Hit high scores with our favourite picks

If you want a proper gaming phone with all the bells and whistles of the ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition without the associated cost, then the £579/$649 RedMagic 10 Pro is our top recommendation.

There are a number of excellent gaming features here that set this phone apart. Most notably, the RedMagic has integrated touch triggers, allowing you to use the phone’s rim as makeshift triggers rather than having to slap on a controller accessory. It also sports integrated cooling, with vents on both sides of the phone to draw in and expel air to keep the chipset cool and sustain longer gaming sessions.

RedMagic also boosted the display with this generation, offering not only a larger AMOLED screen at 6.85 inches but also a faster 144Hz refresh rate specifically for gaming. Combined with uniform 1.25mm-thick bezels that’d give the iPhone 16 Pro Max a run for its money and an under-display camera, the screen is essentially clear of obstructions, perfect for gaming.

This is also one of the most powerful gaming phones ever tested with the Snapdragon 8 Elite at its core, going toe-to-toe with the excellent Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition despite its more affordable price. This means you’ll be able to play any mobile game with ease, and with a massive 7050mAh battery at its core, it’ll just keep on going.

The RedMagic 9S Pro does come with compromises beyond gaming. There’s no support for wireless charging, and the camera pales in comparison to other phones at this price point. But if gaming on the go is your priority, then there’s no better choice.

Reviewer: Lewis Painter
Full Review: RedMagic 10 Pro review

When it comes to pure performance, our money is on Asus’ top-end ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition. The highlight of the phone is undoubtedly the inclusion of the incredibly powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite alongside 24GB of RAM, offering massive year-on-year gains in the CPU and GPU department and, importantly, good enough cooling to sustain that top-end performance for longer than any of the competition, gaming-focused or not.

In fact, you’ll even get a dedicated cooler in the box with the 9 Pro Edition, helping keep your phone cool to the touch and offering improved audio performance with a built-in subwoofer. It’s a nice touch rarely seen in the gaming phone market.

Like the RedMagic 9S Pro, this phone is brimming with gaming features such as the AirTriggers, key mapping and Macros. The software is excellent too, enabling you to make tweaks on the fly, even in the middle of an intense match, and Asus is a rarity in that it gives you the choice between a clean ZenUI and a gaming-focused UI. 

Elsewhere, Asus has doubled down on making this phone not look or feel like a gamer phone. It has a pretty simplistic look compared to the likes of RedMagic, albeit with an improved AniMe panel that can display text, graphics, and even elements like battery life when the phone is screen down.

Despite a renewed focus on camera tech, the rear cameras still can’t compete with efforts from Apple and Samsung. But if you’re happy to make that sacrifice in the name of gaming performance, then this is a great, albeit premium, option.

Reviewer: Luke Baker
Full Review: Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition review

If you’re looking to game on an iPhone, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is the perfect smartphone for the job.

It offers the largest OLED screen of the current iPhone range at an increased 6.9 inches compared to its 6.7-inch predecessor alongside vanishingly slim bezels to deliver a more immersive gaming experience. The 120Hz ProMotion tech also lends itself particularly well to gaming, allowing you to hit the 120fps mark in supported titles for better response time and buttery-smooth graphics.

That’s backed up by Apple’s 3nm A18 Pro chipset that delivered some of the best benchmark scores we’ve seen from any phone yet, making the iPhone 16 Pro Max able to handle even demanding AAA games without much of a fuss.

Plus, with console-level games like Resident Evil 4 Remake, Death Stranding and Assassin’s Creed Mirage available on the App Store, along with an ever-changing library of games via Apple Arcade, there are plenty of games to take advantage of the iPhone’s raw power.

Battery life has also seen a significant uptick with the iPhone able to get lighter users through a full two days of use before needing a charge. You won’t quite reach those lofty heights when gaming, but it’ll sustain a multi-hour gaming session with ease.

Reviewer: Lewis Painter
Full Review: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max Review

If you want a flagship smartphone with excellent gaming performance as just one of its many accomplishments, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is the smartphone to choose.

It can easily deliver excellent performance using a custom version of the top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite found in the ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition, with benchmark results not that far behind in many regards. The difference between it and the ROG Phone? You’re getting much more than just top-end performance.

You also get a high-end 6.9-inch Super AMOLED 2X display with an LPTO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate, vanishingly slim bezels and a pixel-packed QHD+ resolution. It’s arguably one of the best screens around, gaming phone or not, made even better by the screen’s anti-reflective coating. It also sports one of the most versatile camera systems around, headed by a 200MP primary camera.

Of course, you won’t get some purist gaming enhancements, such as shoulder trigger buttons, but it does support bypass charging, which powers the chipset and not the battery to avoid heat generation during longer gaming sessions.

If you’re looking for a top-end Android device that can handle games without breaking a sweat and much more to boot, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is an easy recommendation.

Reviewer: Lewis Painter
Full Review: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review

Most gaming phones cost upwards of £1000/$1000 outright, which may well feel excessive considering that it’s even more expensive than a PS5 and Xbox Series X. The £309 Poco X7 Pro is an outstanding solution to this problem, offering incredible performance and a slew of gaming features at a very reasonable price. 

It packs MediaTek’s Dimensity 8400-Ultra, just a step down from the flagship 9000 series, but don’t let that fool you; the X7 Pro is slick, fast and perfect for gaming, It could handle games like Call of Duty Mobile with high-end graphics enabled, with no notable heat build-up or performance drop-off thanks to its built-in liquid cooling.

In both real-world use and in benchmark testing, the Poco X7 Pro can comfortably hold its own against flagships twice the price.

It also has a few gaming-focused features to improve the experience, including software that automatically optimises performance for gaming workloads and a 120Hz refresh rate to keep the on-screen motion smooth on that lovely 6.67-inch AMOLED panel. 

Of course, bagging this phone at a cheaper price than the competition does come with compromises. The performance isn’t quite as good as the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition, and while camera performance is fine for the price, it’s not exactly going to win any awards. There’s also a lot of bloatware, and the quirks of HyperOS can take a lot of getting used to.

Nevertheless, those flaws are easy to forgive when you’re getting such an excellent gaming experience at a budget-friendly price.

Reviewer: Chris Hall
Full Review: Poco X7 Pro review

If you want totally different gaming experience, look no further than the foldable Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6. The foldable nature of the book-style smartphone means you’ve got access to a large, high-res 7.6-inch 120Hz AMOLED display when you want to play games on a big screen while still folding down to a size resembling a standard smartphone.

It’s not just the sheer size of the foldable display that makes the Z Fold 5 the best foldable for gaming either; it’s also pretty powerful, sporting the same custom Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy as the S24 Ultra. It’s more than capable of powering high-end AAA gaming experiences with high-level graphics and consistent gameplay even over longer periods of use, with a built-in vapour chamber for added cooling.

Elsewhere, a 4,400mAh battery should be enough to get you through even demanding gaming sessions, a triple rear camera setup offers more versatility than a regular gaming phone and it has a whopping seven years of battery life to look forward to.

Reviewer: Lewis Painter
Full Review: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 review

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