The best gaming phones in 2023
Of all the phones we’ve tested, the best gaming phones are the ones with the performance, displays and batteries that can handle today’s most demanding games.
Of these phones, some are familiar flagship phones from big companies like Apple or Samsung, with the camera and software quality (and price) that you’d expect as a result. Others from companies like Asus ROG and RedMagic are specifically aimed at gamers and have extra features like trigger buttons, enhanced cooling and unique software. Neither is strictly worse than the other, it’ll just depend on what else you want from your phone, if anything.
Whatever your needs are, these are the best gaming phones you can get right now.
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The best gaming phones you can buy now
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Samsung pulled off something incredible with the Galaxy S23 Ultra by dethroning the iPhone 14 Pro Max as the top gaming phone. And that’s thanks to a new chipset.
Not only does the Galaxy S23 Ultra still come with excellent cameras, a top-quality display and a generous battery capacity, it also uses the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chipset. This Samsung-specific chip offers increased power over the regular 8 Gen 2 silicon, and even the A16 Bionic chip, meaning you won’t find a more powerful phone to game with.
We still wish the phone was a bit cheaper and that it charged faster, and some of you may wish it had flat sides instead of curved ones. But you can’t argue with the overall quality of the phone, including the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s gaming abilities. If the price is a problem for you, keep in mind that the less expensive Galaxy S23 Plus and Galaxy S23 run on the same powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy silicon, though you will have to settle for smaller screens.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review.
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2. Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate
Record battery life for any gaming phone
Our expert review:
Specifications
Display size:
6.8-inch AMOLED (2488 x 1080)
Refresh rate:
165Hz
CPU:
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
RAM:
16GB
Storage / Expandable:
512GB / No
Cameras (back / front):
50MP main, 13MP ultrawide, 8MP macro / 32MP
Weight:
8.4 ounces
Battery life (Hrs:Mins):
18:32 (adaptive), 13:23 (165Hz)
Check AmazonView at Asus
Reasons to buy
+
Astounding multi-day battery life
+
Performance keeps pace with Galaxy S23 Ultra
+
Bright, colorful display
Reasons to avoid
–
Bezels at the top and bottom of the display
–
Just two years of Android OS updates
The gaming never stops on the the Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, one of the newest gaming-centric phones to carry the ROG label. Like the ROG Phone 6 Pro before it, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate sets a new record on our battery test, beating the old mark by 3 hours. That eye-popping 18.5-hour result came with the phone’s adaptive refresh rate turned on; even when we locked the refresh rate at an energy-sapping 165Hz, the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate still lasted nearly 13.5 hours — an outstanding result.
While the 6,000 mAh battery helps, the true star is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset that also helps the ROG Phone 7 Pro post benchmark numbers that match devices like the Galaxy S23 Ultra and OnePlus 11. We also like the ROG Phone’s bright, colorful display, though once again, its cameras don’t measure up to more general purpose-focused phones.
The ROG Phone 7 Ultimate doesn’t figure to be cheap. (A U.S. price hasn’t been announced yet, since the phone won’t arrive for a few months.) But with the regular ROG Phone 7 sharing the same chipset, battery size and display specs as the Ultimate, we’d imagine gamers will be able to enjoy the best things about this phone at a lower price.
Read our full Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate review.
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While Apple doesn’t prioritize gamers in the same way other phone makers do, the iPhone 14 Pro Max is a fantastic phone to play on. Its A16 Bionic chipset offers loads of power, and the 120Hz display is smooth and colorful. Coupled with a lengthy battery life, you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy the best iOS games to their full potential.
Unfortunately, the App Store doesn’t allow for gaming emulators, so for those interested in playing classic games, they may be out of luck. Although, some of the most popular titles from the SNES and PS2 eras have been ported to iPhone.
The other benefits of going for the iPhone are its strong photography abilities, its newly added always-on display and the also-new Dynamic Island notch that gives you more screen to play with. Unfortunately, this is still an expensive phone, and with no SIM slot in the U.S. (it’s eSIM only) and sluggish charging, this isn’t the most welcoming phone if you’re not already comfortable with the iPhone way of life.
It’s also worth noting that the iPhone 14 Pro is cheaper and more compact while using the same chipset. However, the Pro Max is our top pick since we prefer having the larger display and extra battery life.
Read our full iPhone 14 Pro Max review.
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The top-performing Android phones coming out these days feature a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 system-on-chip, and that’s the silicon powering the OnePlus 11. As a result, even the most demanding games play like a dream on this device.
Gamers will also appreciate the 120Hz refresh rate on the phone’s 6.7-inch display, as well as the long battery life — over 13 hours even with that adaptive refresh rate enabled. But perhaps the most attractive thing about the OnePlus 11 is its price. While other flagships flirt with $1,000 price tags, the OnePlus 11 comes in at $699. It’s hard to find a top-line phone that delivers so many premium features at that cost.
Read our full OnePlus 11 review.
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5. Black Shark 5 Pro
Another top dedicated gaming phone
Our expert review:
Average Amazon review:
Specifications
Display:
6.7-inch OLED (2400 x 1080)
CPU:
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
RAM:
8GB, 12GB, 16GB
Storage / Expandable:
128GB, 256GB / No
Rear cameras:
108MP (f/1.8), 13MP (f/2.4) ultrawide, 5MP macro
Front camera:
16MP (f/2.5)
Weight:
7.8 ounces (220 g)
Battery life:
11:02 (Adaptive), 9:42 (144Hz), 9:53 (90Hz), 10:53 (60Hz)
View at Black SharkCheck Amazon
Reasons to buy
+
Great battery life and super fast charging
+
Solid performance
+
Nice display
+
Very useful physical shoulder buttons
Reasons to avoid
–
No wireless charging
The Black Shark 5 Pro is the first dedicated gaming phone that we can honestly recommend. Not only does it feature powerful hardware, a beautiful display and excellent battery life, but it offers unique gaming features that we love. Not to mention that the main and ultrawide cameras are surprisingly good.
The best part about the Black Shark 5 Pro, however, are the physical shoulder buttons. These magnetic triggers pop up when you want them, offering real, tactile feedback during gameplay. If you’ve struggled with ultrasonic triggers in the past, you might like these.
Starting at $799 / £629 / €799 for the base 8GB/128GB model, the Black Shark 5 Pro is the best dedicated gaming phone. If mobile gaming is all you care about, this is the phone for you.
Read our full Black Shark 5 Pro review.
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Google has another hit on its hands with the Pixel 7 Pro, and that includes for gamers. The Tensor G2 chip offers excellent GPU benchmark results, and also enables unique Pixel features like live translation, Photo Unblur and more.
The cameras are also particularly good, with lots of post-processing going on there too to make scenes look as attractive as possible. And at $899, it’s a lot cheaper than comparable phones, especially for its size and camera quality.
We wish the phone had better battery life though, as it’s the Pixel 7 Pro’s greatest weakness. But if you’re not worried about running out of charge away from an electrical outlet, then there’s little else to fault the Pixel 7 Pro for.
Read our full Google Pixel 7 Pro review.
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7. RedMagic 8 Pro
Best gaming phone value
Our expert review:
Average Amazon review:
Specifications
Display:
6.8-inch AMOLED (2400 x 1080)
Peak refresh rate:
120Hz
CPU:
Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1
RAM:
12GB, 18GB
Storage/Expandable:
256GB, 512GB / No
Cameras (Back/Front):
64MP (f/1.8) main, 8MP (f/2.2) ultrawide, 2MP macro (2.4) / 16MP (under-display)
Weight:
8.2 ounces
Battery life (Hrs:Mins):
10:48
View at AmazonView at Amazon
Reasons to buy
+
120Hz display refresh rate
+
Amazing performance
+
Lots of gaming features
+
Great value
Reasons to avoid
–
Disappointing cameras
–
Weirdly translated software
With its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, the RedMagic 8 Pro offers some of the best performance-per-dollar of any phone on the market. It starts over $100 lower than equivalent flagship phones in price, while still offering superior specs like 65W charging and up to 16GB RAM, plus its own unique but useful quirks like a cooling fan and lots of software tools to use while in-game.
RedMagic still can’t seem to nail photography or software quality though. These are two things most flagship phones don’t have problems with, so if dodgy photos or weirdly worded settings menus are going to annoy you, look elsewhere. But users who know their primary activity on their phone is gaming and want to save a few hundred dollars should make a beeline for the RedMagic.
Read our full RedMagic 8 Pro review.
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We think the OnePlus 11 is a better choice if you’re looking for the best gaming phone from OnePlus. But the OnePlus 10T remains in the OnePlus lineup as an inexpensive option that doesn’t sacrifice performance thanks to a still fast Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset than its predecessor.
The Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 delivers a performance boost over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which OnePlus augments by packing the phone with RAM. In fact, you can get a version of the phone with 16GB of memory for $749, just $100 more than the $649 starting price. (And chances are, OnePlus is offering a discount on those prices now that the 10T has been out a while.)
The OnePlus 10T also features a new cooling system to keep the phone from overheating during marathon gaming sessions. Throw in a fast charging and a big display capable of a 120Hz refresh rate, and you’ve got quite a mobile gaming device that’s cheaper than most flagships.
Read our full OnePlus 10T review.
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Motorola’s latest flagship model has a few flaws, but it delivers the goods for gamers. The 144Hz refresh rate is above average for Android phones, and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, combined with 8GB or 12GB RAM, means you aren’t lacking in performance.
The main issue you’ll worry about with gaming is the Edge Plus’ disappointing battery life. You may want to keep a plug handy for any gaming marathons you’re doing. Fortunately the included 30W charger gets you going again fast, and unless you’re particularly bothered about not having a telephoto camera or a glass back panel, it’s a good compromise between costly well-rounded regular flagship phones and cheaper dedicated gaming smartphones.
Read our full Motorola Edge Plus (2022) 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 A-series silicon. 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 OnePlus 11, Galaxy S23 Plus and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
If you plan to stream games to your phone, consider one of our picks for the best wireless gaming mouse. And if you’re curious how a foldable phone performs, here’s why the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 falls flat as a gaming phone.
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 some of these tests in our labs and some in the real world.
When it comes to performance, we rely on such synthetic benchmarks as Geekbench 5 and GFXBench to measure graphics performance. These tests allow us to compare performance across iPhones and Android devices. We also run a real-world video transcoding test on each phone using the Adobe Premiere Rush app and time the result.
To measure the quality of a phone’s display, we perform lab tests to determine the brightness of the panel (in nits), as well as how colorful each screen is (DCI-P3 color gamut). In these cases, higher numbers are better. We also measure color accuracy of each panel with a Delta-E rating, where lower numbers are better and score of 0 is perfect.
One of the most important tests we run is the Tom’s Guide battery test. We run a web 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 good, and anything above 11 hours makes our list of the best phone battery life.
Last but not least, we take the best phones out in the field to take photos outdoors, indoors and at night in low light to see how they perform versus their closest competitors. We take shots of landscapes, food, portraits and more, and also allow you to be the judge with side-by-side comparisons in our reviews.
Our look at how Tom’s Guide tests and rates smartphones has more on the overall testing process.
What should I look for in the best gaming phone?
Since your gaming experience will be defined by how much power your phone has, how detailed and bright the display is and how fast it refreshes, and how long you can play without needing to charge, we recommending looking at the chipset/performance figures, the display specs and the battery life length when picking your gaming phone.
You should also figure out if these features are your only priority, or whether you want other areas like cameras, charging speeds or gaming-friendly software features to be good as well.
