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If you’re weighing up if gaming phones are worth it, we’re going to be answering that here.
The idea of a ‘gaming phone’ is a relatively new concept. Games on phones used to be more of a gimmick with apps like Angry Birds and Flappy Bird becoming overnight successes. However, we’re at the point now where mobile games don’t need ‘bird’ in their name to become a hit, as PUBG Mobile and Warzone Mobile are growing extremely popular thanks to their established franchises.
Mobile gaming has even grown to point where we’re seeing competitive gaming on mobile devices which, if competitive PC gaming is anything to go off, tells us that the hardware is intrinsically related to your success.
We’ve already had a stab at finding the best gaming phones – in which we go in-depth on different smartphone specifications, prices, brands, and usages.
With huge gaming companies such as ASUS producing phones specifically for gaming – their high prices might raise some eyebrows. With that in mind – we’re going to look at whether gaming phones are worth it or not.
Are gaming phones worth the price?
There’s a few phones out there that are legitimately labelled as gaming phones – but there’s also quite a few that while they aren’t marketed as such, still live up to the expected standards.
We’ve included a list of a few gaming phones we think are worth noting.
A few of these phones aren’t specifically gaming phones – such as the Motorola Edge Plus and the iPhone 14 Pro Max. That doesn’t stop them from functioning just as good, if not better, than specific gaming phones.
Read More: Best case for iPhone 8 Plus – our top picks
In order to determine if gaming phones are worth their cost – we can compare the ‘official’ gaming phones against the ‘non-official’ gaming phone prices.
For instance, the ASUS ROG Phone 6 MSRP was $999, or $1,299 for the Pro edition, while the Black Shark 5 Pro started at $689. The average price of these phones is much more consumer friendly than the Motorola Edge+ Plus and iPhone 14 Pro Max – with the former costing $1,399 and the latter costing $1,499.
From this, it seems as though specific gaming phones might just have the advantage over popular mainstream smartphones.
Is the hardware in gaming phones good?
The ASUS ROG Phone 6 is a gaming phone released by a surprise entry into the smartphone industry – ASUS. Ordinarily known for their gaming hardware including monitors, graphics cards, and laptops, they’ve now released four different gaming phones.
When you think of gaming phones – the ASUS ROG Phone 6 and ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro are the devices that spring to mind. In light of that – let’s take a look at their specifications and find out if they’re really worth it.
| Specifications | ASUS ROG Phone 6 | ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Memory (LPDDR5) | 8GB / 12GB / 16GB | 18GB |
| Storage | 256GB / 512GB | 512GB |
| Camera Rear | Sony IMX766 50MP Image Sensor | Sony IMX766 50MP Image Sensor |
| Battery | 6000mAh | 6000mAh |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 |
| GPU | Qualcomm Adreno 730 | Qualcomm Adreno 730 |
From the looks of these specs – the ASUS ROG Phone 6 and Pro are both phones fully capable of running any mobile games you throw at it. This as most mobile games are designed so that they can be run on devices with high-quality hardware just the same as devices with more budget-friendly hardware. That doesn’t mean that if you’re looking for a phone to play games on you should settle on the cheapest – as higher-quality phones will run games a lot smoother and without any hitches.
We can then compare these specs against premium quality phones that aren’t quite considered gaming phones. For example, the iPhone 14 Pro Max only has 6GB of RAM compared to the high amounts of memory that the ASUS ROG phones have.
Read More: Best Oppo phone – our top picks
We can then take a look at the Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro, which sports 8, 12, or 16 GB or memory, alongside a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. This processor operates up to 3GHz, which is actually not as well optimised as the A16 Bionic Chip inside the latest iPhones.
If we’re looking purely at the specs that the phones have – there’s a few differences between the specs on gaming phones, though their overall performance is similar across the board.
Final Word
If you’re trying to come to a conclusion on whether or not gaming phones are worth it for you – you really have to consider what exactly you’re looking for.
If you play games casually on your phone, you might be better off spending your money on a phone that’s not exactly as powerful, or expensive, as a gaming phone. If that’s the case – we’d recommend taking a look at our best mid-range phones as they offer gaming performance at a budget-friendly price.
However, if you’re a gamer who puts down their Nintendo Switch or Xbox Controller and immediately wants to jump into a game of Among Us or League of Legends: Wild Rift, we’d suggest that gaming phones are in fact worth it.
Read More: Best gaming phone – our top picks
The hardware used in gaming phones is expectedly really good – more than enough memory and storage for all of your games, while also being armored with processors and mobile GPUs more than capable of playing whatever game you throw at it.
When you factor in the price being much more affordable than many of the mainstream smartphones widely used today, it becomes clear that gaming phones are worth it
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