Since nearly any of the best Android phones pack more than enough power to handle even the most demanding games, you may wonder what makes a "gaming" phone stand out from the pack. While the lines are becoming blurred, there are still things serious gaming demands that not every smartphone can deliver. After all, there's more to enjoying modern games than just raw performance.

The best gaming phones can be broken into two broad categories: phones with designs focused on hardcore gamers and powerful flagships that provide an excellent gaming experience as part of the whole package. Dedicated gaming phones will add features like touch controls on the sides, high refresh and touch response rates, and built-in gaming optimization software and even cooling systems.

However, you don't necessarily need all this to enjoy great games on your smartphone, especially if you're planning on pairing your phone up with a game controller anyway. Modern general-purpose flagships also offer stunning AMOLED screens with high refresh rates while also packing in excellent camera systems and other everyday features that will help you be a productivity machine by day and a gaming champion by night. We've extensively tested dozens of smartphones and how well they play with the latest game titles and rounded up our top picks for a wide variety of needs and tastes.

Our favorite gaming phones

A Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and a great screen are enough to make the Redmagic 9 Pro one of the best gaming phones, but it's got a few extra features that make it the best overall choice. Even when pushing the phone to its limits, the built-in fan keeps everything cool without simulating the sound of a jet engine. And you'll be able to push the device, as the 6,500mAh battery means you can game for hours on end.

The 6.8-inch AMOLED screen on the Redmagic 9 Pro has the typical 120Hz refresh rate, but it also has an insanely great touch sample rate of 960Hz. That's one of the most responsive screens on the market, which can make a huge difference to your gaming experience. The phone also comes with two touch triggers on the top, which offer a 520Hz touch-sample rate that's more than the actual screens on most Android flagships. They're more useful than you might think, as their excellent vibration motor makes them satisfying to press.

If you've never used a Nubia phone before, you might find the software experience a bit overwhelming, but that's because there's no shortage of options here. It may take some time to get Redmagic's flavor of Android tweaked to your liking, but those who like to tinker will have fun doing so, as the possibilities are seemingly endless, ranging from the phone's LED colors to its cooling fan modes. The Game Space app provides a launcher for your games with everything you need to tailor your experience and settings for each of your favorite titles.

While the Redmagic 9 Pro is an exceptional phone for hardcore gamers, the substandard cameras and buggy software make it frustrating to use as a daily driver. If you need a dedicated gaming device for cheap this is the best choice, but don't expect to be winning any photography awards. The good news is that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is leaps and bounds ahead of what most games demand, so you'll likely be able to hold onto this one for at least a couple of years before you need to upgrade.

Asus has made some of the best gaming phones for years now, and while the ROG Phone 8 Pro is no exception, it's changed the formula slightly in order to produce a more well-rounded flagship. While we think that detracts from some of what made the company's ROG lineup unique, it still has some strong hardware and software features that will appeal to gamers without painting them into too much of a corner in other areas.

For starters, you get Asus' gaming-flavored Android 14 plus Armory Crate to launch your games and manage settings and performance for each one. The ROG Phone 8 Pro also still features ultrasonic Air Triggers for in-game control, plus the ability to power the device without charging so that you won't need to worry about excessive heat putting a strain on your battery during demanding gaming sessions. Plus, if you opt for the 1TB configuration, Asus throws in its AeroActive Cooler X. A second USB-C port on the long edge also lets you avoid having a cable awkwardly sticking out the side while gaming.

Nevertheless, the ROG Phone 8 Pro isn't all sunshine and roses. We found Asus' decision to put a hole in the screen somewhat off-putting for a phone that's supposed to let you immerse yourself in your games. This was a necessary compromise for Asus to get an edge-to-edge screen without eliminating the front-facing camera entirely, but we think some would have preferred to see Asus stick with the bezels of the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate. It's worth noting that Armory Crate can help you dial that out by pillarboxing your games, which effectively adds the bezels back virtually, so it's not a problem that's going to bother everyone.

The ROG Phone 8 Pro still has plenty of power to spare since it's driven by Qualcomm's latest flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip. If you're willing to splurge, you can get the 1TB model with a generous 24GB of RAM. That beats nearly everything else on the market and makes it more than capable of handling anything you can throw at it. You'll also find programmable LEDs on the back that can be used to show animations and text, which are cute but largely cosmetic. They can do things like show a countdown when taking selfies or change colors when charging, but they don't really do much for the gaming experience. Speaking of charging, Asus continues to deliver stellar battery life on the ROG Phone 8 Pro, which should easily get you through two days, plus 65-watt wireless charging to help you top up more quickly and standard Qi wireless charging if you'd prefer to just drop your phone on a pad overnight.

This year, OnePlus surprised us with a very affordable phone that could easily pass for a flagship, making it one of the best picks for gamers on a budget. The OnePlus 12R packs in Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and while that may not be the latest and greatest, it's a proven workhorse that delivers more than enough power for even the most demanding games. There's also an expansive 6.78-inch display that rivals that found on phones at twice the price, featuring vibrant colors, a 120Hz refresh rate, and an eyeball-searing 4,500 nits of peak brightness.

It also oozes the slick design that OnePlus is known for, with a prominent circular camera array around the back that's offset against the Cool Blue or Iron Gray finishes. Plus, there's the Genshin Impact edition; that alone could make this phone a must-have for serious fans of that particular title. There's more to that special edition than just the skin and pack-ins as OnePlus has also optimized its Trinity Engine for the game with its HyperRendering and HyperBoosting technology that kicks in automatically as soon as you open it.

That's not to say that the OnePlus 12R Genshin Impact Edition won't play nice with other games, but if you're not a Genshin Impact fan, you'll probably be fine with the standard OnePlus 12R, which still features OnePlus' standard Trinity Engine and other buzzword-laden gaming technologies that should enhance the experience.

There's also battery life to spare here, thanks to the power efficiency of the older Snapdragon chip and the 5,500mAh cell inside. You should be able to get well over a day with even heavy use, and it's not hard to see it go two or even three days between charges. The 80W SuperVOOC charging in the box will also let you go from zero to full in about 30 minutes, so it's pretty hard to run this thing dry unless you go on a long trip and forget your charger at home.

Although it's not the first smartphone that comes to mind when you think of "gaming" phones, Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra should be the go-to choice for folks who want a premium smartphone that's great at just about everything. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip is Samsung's bespoke "for Galaxy" version which gives it a performance edge over other similarly-equipped smartphones. It also continues to have the best display you'll find on any smartphone today, since Samsung makes its own AMOLED panels and naturally reserves the best of those for its own phones.

What you'll arguably be missing on the Galaxy S24 Ultra compared to more dedicated gaming phones are special controls and gaming optimization modes, but with Qualcomm's top-tier silicon having long passed the point of diminishing returns, many of these special modes aren't that necessary anymore. The Galaxy S24 Ultra doesn't need to do anything special to handle the latest games at maximum settings; it just does it flawlessly without skipping a beat. You can also pair up just about any game controller, so the lack of gaming buttons shouldn't really be a deal-breaker.

Where the Galaxy S24 Ultra stands out is that it's great at so many other things. It's a solid gaming phone that also packs powerful cameras and advanced productivity features thanks to its S Pen. Samsung has even added some new generative AI features to the mix this year with Galaxy AI. The new titanium frame feels great in the hand, and Gorilla Armor glass makes it more durable than ever while also cutting the glare so your games and everything else can shine through.

The 200MP main camera also takes some incredible photos under the right conditions, although we found it still disappointingly fails to handle moving subjects as well as it should. However, it's among the best you'll find among powerful gaming phones, and the 10X optical and 100X digital zooms will let you capture images that aren't possible with most other phones. The battery can also easily handle a day of heavy gaming with juice to spare, and it's not hard at all to get two full days of lighter use.

Although it may be a non-starter for folks who are firmly entrenched in the Android world, Apple's iPhone 15 Pro Max is worth a serious look for hardcore console gamers. This year, Apple has raised the bar significantly thanks to a powerful new A17 Pro chip that's designed to handle full-on console games like Resident Evil Village, Death Stranding, and Assassin's Creed: Mirage. While it's always challenging to compare Apple's silicon to Qualcomm's flagship chips, it's fair to say the A17 Pro is in a class of its own, remaining ahead of even the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 found in this year's flagships, thanks to features like hardware-accelerated ray tracing in its overhauled six-core GPU.

The console games here aren't scaled-down ports but rather the same version you'd be running on a PS5. The only changes are optimizations to controls to accommodate the iPhone touch screen. That can make some games a bit cumbersome to play, but fortunately, the iPhone supports a wide range of hardware controllers, including ones from your Sony PlayStation or Microsoft Xbox.

The downside here is that you're entering Apple's walled garden. Unless you live in the European Union, your selection of game titles will be limited to what can be found on Apple's App Store. That's a pretty expansive catalog, including the aforementioned AAA console games, but it does have a few notable omissions, such as Fortnite, which has been "appa non grata" since Epic picked a fight with Apple four years ago.

Leaving the App Store aside, you'll have to decide if living in the Apple ecosystem is worth having the most powerful gaming phone on the market right now, especially since there's little doubt Qualcomm is working on catching up in that area — the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 theoretically has the chops to handle console games, but we have yet to see any AAA game developers embrace it. Nevertheless, if you're willing to take the plunge, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a lot of other great things going for it. The new titanium frame lets it shed significant weight over its predecessors, which used heavier stainless steel. The fit and finish also rivals the best phones from Samsung and the cameras capture great shots, even if they feel a bit uninspired sometimes. Also, Apple has finally left its proprietary Lightning port behind and wholeheartedly embraced USB-C.

The OnePlus 12 is another versatile smartphone that's ready to tackle everything from the latest games to your daily productivity, photography, and social media needs. Like the other most powerful phones on this list, you're getting the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip that will let you slice through the most demanding games with aplomb. The OnePlus 12 pairs this with an incredibly bright 4,500-nit LTPO AMOLED display that sports a 120Hz refresh rate and all the usual HDR modes. This means your games will look great, even when playing outside on bright days, but OnePlus has another trick up its sleeve with 2,160Hz pulse width modulation (PWM) dimming. That's an order of magnitude better than other smartphones, which tend to peak just under 500Hz, and could make this the phone to buy if you get eye strain or headaches from long gaming sessions.

You can also get the OnePlus 12 in configurations of up to 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM, which should offer plenty of headroom for gaming, and we found that it handled everything we threw at it without stuttering or slowing down in the slightest. OnePlus also has its Trinity Engine in play here to give it an extra boost by optimizing performance and power requirements. The result isn't necessarily faster gaming, but it definitely reduces the load on the battery and, more importantly, keeps things running cool.

The cameras here are also excellent by gaming phone standards, thanks to its partnership with Hasselblad which provides tuning algorithms for proper color balance and saturation, as well as natural bokeh effects that simulate shots taken from Hasselblad cameras. While they don't beat out pricier flagships in every way, they definitely hold their own.

However, where the OnePlus 12 really leads the pack is in battery life and charging speeds. It has the same ability to get through a full day of heavy use as other flagships, but it can also charge up from zero to 100% in about 30 minutes, thanks to its bundled 80W charger. It also offers 50W wireless charging speeds if you opt for the AirVOOC wireless charger. Those charging speeds will change the way you think about using your smartphone, as you'll never really need to set aside time for charging or even worry about plugging it in at night. Even in the unlikely event you drawin the phone during a heavy gaming session, you can be back up and running in only a few minutes.

Motorola has upped its game in recent years, offering phones that can compete with Google and Samsung's flagships. It may not be immediately obvious, but the Motorola Edge+ (2023) has everything you'd expect from a gaming phone. Its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset can handle any Android game, and the 6.7-inch 1080p screen can reach an arguably excessive refresh rate of 165Hz. The only catch is that the curved design feels a bit dated and may not appeal to everyone. They also don't play as well with modern games as they once did due to the potential for accidental taps while you're playing in landscape mode.

The Motorola Edge+ (2023) is a solid gaming performer, and we couldn't find anything that was too much for it. It didn't even warm up until we pushed it to the limits with an extended game of Honkai: Star Rail, although the game ran flawlessly, even at maximum settings. The battery can also handle two full days of light to moderate use; in our testing it lasted 48 hours with 15% left to spare, even with 6.5 hours of screen time. Hard gaming will shorten that, but you still shouldn't have a problem getting through a full day.

This is joined by an impressive 68W charging speed that can top up the battery in under an hour using the adapter that Motorola supplies in the box. There's also standard 15W wireless charging and 5W reverse wireless charging. The only significant drawbacks of the Edge+ are its mediocre software support and lackluster camera, but if you're looking for a no-nonsense Android phone that also happens to handle any game you care to throw at it, you can't go wrong here.

Even the largest phablet phones can't compete with a foldable when it comes to screen real estate, and last year, OnePlus surprised us by hitting a home run with its first foldable, the OnePlus Open. It's changed the game by bringing a much-needed new entry into the space, and while there's always room for improvement, OnePlus got a lot of things right here. Even OxygenOS, although still in need of some polish, has nailed the important aspect of navigating through the multitasking needs of a foldable.

What makes the OnePlus Open an ideal foldable for gaming is not only the expansive 7.82-inch AMOLED screen, but also the fact that OnePlus has managed to work a near-miracle by hiding the crease as much as possible; it's the least obtrusive of any book-like foldable we've used, and definitely won't distract from your gaming experience. Naturally, you get a 120Hz refresh rate, and it's also plenty bright at a 2,800-nit peak level. Plus, if you feel like keeping it closed while you play, the outer 6.3-inch display has the same refresh rate and brightness with an aspect ratio that works so well that you could almost forget you're using a foldable.

Combine all that with an excellent camera system — by foldable standards, at least — including OnePlus' signature Hasselblad tuning, plus battery life to spare, and the OnePlus Open is the clear gaming winner if you want the biggest screen possible on a smartphone. You get OnePlus' typical fast charging for quick top-ups, and while this one feels like a throwback to the OnePlus 11 in omitting wireless charging, we really don't think you'll miss it as the battery is so hard to kill that you don't need the kind of casual top-ups that many other smartphones seem to demand.

The best gaming phones are at your fingertips

Gaming phones aren't budget devices, but some, like the Nubia RedMagic 9 Pro, show that you don't need to break the $1,000 mark to play the best Android games. Flagship phones work just as well as gaming devices; the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has everything you need to play the best games while also working as your daily driver, and if you're considering stepping into the fruit garden, Apple's iPhone 15 Pro Max can actually play full-on console titles.

However, you also don't need to splurge to get top-notch performance. The $500 OnePlus 12R delivers fantastic value for the price, with a vibrant display and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip that's more than capable of handling any of the latest Android games you can throw at it, and its Genshin Impact Edition is a seriously cool pick for fans of that genre.