The best non-gaming phones for gaming
The best non-gaming phones for gaming.
We've suggested the best phones designed for gaming, but if you'd rather have a more mainstream device, here are all the phones we recommend that, among the rest of their strengths, are also very good phones to play games on.
You'll find a lot of overlap with our best phones list, for good reason: these handsets have top-end specs and screens to give the best gaming experience possible outside of gaming-focused phones.
If you're looking for a phone that's great for gaming, and many other things besides, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is a good choice. It may not be a dedicated Samsung gaming phone, but it is Samsung's latest top-tier flagship phone with specs taken up to 11 across the board.
Our main issue with this phone is the reason many people won't buy it - the price. It's an incredibly expensive smartphone and few people will even be able to consider buying it.
If the Galaxy S21 Ultra fits in your budget, though, you'll find it great for gaming with top processing power, and a large, good-looking screen. The top camera smarts are just an extra.
Read our review: Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
The newest and best iPhone Pro model out there, the iPhone 12 Pro is the best of the Apple bunch right now. Its 6.1-inch display looks fantastic and is just the right size to get the most out of your gaming experience. Backed up by a powerful processor and plenty of storage space, you won't be disappointed by how speedily games run.
There's also no shortage of game options thanks to the App Store having a huge wealth of games available to it, plus the benefits that come from using Apple Arcade for a Netflix-style library of options.
The iPhone 12 Pro is expensive for what you get and 5G isn't really relevant to a lot of users just yet (but will be a huge help gaming in future), but such a purchase will mean that you're future-proofed for a while to come yet.
Read our review: iPhone 12 Pro
The OnePlus 9 Pro is a great all-round flagship, but it also has a feature that we’d more expect to find on a gaming phone. We’re talking about Hyper Touch, which can boost the touch sampling rate from an already-high 240Hz to 360Hz, making the screen extraordinarily responsive to inputs – which is ideal when playing games.
Beyond that, the OnePlus 9 Pro also has all the power you should need for gaming, with a high-end Snapdragon 888 chipset and up to 12GB of RAM. And games are sure to look great on its 6.7-inch 1440 x 3216 AMOLED screen with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz.
It also supports 65W charging (and 50W wireless charging), so you’ll never be out of juice for long, and with 5G you can game online on the move.
There’s also up to 256GB of storage, so there’s plenty of room to store all your games on the OnePlus 9 Pro.
Read our review: OnePlus 9 Pro
The LG V60 ThinQ seems like an updated and up-sized version of the LG G8, which popularized the Dual Screen peripheral that makes the V60 stand out from the competition.
In essence, the Dual Screen is an exact copy of the V60's 6.8-inch Full HD Plus (2460 x 1080) display. The software takes a moment to get used to, but you can effectively have two apps running at the same time – handy if, like in the photo above, you want to play games on one screen and watch media on the other.
There is a gaming mode that makes the second screen an input touchpad, leaving the first screen free of fingers, but it's not the most intuitive. There are also a handful of apps, like Google Maps, that can splash across both screens to varying degrees of helpfulness.
Otherwise, the phone is a typically powerful flagship for 2020: Snapdragon 865 chipset, 8GB of RAM, 128GB or 256GB of storage, and it runs Android 10. The 5,000mAh battery is a great addition to keep your gaming going, and the 3.5mm headphone jack is a rarity in phones these days. Overall, a strong pick for gaming and watching media – or both at the same time.
Read our reviews: LG V60 ThinQ review
The Motorola Edge Plus is the first top-tier flagship Motorola has released in years, and in many ways, it was worth the wait: the waterfall display is big and gorgeous, the phone packs great specs, and there's even a new gaming feature thrown in: digital trigger buttons that hang over the screen's edge, just under your fingers.
The phone packs an impressive specs array: a Snapdragon 865 chipset, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage (sadly not expandable). The 6.7-inch display has a 90Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support, giving a far sharper image than we'd expect from its Full HD Plus (2340 x 1080) screen. And its triple rear camera is headed by a staggering 108MP shooter.
While the Motorola Edge Plus' price is about equal to other flagships at $999 (around £800 / AU$1,550), you might have trouble finding it given its limited availability: even in the US, it's only available through Verizon.
The phone's cheaper sibling, the Motorola Edge, has a few compromises in specs and but it's notably cheaper as a result, starting at £549 / $699 (about AU$1,015). And yet, it may be available in more places, and still retains many of the best features of the Edge Plus.
While the Motorola Edge 'only' has a display supporting HDR10, a Snapdragon 765G chipset with 6GB of RAM, a 64MP main shooter, and a smaller 4,500mAh battery, those aren't dealbreakers for the lower price, in our opinion. Plus, the Edge's 128GB of storage is expandable via microSD.
And best of all, both versions come with 3.5mm headphone jacks.
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