Mobile gaming on Android and iOS devices is incredibly popular, and most phones can easily handle casual titles. But as developers push the boundaries of graphics and gameplay, you want a handset that can keep up. PCMag has been covering phones for more than three decades, including those with next-level processors, copious amounts of RAM, and polygon-pushing GPUs, and we’ve collected our favorites for gaming here. Among our Editors’ Choice winners are the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max, both of which offer top-notch performance and big, bright screens. But you don’t need to spend exorbitant amounts of cash to get a high-quality gaming experience on the go, and one of the more affordable options below might fit your needs better. Be sure to click through to our in-depth reviews of each and scroll to the end for some helpful buying advice.
How Much Should You Spend on a Gaming Phone?
When it comes to choosing a gaming phone, your budget is a key factor. Today’s flagship handsets, such as the iPhone 16 Pro Max and the Galaxy S25 Ultra, cost over $1,200, but they also provide excellent non-gaming features such as superb cameras and long battery life.
Nuu B30 Pro 5G (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
The good news is that several midrange and gaming-specific phones deliver excellent performance at a fraction of the cost. The RedMagic 10 Pro and the Nuu B30 Pro 5G, for instance, cost $649 and $299, respectively.
How much you should spend ultimately depends on your needs and budget. If you want a high-end phone that’s just as good at photography and productivity as gaming, prepare to spend for a flagship. But if you care most about a smooth gaming experience for marquee titles, there’s no reason to spend as much. And if you simply want to play casual games, several of our favorite cheap phones should do just fine.
What Features Make a Phone Good for Gaming?
Specific hardware features can enhance your gaming experience. A display that supports a high touch response rate is crucial for competitive gaming, for instance, since it reduces input lag. Some devices go further by offering capacitive shoulder buttons that you can map to in-game functions like triggers. These help prevent your hands from blocking your view of the screen and ensure that you don’t have to stretch your thumbs to tap hard-to-reach areas.
A display’s refresh rate is another important factor. Some gaming phones offer adaptive refresh rates that range from 1Hz to 120Hz, which is great for everyday activities, though the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition can reach an outstanding 165Hz. Faster refresh rates make games look more fluid and reduce the effects of motion blur, though not every game can take advantage of every refresh rate.
Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
Generally, Qualcomm’s latest chips, like variants of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, can easily handle demanding games. Most flagship phones released in 2025 use this processor or an equivalent. Chips from the past two years or so should also still be able to keep up with modern games, though they likely aren’t quite as efficient. Keep in mind that chipmakers sometimes make a jumble of their processor names. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, for instance, is a less powerful version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. We cover all the necessary processor details in our reviews to clarify such distinctions.
You should also aim to get a phone with as much RAM as possible since it helps your phone quickly access and store game data. In other words, more RAM means faster response times, less lag, and smoother multitasking. Through the years, the base amount of RAM and storage necessary for gaming has increased. In 2019, 4GB of RAM was sufficient for most everything. Today, a gaming phone should have at least 8GB of RAM, if not more.
Some games require a lot of space, so it’s important to prioritize storage, too. Unless your phone features expandable storage (via microSD card), the amount you choose at the time of purchase is the amount you’ll have forever. We suggest 256GB of onboard storage at a minimum. Genshin Impact takes up about 30GB of storage, for instance. And you still need space for all your photos, music, and videos.
Built-in fans and advanced cooling systems can also make a difference, especially during long gaming sessions. The RedMagic 10 Pro, for instance, has built-in fans that help keep its temperature in check and the performance high.
RedMagic 10 Pro game tools overlay (Credit: RedMagic)
Manufacturers often equip gaming phones with specialized software that enhances the gaming experience. Asus and RedMagic, for instance, include gaming dashboards that provide real-time data on metrics like frames per second and CPU usage. These dashboards give you options to tweak settings on the fly for optimal performance. Asus even offers downloadable macros that automate repetitive in-game tasks. OnePlus’ dedicated gaming mode ensures that you’re not bothered by incoming notifications. An available macro for Genshin Impact lets you unleash ultimate skills with just a single tap, as an example.
Do You Need 5G for Gaming?
High-speed 5G support is essential for cloud gaming and streaming on the go. High-end devices from Apple and Samsung come with the latest 5G technologies, but many gaming-centric models have more limited support. If you have spotty or slow coverage, latency could wreak havoc on your performance in online games.
Asus ROG Phone 8 (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
Otherwise, make sure the phone you choose supports at least Wi-Fi 6 since it has a theoretical maximum speed of 10Gbps, a big improvement over older versions. You aren’t likely to ever reach that max on your home router, but this protocol should still be fast enough for smooth online gameplay. If you can find a device with Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7, all the better.
