Best gaming phones 2024 - buyer’s guide

If you want nothing short of the best mobile gaming experience, we believe that the ROG Phone line is still the way to go. The ROG Phone 9 family has the most in-depth and comprehensive set of gaming features on top of excellent and, in many ways, specifically crafted hardware.

The ROG Phone 9 generation is all about refinement. Last year, the family saw a major redesign, and now Asus is ironing out any issues and grievances users might have had.

The latest and greatest Snapdragon chipset is sort of a given, but we still have to admire how well the ROG Phone 9 handles cooling on the beastly chipset and how efficient it is.

The boost in the display refresh rate is also appreciated. Even if it is applicable only to a small subset of games, it still offers a visual upgrade to players.

We also welcome the slightly but thoughtfully upgraded camera setup on the Pro model. That and the new AeroActive Cooler X Pro, which has its subwoofer back.

The excellent battery life is the cherry on top of it all.

As we said, it's all about refinement in this generation, and we are here for it. While the ROG Phone 9 and 9 Pro hold more mainstream appeal than ever, we still believe that Asus is rightfully targeting the underserviced hardcore mobile gaming niche. If you want the best mobile gaming experience with no compromise, you've come to the right place.

If anyone out there is really and truly playing the specs game, it has to be the Red Magic team. The endless pursuit for the best mobile hardware inevitably results in similar devices with just incremental upgrades, which is definitely one way to view the Red Magic 9S Pro. It is so similar to the Red Magic 9 Pro that the two practically have the exact same dimensions and weight. Most of our observations in the Red Magic 9 Pro review are thus still applicable to the Red Magic 9S Pro.

Overall, the Red Magic 9S Pro is a capable gaming smartphone with tons of useful gaming features, excellent design, and probably one of the best, if not the best, price/performance ratios currently on the market. Kudos to nubia for maintaining its competitive pricing.

It's not only an affordable Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 option, but it also offers great battery life, fast charging and a great set of stereo speakers. Those excellent shoulder triggers and flat, uninterrupted OLED show great attention to detail and dedication toward the gaming crowd.

The €300 Poco X7 Pro turned out to be an excellent bang for the buck offer as it offers unmatched flagship performance for its price class. It also has a cool and stylish design, a great AMOLED screen and an attractive design with a solid build. The battery life and the charging are quite alright, and so are the speakers.

We were also impressed by the smoothness of the HyperOS 2 and its AI options. And let's not forget the promised three major Android updates and 4 years of security patches.

Admittedly, the camera is mostly mediocre, except for the 2x zoom quality and the video stabilization. The rear cameras get the job done, but there is nothing impressive about the quality. The selfie shooter is one of the worst we've experienced lately, though.

If not for the so-so cameras, we would have given an excellent mark for this Poco X7 Pro. But even with these imperfections, the Poco X7 Pro is the most powerful smartphone around the €400 mark with a premium display, cooling, and top-notch battery and charging technologies. Given the all-round premium experience on a low-tier midrange price, the Poco X7 Pro easily becomes our top pick for this category.

Who would have thought that iPhones will become a regular recommendation in our gaming section of the buyer’s guide. And with the release of the new iPhone 16 series, it’s time to replace the older iPhone 15 Pro Max with the latest 16 Pro Max.

Apple’s recent push in the gaming segment is showing some results as the company promises console-level gaming with its new iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. The new Apple A18 Pro graphics offer improved hardware-based ray tracing and improved heat dissipation and sustain performance. We chose the Pro Max for this section, of course, due to its bigger display and longer battery life.

The new A18 Pro chip ensures exceptional gaming performance, which you can bring on a bigger external display using the USB-C 3.2 port and Apple has big AAA gaming titles to iOS - Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Death Stranding. This is actually a big step for the whole smartphone gaming segment.

In addition to the excellent performance, the 16 Pro Max offers great visual experience, full utilization of the 120Hz refresh rate, outstanding stereo speakers and long software support, ensuring support for future gaming titles.

Although not specifically marketed as a gaming phone, the Xiaomi 14T Pro has a good proposition value in this aspect, no matter if it was intentional or not. In addition to the powerful Dimensity 9300+ chipset, which is on par with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in most benchmarks, the phone also sports a big, bright and fast 144Hz OLED panel, nice-sounding stereo speakers, dependable battery life, blazing-fast charging and a capable camera hardware.

But what’s power without control? Well, the 14T Pro has very reliable sustained performance. These results suggest that the device can handle long gaming sessions without resorting to heavy throttling and loss in performance. And besides, the Xiaomi 14T Pro is relatively affordable compared to most gaming-oriented or powerful flagship phones.