Top SmartPhones to Buy in 2020 | Gaming phones also included | 2020 phone
Mobile gaming
Companies like Razer and Asus — names that gamers are likely very well-acquainted with by now — have lent their expertise
If
What are
If you're after
But what if
What about iPhones? Well, Apple's handsets
Samsung doesn't make
The best gaming phone, period
Display size (Pixels): 6.6-inch AMOLED (2340x1080) | Peak refresh rate: 144Hz | CPU: Snapdragon 865 Plus | RAM: 12GB, 16GB | Storage/Expandable: 512GB / No | Cameras (Back/Front): 64MP wide, 13MP ultrawide, 5MP macro / 24MP | Weight: 8.5 ounces | Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 14:30
Powerful gaming performance
Long battery life
Pretty display
Useful native software
Gets hot quickly
If you are serious about your mobile games, and if you don't want to settle for anything less than the highest frame rates, crispest graphics and longest battery life, the Asus ROG Phone 3 is the device you've been waiting for.
With a 6.6-inch 144Hz AMOLED display, the ROG Phone 3's screen has the highest refresh rate available in a handset today. That, coupled with the device's 270Hz touch sampling rate, makes this the most responsive smartphone by far in terms of tapping or executing an action on the touch screen and getting an immediate response. With Snapdragon 865 Plus power, 512GB of built-in storage and up to 16GB of RAM, it's one quick phone under the hood, too.
But the ROG Phone 3 has clearly been designed with gaming in mind in other respects. The port on the side can be used to plug in an external fan that comes with the phone, that also features an optional kickstand. And the display has just enough bezel above and below to accommodate gaming (zero bezel actually isn't the most convenient thing on gaming phones, because it leaves your thumbs with nowhere to rest and can result in accidental touches.)
All this is to say the Asus ROG Phone 3 is a complete solution for mobile gamers, though we wish it would get a little less toasty during gameplay.
Read our full Asus ROG Phone 3 review.
(Image credit: flipkart) 2. OnePlus 8 Pro
The best gaming phone for more than just gaming
Display size (Pixels): 6.78-inch AMOLED (3168x1440) | Peak refresh rate: 120Hz | CPU: Snapdragon 865 | RAM: 8GB, 12GB | Storage/Expandable: 128GB, 256GB / No | Cameras (Back/Front): 48MP wide, 48MP ultrawide, 8MP telephoto, 5MP color sensor / 16MP | Weight: 7.01 ounces | Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 11:05
Bright and beautiful 120Hz display
Strong performance
Solid quad cameras
Superfast wired and wireless charging
Curved display causes accidental taps
If you want a high-end Android phone for a bit less than what most high-end handsets cost, and you want peak performance for gaming without sacrificing on other amenities like design and camera quality, the OnePlus 8 Pro is a well-rounded proposition and a worthy recommendation.
The OLED display on OnePlus' latest flagship measures 6.78 inches and packs a 1440p resolution, making the screen sharp as well as colorful. But the OnePlus 8 Pro rises toward the top of our best gaming phones list because of its 120Hz refresh rate, which makes for a remarkably smooth experience for the games that support it, like Fortnite. Even the touch sampling rate is boosted to 240Hz, giving you the instant response you need to claim victory.
Of course, the OnePlus 8 Pro succeeds in many other ways. It lasts long on a charge and supports faster wireless charging than any other device out there. It features four cameras on the back which, while not quite as good as Apple's, Samsung's or Google's imaging systems, are far better than what you'd ever get in any ordinary gaming phone. And the OnePlus 8 Pro has phenomenal software that actually adds some usefulness to Android 10.
All of this will set you back just $899, making the OnePlus 8 Pro one of the best values in premium phones right now.
Read our full OnePlus 8 Pro review.
(Image credit: flipkart ) 3. RedMagic 5G
Display size (Pixels): 6.65-inch AMOLED (2340x1080) | Peak refresh rate: 144Hz | CPU: Snapdragon 865 | RAM: 8GB, 12GB | Storage/Expandable: 128GB, 256GB / No | Cameras (Back/Front): 64MP wide, 8MP ultrawide, 2MP macro / 8MP | Weight: 7.68 ounces | Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 11:23
Class-leading 144Hz display
Strong performance
Long battery life and fast charging
Reasonably priced
Weak photography
The RedMagic 5G is one of the cheapest pathways to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865 processor on the market right now, earning it a mention on this list of the best gaming phones. For just $579, you can have a device with a high-end chipset, up to 12GB of RAM and a 6.65-inch 144Hz AMOLED display with a flat design and slim bezels that are conducive to gaming. A fan inside also ensures the device can run demanding titles optimally, which is extremely important if you're gaming for long stretches of time.
Of course, if fantastic software or camera performance is a priority for you, the RedMagic 5G isn't going to be the best fit — there are certainly more well-rounded handsets out there. However, they all cost more, and so those who prioritize gaming and the power needed to do so but have a more modest budget than a true flagship would allow would be wise to consider it.
Read our full RedMagic 5G review.
(Image credit: flipkart 4. iPhone 11 Pro Max
The best gaming phone for iPhone users
Display (Pixels): 6.5-inch OLED (2688x1242) | Peak refresh rate: 60Hz | CPU: A13 Bionic | RAM: 4GB | Storage/Expandable: 64GB, 256GB, 512GB / No | Cameras (Back/Front): 12MP wide, telephoto and ultrawide / 12 MP | Weight: 7.97 ounces | Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 11:44
Gorgeous OLED display now brighter
A13 Bionic CPU fastest around
Stellar triple cameras with Night mode
Longest battery life of any iPhone
Just 64GB of storage on entry model
With a 60Hz screen and just 4GB of RAM, you might initially recoil from gaming on an iPhone. However, the iPhone 11 Pro Max offers incomparable power, thanks to Apple's A13 Bionic chipset, which still outpaces the Snapdragon 865 Plus in the ROG Phone 3 even with a third of the RAM.
You also have to consider that a number of premier, flagship mobile titles arrive on iOS first, or through the Apple Arcade subscription program, which offers a hand-picked selection of quality games that aren't offered elsewhere. And they all look and run absolutely dazzling on the iPhone 11 Pro Max's 6.5-inch OLED display, even at a pedestrian 60Hz. It's also worth pointing out that the iPhone 11 Pro Max is a supremely well-rounded handset in areas beyond gaming, particularly in terms of its camera quality.
That said, we can understand why someone in the market for a gaming phone may want to hold off before taking a plunge on one of Apple's 2019 flagship handsets. The iPhone 12 is, after all, right around the corner, and the Pro variants of the upcoming range of Apple handsets have been rumored to offer 120Hz refresh rates.
Read our full iPhone 11 Pro Max review.
(Image credit: Flipkart ) 5. Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus
A well-rounded Android gaming phone
Display (Pixels): 6.7-inch AMOLED (3200x1440) | Peak refresh rate: 120Hz | CPU: Snapdragon 865 | RAM: 12GB | Storage/Expandable: 128GB, 512GB / Yes | Cameras (Back/Front): 12MP wide, 64MP telephoto, 12MP ultrawide, VGA time of flight / 10MP | Weight: 6.56 ounces | Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 10:31
Impressive 64MP telephoto lens
Above-average battery life
Massive 6.7-inch display with 120 Hz refresh rate
Expensive
120 Hz refresh rate hurts battery life
If you want a well-rounded Android phone with better cameras and a more sophisticated feature set than the OnePlus 8 Pro, that can also handle flagship games, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus is a smart choice.
Like the OnePlus 8 Pro, the S20 Plus has a 120Hz panel, Snapdragon 865 processor and 12GB of RAM. That makes it fast in every sense of the world. Plus, its 5G support extends to millimeter-wave networks as well as sub-6GHz ones, which allows for the quickest data speeds on the planet.
The Galaxy S20 Plus doesn't offer much strictly in the way of dedicated gaming features though — it's just an all-around great (and, unfortunately, very expensive) flagship device. That said, an even better high-end Samsung handset, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, has just been announced. It features a more advanced 120Hz panel that can dynamically adjust its refresh rate depending on the demands of on-screen content, which should extend battery life. If you want to take the plunge on a gaming phone soon, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra worth holding out for.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus review.
(Image credit: Flipkart ) 6. LG V60 ThinQ 5G
A dual-screen gaming phone for a reasonable price
Display (Pixels): 6.8-inch OLED (2460x1080) | Peak refresh rate: 60Hz | CPU: Snapdragon 865 | RAM: 8GB | Storage/Expandable: 128GB / Yes | Cameras (Back/Front): 64MP wide, 13MP ultrawide, VGA time of flight / 10MP | Weight: 7.69 ounces | Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 12:46
Excellent battery life
Headphone jack intact
Great performance
Dual Screen has software quirks
Not available unlocked
The LG V60 ThinQ 5G isn't like other phones. That's immediate the moment you lay eyes on it in its Dual Screen case, and marvel upon its two displays. LG offers this phone through carriers with the add-on included, and it's actually quite affordable for the whole package, at roughly $800 from most networks.
With that extra display real estate, you can devote space to a dedicated virtual gamepad. What's more, you can customize the on-screen buttons and appearance of that gamepad, and even build your own tailored for a specific game. It's certainly a useful luxury to have if you're an avid mobile gamer.
In other respects, though, the V60 ThinQ 5G is a respectable, pretty middle-of-the-road premium smartphone, with a massive 6.8-inch screen, Snapdragon 865 processor, three serviceable cameras on the back and long battery life out of a 5,000-mAh power pack. It's certainly not the best gaming phone out there, but it's worth consideration if you're enticed by the idea of a smartphone with more space for games, inputs and multitasking.
Read our full LG V60 ThinQ 5G review.
How to choose the best gaming phone for you
As with all things, choosing the right gaming phone is a matter of priorities. If you're after the best performance — and you likely are if you're reading this — you'll want a phone with a Snapdragon 8-series chipset or Apple's A13 Bionic. Emphasis on the Snapdragon, as Qualcomm's best silicon for Android phones is available in devices from a number of manufacturers.
But what about high refresh rates? That's something you'll only find on the more expensive end of the market, though it's a feature that will surely descend to more modestly-priced phones over time. Panels rated at 90Hz and above offer smoother scrolling and overall graphics than conventional screens, making you feel as if every swipe, tap and action is eliciting a response with no delay. If you're an especially serious competitive gamer, higher refresh rates will ensure you won't miss any of the action.
Of course, the more a device is geared toward gaming with the appropriate features, the more phone makers ignore other considerations. While battery life is central to gaming (because games consume a lot of power), you'll have a tougher time finding gaming phones with great camera hardware and software, or perhaps conveniences like wireless charging and water resistance. If those things are important to you, you may want to focus your search on the more powerful handsets on this list that aren't strictly intended for gaming but can still very much hold their own, like the Galaxy S20 Plus and iPhone 11 Pro Max.
How we test gaming phones
In order for a smartphone to make any of our best phone lists — gaming phone or otherwise — it needs to excel on several tests that we run on every handset. We perform a number of these tests in our labs and a few within the world .
When it involves performance, we believe such synthetic benchmarks as Geekbench 5 and GFXBench to live graphics performance. These tests allow us to match performance across iPhones and Android devices.
To measure the standard of a phone's display, we perform lab tests to work out the brightness of the panel (in nits), also as how colorful each screen is (DCI-P3 color gamut). In these cases, higher numbers are better. We also measure color accuracy of every panel with a Delta-E rating, where lower numbers are better and score of 0 is ideal .
One of the foremost important tests we run is that the Tom's Guide battery test. We run an internet surfing test over 5G or 4G at 150 nits of screen brightness until the battery gives out. In general, a phone that lasts 10 hours or more is sweet , and anything above 11 hours makes our list of the simplest phone battery life.
Last but not least, we take the simplest phones call at the sector to require photos outdoors, indoors and in the dark in low light to ascertain how they perform versus their closest competitors.
ASUS ROG Phone 3 Review: The Best Gaming Smartphone On The Planet Right Now
ASUS has a long legacy with computer hardware, especially their Republic of Gamers (ROG) line that makes some wonderful motherboards for desktop gaming PCs. The company makes every PC component out there and I personally use their stuff from my own setup. ASUS has now brought that same ethos for their smartphones by delivering ROG phones that offer great hardware for mobile gamers. The third iteration of the ROG Phone launched recently in India and we've been using the phone for mostly gaming purposes from playing a few rounds of our favourite battle-royale game, to emulating console games from past generations. Here's what we think about the ROG phone 3 and why it is the best gaming smartphone on the planet right now.
Design and Display
The design of the smartphone has not drastically changed as it already uses quite an aggressive styling that is mostly associated with gaming products. The phone has plenty of Sharm lines and a transparent cooling system as well. The ROG logo is also illuminated by lights similar to their PC hardware products.
(Image credits : Flipkart)
The body of the smartphone is also quite unconventional as the phone is sandwiched in between Gorilla Glass 6 and an aluminium casing. While that is standard for most flagship-level phones today, the phone is particularly heavier than anything else you may have used recently. There's a horizontal rectangular camera module on the top left with an LED flashlight right next to it.
At the bottom of the phone, you will find a USB-C port that is not centred thanks to the custom motherboard being used on the phone. Additionally, there is a second USB-C port on the left side of the phone that can be used for charging the phone while playing games and attaching accessories. Speaking of accessories, the phone does not have a headphone jack and instead can be added on by purchasing the cooling fan accessory separately. This cooling fan can be attached to the side USB-C port to prevent throttling and can also double up as a headphone jack dongle.
On the right side of the phone, you will also find the two air triggers that can be used while gaming in landscape mode. These triggers are slightly different from previous generations as they can now be used as traditional console controller triggers as well. From the phone, you can map the air triggers to work in the traditional configuration of L1/L2 and R1/R2. These come most handy when playing shooter games and one side can be used for the aim down sights (ADS) action while the other can be used to kill enemies. The other two air triggers can be used to assign certain actions in games as well such as reloading, crouching or any other function that makes the game more convenient for the player.
(Image credits : Flipkart)
When it comes to the display, the ROG Phone 3 has a 6.59-inch AMOLED (2,340 x 1,080) and aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The biggest upgrade here has to be the 144Hz refresh rate that helps in better reaction times for gamers. The display also has a 1ms response rate that is in line with most gaming monitors available in the market. We've seen phones that can go up to 120HZ however we've never seen an AMOLED panel go up to 144Hz on a smartphone. The fact that ASUS was able to achieve this is a remarkable feat worth mentioning.
We have to point out that the display quality is not up to the same level as some of its competitors but then again that is not the real purpose of this screen. If you're looking for accuracy here, we recommend turning on the cinematic profile as it does a fair job at correcting the colour and saturation.
Performance
(Image credits : Flipkart)
Much like it's previous iterations, ASUS has once again gone for an overclocked processor by Qualcomm and this time its the Snapdragon 865 Plus. The chipset can be overclocked to 3.1GHz making it one of the fastest smartphones on the planet. Our review unit was the 8GB GDDR5 RAM variant and we were still blown away by its speed.
In our benchmark tests, the phone did overachieve figures that are nothing but impressive. The ROG Phone 3 notched a score of 923 in Geekbench 5 single-core and 3004 in multi-score. This score even beats the OnePlus 8 Pro and Samsung phones that use the Exynos 990 chipset. Similarly, the phone was also the best at graphic rendering as the phone achieved 7653 in our 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme test. The phone was able to beat the iPhone 11 Pro or any other phone for that matter that is known for high sustained GPU performance.
(Image Credits : Flipkart)
Having said that, we must mention that the phone can get extremely hot when using it in the “X Mode”. If you plan to overclock the phone for gaming, we recommend getting the fan accessory that sells separately. There were times where we felt the phone was about to explode during our tests and was rendered unusable due to the excessive heat dissipation.
With all this great hardware, the phone does need a massive battery as all of its uses excessive power to function. The phone comes with a massive 6,000 mAh battery that is probably the reason why the phone weighs so heavy. Battery performance on the phone can vary depending on your settings. If you plan to use the display in 144Hz with X Mode turned on; you can expect the phone to last a total of 9 hours. However, if you use the phone normally you can lower the refresh rate to either 120, 90, or 60Hz. You can even use the Auto mode where the controller will switch the refresh rate according to what you're doing on the phone. Having said that, the variable refers rate setting also gave us a mixed performance as well.
Camera
(Image Credits : Flipkart)
The ASUS ROG Phone 3 comes with a triple camera setup at the back where the main sensor is 64MP, the wide lens is 13MP, and additionally, it comes with a 5MP macro sensor and a 24MP selfie camera. We do have to mention that being a gaming smartphone, you really don't expect the phone to have great photography capabilities. In our test, the phone did do a good job at capturing images in well-lit environments but struggled in low-light. The main sensor was capable of capturing images that are worthy of sharing on social media with decent shadow details, acceptable dynamic range and somewhat accurate colours. The wide-angle sensor also did a similar job while losing some details in the process. Some of the images from the ultra-wide sensor have that smoothening effect that most people don't like. Apart from that small issue, the ultra-wide sensor did a fair job.
The phone is also capable of capturing 8K video which is not a common feat on smartphones right now. Video recordings are fairly stable even though there is no software stabilisation.
ASUS ROG Phone 3 Review: The Best Gaming Smartphone On The Planet Right Now FULLSCREEN The Final Say
The ASUS ROG Phone 3 is a clear winner when it comes to performance both in gaming and real-world usage. However, due to its aggressive design, the phone isn't really targeted for the mainstream audience. If mobile gaming is your priority, the ASUS ROG Phone 3 is the only phone you should be considering. Its future proof with a 144Hz display and an overclocked chipset that aid in gaming performance. With great accessories, the ROG Phone 3 can also become a spectacular emulation device for games from previous generation consoles. The camera performance on the phone is also the Best.
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