5 Essential features to look for when buying a gaming phone

The right gaming phone can help you have a much smoother and fully immersive gameplay. In contrast to ordinary smartphones, the gaming devices need hardware ready to operate at a high level of sustained performance, quick graphics, high responsiveness, and cooling abilities. A clear and highly informative breakdown of the five most important features you need to consider when purchasing a gaming phone are given below. Follow them and enjoy mobile gaming. Here are 5 Essential features to look for when buying a gaming phone.

High refresh rate & high quality displays for smooth, immersive gameplay 

A high-refresh-rate display is one of the very first features that any gaming phone should possess, 120Hz, 144Hz, or even 165Hz on more high-end models. The refresh rate defines the number of times the screen is changed in one second and has a direct influence on the smoothness of the visuals.

This is a huge difference to the gamers. A 60Hz screen will refresh 60 times per second and a 144Hz one refreshes 144 times. This will decrease the motion blur, animation switching, and responsiveness of control, particularly in titles with high activity, such as BGMI, Call of Duty Mobile, or Genshin Impact. Increased refresh rates are also associated with an increase in touch accuracy and the feeling of instantaneous actions.

A gaming phone must be capable of displaying vivid colors but its refresh rate must be very high - 120 Hz, 144 Hz, or even higher - because motion and animations must be fluid and responsive. This also minimises motion blur in fast action games and puts you ahead of them in reactions.

The ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro is one of the best examples. It has a 6.78-inch AMOLED display with very high refresh rates and capable of providing bright and sharp pictures that assist in competitive gaming. The other example is the OnePlus 12, the high-end LTPO display, and smooth refresh make it balance its gaming performance with general usability.

These screens are worth saying the least, they provide the smoother frames, more vivid movement in high-speed situations, and the gaming environment.

Powerful processor & hardware for consistent frame rates and heavy graphics

A gaming phone is made up of the processor (SoC). Other common gaming-oriented chipsets are the Snapdragon 8-series, Snapdragon 7-series (more recent generations) and MediaTek Dimensity 8000-9000 series. They are designed using high performance clusters of CPU, AI engines, and graphical processing units (GPUs) that have the capability to render highly complex graphics free of stutter.

A strong processor ensures:

• Increased frame rates (60fps, 90fps, 120fps) of supported games.

• Shorter loading times

• Greater thermal performance, i.e. your phone will be cooler.

• Less lag during prolonged computer gaming.

Gaming is not only about display: the processor (SoC), graphics card, random access memory and general-purpose hardware design should be able to sustain high loads: complicated 3D graphics, physics, network access, and real-time user input.

ROG Phone 8 Pro is once again a distinct product: with a flagship-class chipset and hardware configuration, the phone is guaranteed to perform high and steady even with graphically intensive titles. Equally, the case of OnePlus 12 indicates that a premium phone that is specifically designed to perform all roles can comfortably run the likes of heavy games. These phones have higher frame rates, less load times and continued performance in prolonged gaming games - critical in competitive or lengthy gaming games.

Excellent cooling / thermal design for sustained performance

Gaming is among the resource-heavy activities that a phone would be capable of doing. Lacking proper cooling, the chipset overheats and enters thermal throttling, crippling the performance in a bid to protect the device.

This is the reason why gaming phones usually have:

• Liquid cooling chambers (VC cooling)

• Graphite heat dissipation coatings.

• Dedicated airflow designs

• External removable cooling fans (in selected models)

An effective cooling system will allow to keep the FPs constant, eliminate frame drops, and avoid heat damage to the battery over time. Always ensure that the gaming phone manufacturer emphasises the thermal design of the device when purchasing a gaming phone because it determines the long-term performance of the device.

The performance can be cut short when a powerful phone gets hot, and it is an issue in case of extended gaming. This is why it is important to have good cooling (vapour-chamber design, internal cooling systems, heat dissipation) to maintain performance constant.

Phones dedicated to gaming, such as ROG Phone 8 Pro, are oriented on the significant cooling of the phone to ensure that intensive gaming will not cause the phone to become hot and slow it down. This guarantees you a steady performance with time, and not flash-in-the-pan performance. This trait of being cool under pressure becomes very imperative in case you intend to game regularly.

Large battery + fast charging to support long gaming sessions

Most of the everyday activities will consume a lot of battery life compared to gaming, which puts a strain on the CPU, graphics, screen and internet connection at the same time. The battery capacity of a gaming phone is supposed to be 4,500-6,000mAh that would guarantee it long hours of continuous play.

It is also important to have fast charging, like 67W, 80W or 120W fast chargers. The rapid charging means that you can resume gaming in a couple of minutes and it saves time. Other gaming phones provide battery bypass technology, which means that they can be powered by the charger directly in the game and heat is produced, which can be helpful in long tournaments.

OnePlus 12 and other phones are optimised to not only have excellent performance, but to be usable in everyday life and have good battery life as well as charging speeds and performance. Use it regularly or in the long-term, and this guarantees that you will not run out of play time and you will be ready to play when the chance arises.

Gaming oriented controls, touch responsiveness and extra features

Other than hardware, gaming phones usually provide some gaming optimizations at the software level, and additional hardware improvements that can be significant. Key features include:

• High touch sampling rate (240Hz-720Hz): The rate at which the screen receives your touch. The controls are highly responsive with increased sampling rate essential in shooting, dodging, and rapid movement.

• Shoulder buttons or pressure buttons: Permit FPS and racing game console style controls.

• Game booster engines: Optimize CPU / GPU allocation and network stability and RAM management.

• Haptic feedback engines: Engines deliver haptic feedback to haptic actions such as explosions, shooting, or jumping.

All these enhancements provide a more competitive gambling environment. These features enhance your control, accuracy and reaction time whether you are a tournament level player or a casual gamer. 

Although phones such as ROG Phone 8 Pro are a product that includes such features as a gaming phone, even non-gaming flagships such as the OnePlus 12 have a smooth touch, responsive screens, and steady performance; thus, can be used to play games without special gamer-focused features. To most of the gamers, these software and hardware optimisations are what separate the good game experience and a competitive one.

Bringing it together: Which phones are good picks and why

• In case you prefer a phone that is specially designed with a gaming focus, high refresh rate, excellent cooling, dedicated gaming-specific hardware and controls - the ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro is the right model. It is a game-oriented building and it delivers where it is most needed when gaming is the main activity.

• And in case you are looking at a more balanced daily phone, one with a good display, interesting photography, and the game-playing capability of a phone, the OnePlus 12 has flagship quality performance, a nice display, and the flexibility of a non-gaming-only phone.

• On a limited budget, but wish to have fair gaming experience, you might consider middle-range phones with decent refresh rate and decent cooling (however, they will not perform as the best phones mentioned above).

Marketing is not all that a great gaming phone is a carefully considered set of display quality, processing, thermal design, battery life and better-than-average controls. You can also have a smooth and responsive gaming process that lasts long by aligning your priorities (hardcore gaming or balanced everyday use) to the appropriate feature set, as well as by choosing a gaming phone such as ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro or OnePlus 12.

Disclaimer: The information regarding the gadgets/devices listed in the table and article has been sourced from various secondary sources. For detailed product specifications, please refer to the brand sources.