India is one of the countries where a big chunk of the population, i.e., approximately 430 million people, are involved in gaming (Phone, laptop/TV, tabs). If it’s not prominent enough, 85% of the mentioned demographic is engaged in smartphone gaming, making it one of the top five markets for smartphone gaming globally. The main reason for this would be the availability of smartphones in India in a wide range from inexpensive to super-premium, and all gaming phones have games loaded in them and have stores from where you can download them.
Generally, the gaming performance of a device depends on what games you play and on which setting you play games but what matters the most is which device you are playing on. As of now, in 2022, people generally prefer a smartphone with a 120 Hz refresh rate and a minimum of 8GB of RAM for an ultra-smooth, lag-free total-gaming experience. Smartphones of these mentioned specs can range between ₹18,000 to ₹80,000.
Being India’s leading premium mobile skins and screen protectors brand and unofficial tech enthusiasts, we decided to curate a list of top 5 gaming smartphones for you all!
The list in order from highest priced phones to the lowest is as follows: –
Mi 11 Ultra
Starting from a price of ₹69,999, this smartphone is a total gaming experience package for super-focused gamers.
It is equipped with a 5nm Flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor consisting of Qualcomm Kryo 680 CPU, Qualcomm Adreno 660 GPU, and Snapdragon X60 5G modem. Kryo 680 has Arm Cortex-X1 as one of its cores, proven to be super-efficient when it comes to performance. In fact, it’s proven to be even better than an Apple CPU core. The mentioned GPU ensures quick blending of elements and super-fast graphic rendering for a smooth and brilliant gaming experience. Talking about the said RF system, X60 5G Modem offers superior network coverage and super-fast 5G internet connectivity to assure you don’t have to deal with network lags during game tournaments. The LPDDR5 RAM is 1.5x faster than your generic LPDDR4X RAM and is up to 20% more power-efficient than the latter.
It’s got a 6.81″ WQHD+ Quad-curved AMOLED Dot Display with a refresh rate of 120 Hz, a touch sampling rate of 480 HZ, HDR10+ support, 1.07 billion colors and SGS Eye Care Display Certification for a super colorful, brilliant, and crystal-clear smooth gaming experience.
It’s got a long-lasting battery life of 5000mAh and comes with 67W wired/wireless charging, which ensures you get a long duration of gameplay with your mates!
In conclusion, this phone is definitely off-the-charts with its specs! It has got more than required for a good gaming phone which is not at all useless. The only notable con it has is its price point. It sure has some really great specs, but almost seventy grand for a gaming phone will put some questions regarding finance in anyone’s head! But for what it’s worth, it’s a great gaming phone if the budget issue is a piece of cake for you.
OnePlus9 Pro
While OnePlus is popularly known for launching photography-oriented smartphones, it’ll not be justified if we don’t include OnePlus 9 Pro in the list of top gaming phones. Starting from ₹64,999, this is one of the high-end premium flagship phones of the OnePlus 9 series by OnePlus last year.
The chipset family/processor is exactly the same as Mi 11 Ultra; 5nm Flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor consisting of Qualcomm Kryo 680 CPU, Qualcomm Adreno 660 GPU, and Snapdragon X60 5G modem. Even the RAM type is the same; LPDDR5 RAM, but with two variants consisting of 8 GB RAM+128 GB ROM and 12 GB RAM+256 GB ROM models.
Evidently enough, as you’ve read previously for Mi 11 Ultra, there’s no doubt regarding the performance and efficiency of this device.
It’s got a 6.7″ WQHD+ Fluid AMOLED Display with LTPO Technology, refresh rate of 120 Hz, touch sampling rate of 240 Hz, and HDR10+ support. These are some of the excellent display specs you can find in a phone. Paired up with processor specs, these become very important for that total gaming experience gamers generally look for.
It’s got a pretty decent battery life of 4500 mAh and Warp Charge 65W for super-fast charging. It even has cooling technology that stops your phone from heating up, especially when gaming while charging your phone.
One bonus feature of the OnePlus 9 Pro is the Gaming Mode/ Pro-Gaming Mode, which automatically switches on when you open any game. You can turn on and turn off notifications during your games, check the phone temperature and more.
In conclusion, this phone has, if not the best of the best, some of the best specs for a great gaming experience. While this article is entirely focused on gaming specs, we just want to let you know that if you also do photography other than gaming as a part-time gig or a hobby, it might not be the best. The cameras are pretty decent, but not the best. Another con is…you guessed it right…the price of the phone. If you are buying it solely for gaming, you might wanna reconsider before you buy, as there are phones for exclusively gaming at a much cheaper rate.
Asus ROG Phone 5
ROG, also known as Republic of Gamers, is a brand by Asus focused on manufacturing smartphones, laptops and desktops attentive to gaming. So it goes without saying that this phone is what you’d look for when we talk gaming. It starts from ₹49,999 on Flipkart.
The chipset family is that of Flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor consisting of Qualcomm Kryo 680 CPU, Qualcomm Adreno 660 GPU, and Snapdragon X60 5G modem.
If we do not know enough already, this chipset/ processor family is one of the most advanced, high-performance inducing processor families. The said CPU is octa-core clocked up to about 2.84 GHz with Arm Cortex-X1 as one of its cores, proven to be super-efficient when it comes to performance. The mentioned GPU ensures the smooth blending of graphical elements for a lag-free visual experience. The X60 5G modem is one of the fastest RF systems that provide superior network coverage and super-fast internet connectivity for a network lag-free gaming experience.
It also comes with a RAM type of LDDR5 in two variants: 8 GB RAM + 128 GB ROM/ 12 GB RAM + 256 GB ROM. 16 GB RAM + 256 GB ROM variant was also there, but since it was a limited edition, it’s no more in stock. This variant will come back soon as Asus ROG Phone 5 Pro.
It’s got a 6.78″ FHD+ Super AMOLED Display with a refresh rate of 144 Hz, touch sampling rate of 300 Hz, HDR10+ support for a super precise and rapid gaming experience.
This is the world’s only gaming flagship phone with a super-long lasting battery life of 6000 mAh! This phone supports dual-side charging; there’s an additional charging port on the left side for ease when gaming in landscape mode. The box comes with a 30W quick charging charger, but the phone supports up to 65W fast charging.
Time to talk about bonus features limited to the phone! This phone has Air Triggers and Front-firing speakers; the Air Triggers trace your touch-hand gestures, giving you the feel of an actual gaming console, and the front-firing speakers ensure high-quality haptics and high-quality audio with super-bass. Specs definitely make up for most of your gaming experience, but a qualitative gaming experience also matters quite a lot, in fact. And that’s what you get from this phone.
In conclusion, Asus ROG Phone 5 is a phone where you put a full stop to a good gaming phone search if you don’t have any budget concerns! It has got some really unusual but amazing gaming features that most gaming smartphones don’t have so far. It’s the best one out there if you ask us! But it’s got a few cons too. People have reported overheating issues with the phone because of its expansive performance, but it can be controlled by accessorizing with a cooling gamepad. Secondly, charging is very slow when relating to battery life. If you want to juice it up quickly, you’ve to buy a 65W charger separately. Lastly, you can shoot UHD videos from the phone camera, but the quality of photos clicked from this phone ain’t that great. All in all, it’s a great gaming phone you can get your hands on!
iQOO 7 Legend
As we all know, iQOO is a sub-brand of Vivo that generally deals in mid-range premium to low-budget smartphones. Their phones usually have good specs according to the range you go for, but they really went over the top with iQOO 7 Legend, starting from a price of ₹39,990.
The chipset family/processor is none other than the most recommended gaming processor; Flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor consisting of Qualcomm Kryo 680 CPU, Qualcomm Adreno 660 GPU, and Snapdragon X60 5G modem. The RAM type is LPDDR5 RAM, with variants 8 GB RAM+128 GB ROM and 12 GB RAM+256 GB ROM models.
As you’ve read previously in this article multiple times about these specs, there’s no doubt regarding the performance and efficiency of this device as these are the best ones so far.
It has a 6.62″ AMOLED Display with 120 Hz refresh rate, 300 Hz touch sampling rate, 1000 Hz instant touch sampling rate and HDR10+ support for a smooth, total gaming experience.
It has a decent but not the best battery life of 4000 mAh, but the positive factor here is the charging speed: 67 W fast charging. So even if your phone drains out after hours of gaming and work, you can just put it for a quick charge, and you can get back in action after a few minutes of break time!
Additional features include In-Display Dual-Touch, which enables you to use just two fingers to easily command the whole game. It’s also got a surround sound system with Dual Speakers to make your gaming experience more immersive. Pretty cool, right?
In conclusion, iQOO 7 Legend has a spec list that checks all boxes when looking for a highly functional gaming phone. The best part? The best part is the price point at which you are getting it. Sure, 39 grand is quite much, but in comparison to all the gaming phones we’ve learned about so far, this is much cheaper but has the features of top-notch gaming phones. But the biggest and the most noticeable con that this phone has is its battery life which might blow it off for a few people. 4000 mAh is definitely a workable battery life, but for gaming, it’s not enough per se because gaming graphics consume battery at a much faster rate when compared to usual smartphone activities. If they could amp up the battery life just a little bit more, it’d be an all-rounder phone at a decent budget.
Realme GT NEO 2
Starting from a price of ₹31,699, it’s got one of the best hardware for excellent gaming performance for a medium-low budget range. It is indeed a flagship phone but not a gaming flagship.
It’s got a QualcommSnapdragon 870 5G mobile platform consisting of Qualcomm Kryo 585 CPU, Qualcomm Adreno 650 GPU, and Snapdragon X55 5G modem. It’s got a RAM type of LDDPR5 of two variants- 8 GB RAM+128 GB ROM and 12 GB RAM+256 GB ROM.
This mobile platform is the predecessor to the QualcommSnapdragon 888 mobile platform, thus, making it a little less advanced than the latter, but it’s no less good! The CPU clocks up to a speed of 3.2 GHz, which implies top-notch performance with a high level of power efficiency. The GPU enables a seamless rendering of complex graphics, which helps in smooth visuals during gaming for a brilliant gaming experience.
It’s got a 6.62″ E4 AMOLED Display with a refresh rate of 120 Hz, touch sampling rate of 600 Hz, HDR10+ support for crisp, crystal-clear sharp visuals during gaming and streaming in general.
It has a battery life of 5000 mAh, which is outstanding if you are a hardcore gamer! Apart from the battery life, it’s also got a 65W SuperDart charger enabling you to put your phone in for a super quick charge for uninterrupted gaming sessions!
In conclusion, while this phone is not fully targeted towards gaming, this is a potential gaming phone if you are looking for a budget phone below 35 grand (or even 30 grand). It has got good enough specs needed for a phone to serve the purpose of gaming, so if you’re under a budget and in need of a decent gaming phone, this one could be it.
And here comes the cue to finish the article!
If you’ve reached the end of this article, you should know that even if you’re not a gamer, you definitely are a gaming hobbyist or casual gamer! We hope this article helped you give insight into what’s needed for a good smartphone gaming experience.
And should you choose to buy any one of these phones, we also recommend you get some mobile skins and/or screen guard/full-body device protectors because gaming does create a lot of room open for fingerprints and scratches, which you obviously don’t want!
Head over to Gadgetshieldz.com and browse through our collection of multi-textured phones skins and screen guards and say adios to fingerprints and scratches!