanks to the 5,000mAh battery.

7. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5

Best Foldable Gaming Phone

Pros:

• Folds flat
• Quick and responsive

Cons:

• Battery life isn’t the best

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 opens like a book to reveal a beautiful 7.6-inch display, meaning you get a little tablet to game on that’ll fold neatly in your pocket after you’ve finished. If you’re worried about the quality of that large internal display, the stunning QHD+ AMOLED panel gets plenty bright, hitting up to 1,750 nits, and you’ll enjoy silky, smooth frames thanks to a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. Even when the main display is closed, you still get a 6.2-inch screen to play on.

Powering those impressive displays is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and 12GB of RAM, so this device shouldn’t have a problem chewing through all your games and other tasks. It even packs in stunning cameras, similar to other Samsung flagships. Somehow the phone still maintains a relatively compact form factor with a thinner, lighter design from the Galaxy Z Fold 4, alongside a new hinge allowing it to fold flat with no gap to help with longevity.

What to Look for in a Gaming Phone

Choosing the right gaming phone is a little different than finding the best smartphone. With regular phones, you might be more interested in battery life, the cameras, and a plethora of other specs, but the best gaming phones are all about their screens and processors with everything else being less important. You also rarely need to worry about the battery on a gaming phone, as most pack in some of the biggest smartphone batteries you’ll find.

With that in mind, we’ll start with the processors. Generally, you’re going to get a better gaming experience out of the latest and greatest processor that’s on the market when you’re shopping. At the moment, Android phones will find that in the form of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 which packs in a load of powerful processing cores and has strong graphics on board. That said, if you’re on a budget, Qualcomm’s highest-tier chipsets tend to offer so much power you might not even take full advantage of it, so you shouldn’t feel too shy about seeking out a phone with an earlier chipset like the Snapdragon 888 or 8 Gen 1/2.

For iPhones, Apple makes its own chipsets, and they are extremely powerful. Again, you’ll want to stick with the latest iteration for the absolute best performance, and that’ll always be found in the newest iPhone. At present, that’s the A17 Pro in the iPhone 15 Pro models. This is another case where there’s still plenty of power in previous-generation chipsets, which is part of what makes Apple’s iPhone SE (2022) so compelling with its inclusion of the A15 Bionic chipset at a $429 price point.

In terms of displays, you should pick out anything that’s a step up from your average phone screen. Often, smartphones made for gaming will feature a display with a refresh rate greater than 60Hz. 90Hz is a good start for extra fluidity, but we’re seeing the top gaming phones start to go to 120Hz and beyond. Some displays are even offering variable refresh rates that can let you take advantage of power savings while you’re not gaming. Faster touch sampling rates on displays are also starting to take off, so it may be a spec to keep in mind when comparison shopping. With many gaming phones adding in shoulder buttons, it may not just be the screen you should look at when thinking about the gaming interface.

That’s everything you need to know about gaming phones for now. We’ll be updating this list periodically, especially as even more brands are entering the foray with phones that are especially well suited to gaming.

Gaming Handhelds Vs. Gaming Phones

Deciding on a portable gaming device truly depends on your lifestyle, the type of games you want to play, and how you want to play them.

A gaming phone is ultra-portable and can be easily pocketed. However, it’s still a highly capable machine that does more than game, offering all your typical smartphone features, including quality cameras, navigation, and communication. Many gaming phones even have cooling solutions to prevent thermal throttling and some tote handy triggers. If you’re not a fan of touch controls, you can always grab a phone controller.

Gaming handhelds, like the Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch, are bulkier but still easy to toss in a bag and take on the go. Unlike gaming phones, they are pretty much used solely for gaming, so you get responsive joysticks, triggers, and buttons with these options.

As for actual games, more and more options are coming to Android and iOS, albeit most are toned down compared to their PC counterparts. Cloud gaming with Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox Game Pass also continues to improve, making gaming on your phone easier than ever.

However, the Steam Deck is insanely powerful and acts like a handheld PC, letting you take your Steam library anywhere. Asus is also throwing its hat in the ring with the ROG Ally, offering a similar experience to the Steam Deck. And of course, there are many titles exclusive to the Switch.

Battery life is another consideration, and the Steam Deck has a notoriously bad battery life. Many smartphones have no problem lasting all day, though extensive gaming cuts that drastically. A portable charger is a good investment if you plan to game on the go.

Cost also comes into play, as gaming phones are expensive, with some of the best options costing between $700 to well over $1,000. Gaming handhelds are much more affordable. You can grab a Steam Deck for $400, and a Nintendo Switch is even less.

It’s all about personal preference. Do you want something that does it all but games in a slightly toned-down manner? Grab a gaming phone. Do you want a device dedicated to gaming that offers platform-exclusive titles? Get a gaming handheld.

Kevin Lee is IGN’s Hardware and Roundups Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam

Danielle Abraham is a freelance writer and unpaid music historian.