10 Things to Consider When Buying A Gaming Phone: Gaming Phone Buying Guide 2023

Buying a gaming phone is and always will be one of the most challenging decisions gamers will encounter. Trust me, a gaming phone is not all about RAM and those petty things you have been told so far. There are many aspects that one must consider before purchasing a gaming phone in 2023. Be it the processor, battery, display refresh rate, RAM and storage type, cooling technology, and more features, there are around 10 things that you need to consider when buying a gaming phone. So today, we will let you know what those things are in our best gaming phone buying guide in 2023. 

A gaming phone might not have the best camera or the best UI experience in the long run, of course, there are those flagship phones for this purpose. But, any good gaming phone would be known to offer the best gaming performance in its price range, that’s the bare minimum. No matter if your budget is Rs 20000 or 30000, the best gaming phones in those price ranges will provide the best gaming experience too. But, the actual problem is what to look for in a gaming phone. It’s a very common question that people are not able to find the answer to.

No worries, in this gaming phone buying guide, we will show you how to pick the best gaming phone in 2023 at the best price.

Before we move to our buying guide, let’s take a look at some of the best gaming phones in different price ranges, which will save you from the trouble of going through all the specifications and big numbers. We have shortlisted the best gaming phones for every budget starting from Rs. 10000 all the way to Rs. 50000. All you have to do is check the list and pick a phone that falls under your budget and it will be the best gaming phone for that price, you can trust us with that. So, here’s the list of the best gaming phones in 2023:

These are the best gaming phones in India around Rs. 10000 to Rs. 50000. These smartphones come with the best specifications for their prices and offer the best gaming experience, which is why we have picked them.

Now, let’s get back to our gaming phone buying guide. Given below are the 10 things that you must consider before buying a gaming phone in 2023:

The processor on a smartphone is the most important part that you need to pay attention to. A good processor can literally make your gaming phone the best one there is and if you somehow end up with a phone that has a bad processor, your gaming experience will be horrible. But, that does not mean that you would need to find a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 phone under Rs. 20000 or 30000, because that is not possible. The important thing is to choose the best processor according to the price that you are willing to pay for the best gaming phone.

For different prices, there are different processors which are better than others, and that’s where you have to find your sweet spot. But, how would you know which processor is the best as per your budget? Don’t worry about it much. You can check out some best mobile phone processors that we have mentioned below. These chipsets are among the best ones for their price.

Here are the best smartphone processors for under ₹30,000 in 2023:

These are the best smartphone processors for prices ranging from Rs. 10000 to Rs. 30000. For higher costs, you may check out the list of the best gaming phones at the top of the article.

Without wasting any time, let’s get to a straightforward answer. There’s no processor brand that can be labeled as the absolute best. Sure, Snapdragon processors have been in the market for the longest and most game developers optimize their games first according to Snapdragon processors. But, we can’t ignore the fact that MediaTek chipsets are cheaper and provide better performance at lower costs, which makes it possible for smartphone brands to give better specifications too.

Therefore, it’s better to stay out of this debate on the Snapdragon VS MediaTek and just choose a gaming phone that provides the best value for your money, that’s what we dimers are best at, aren’t we?

So, the first thing that we learned with this gaming phone buying guide is that it is extremely important to select a good processor when buying a gaming mobile phone.

6GB or 8GB RAM is more than enough for any mobile phone. Nope, you do not need 12GB or 16GB of RAM for gaming. You would hear boomers saying that more RAM means better performance, but that is completely false. What RAM actually does in a smartphone is that it keeps apps and games in its memory, which helps you continue using an app or game without having to load it again.

Is it too confusing? Let’s simplify it a bit. Say, you are playing a game on your mobile phone and suddenly, you get a message from a friend. You text them back, look at some memes in the meantime and then again remember that you left your game in the recent apps. Now, a gaming phone with good RAM management would keep that game in its memory so you can continue playing where you left off.

In simple words, RAM does not make your phone fast, but it does help in a better gaming experience by keeping your apps and games in the phone’s memory and opening them fast. So, the real question is, which RAM is best for a gaming phone? The answer is really simple. As of now, these three are the best RAMs that you would find on any new mobile phone- LPDDR4X, LPDDR5, and LPDDR5X. Also, all smartphones above the price of Rs. 20,000 must have either the LPDDR5 or LPDDR5X RAM. For a lower price, you can settle for LPDDR4X RAM too.

Thus, with our Gaming Phone Buying Guide 2023 Tip #2, we learned that a 6GB or 8GB RAM is more than enough with the RAM type being LPDDR4X, LPDDR5, or LPDDR5X, depending on the price range.

Note: The RAM management of some smartphones may be better or worse depending on the UI of a phone. For example, Xiaomi phones are known to have bad RAM management, while Samsung mobile phones, with the same RAM specifications, would likely provide better RAM management.

Believe it or not, the storage on a mobile phone impacts the performance more than you may think. The smartphone’s storage is not always about its capacity, but also about the storage type. Faster storage on your gaming phone will result in faster loading of games and applications. Not only that but when you will scroll through your galley and see some images loading slowly, it will show you how slow your phone’s storage is. Though, if your phone loads all those images before you can scroll through them, congratulations, your phone’s storage is really fast.

As of now, these are the most popular types of storage on Android phones- UFS 2.1, UFS 2.2, UFS 3.0, UFS3.1, and UFS 4.0. Moreover, some budget phones also come with uMCP and eMMC types of storage. So, we have bifurcated these Android phone storages according to their price segments right below:

Now, make sure that you pick the best gaming phone with the fastest storage according to this table. Also, about the storage capacity, it’s advisable to buy a gaming phone with at least 128GB of storage space. Moreover, if a phone has expandable storage, it’s an added benefit.

Gaming Phone Buying Guide Tip #3: Choose a gaming phone with at least 128GB of storage, which is faster too. You may also try getting a phone with expandable storage.

A gaming phone’s display can be an AMOLED one or an LCD panel, whichever works best for the user. But, having a high refresh rate and touch sampling rate would really add to the gaming experience and will make your phone a true gaming machine. Higher refresh rates mean smoother gameplay that makes it easier to score more. On the other hand, a higher touch sampling rate gives you a faster output on your input. Too confusing? Let’s see what’s the difference between the refresh rate and touch sampling rate on a gaming phone.

For reference, let’s take a gaming phone with a 120 Hz refresh rate and 360 Hz touch sampling rate display. The overall smoothness of a game will depend on the refresh rate, not the touch sampling rate. Meanwhile, when you press the ‘fire’ button, it is the touch sampling rate that determines how fast you will be able to see its output. In short, a higher refresh rate means how many times the display changes its contents in a second or simply put, frames per second. In this case, the FPS for our phone will be 120 Hz in its general tasks, though it may vary while gaming. So, with different smartphones in various price ranges, you will get higher refresh rates.

Gaming Phone Buying Guide 2023 Tip #4: We recommend you get a phone with at least a 120 Hz refresh rate display. Most phones that come with high refresh rates also have higher touch sampling rates, so you do not have to worry about it much.

It goes without saying that a higher battery capacity means more gaming time for you. But, that also means more charging time, a bulkier phone, and a very uncomfortable in-hand feel. These three factors are more than enough to ruin your overall experience with a mobile phone. Moreover, you do not need Realme’s 180W or Xiaomi 240W chargers for your phone. We need to charge it, not blast it, pun intended.

Most manufacturers claim that their extremely fast chargers are safe for both users and their mobile phones. But, even so, they come with certain disadvantages like:

• Heating issues while charging

• Degradation of batteries over time

• Increased smartphone usage

Thus, it’s recommended that you stick to a 65W charger or even lower because that’s pretty much everything you would need. A 65W charger would fill even a 5000 mAh battery in around half an hour. So, here are the best battery capacity and fast charger combinations for you:

Best Gaming Phone Buying Guide Tip #5: Generally, the best combination for a charger and the battery capacity is a 5000 mAh battery and a 65W charger. That’s a sweet spot for all gamers and general users too.

The User Interface or UI in a mobile phone is something that can either make or break the smartphone. In all seriousness, no matter how good of a processor or RAM a gaming phone has, its UI will have a huge impact on its overall performance. The perfect example that we have now is Infinix. The brand provides the best specifications even in its cheapest mobile phones, but its XOS user interface just brings it all to a big fat zero.

The UI on an Android phone may or may not be well optimized, which impacts the overall experience of a user and might even ruin gameplay for many gamers. Moreover, there are smartphones like Xiaomi’s POCO phones that are known to get bricked after some software updates. Then, there are Samsung’s budget phones with One UI Core that make it too difficult for budget phones to even work normally, let alone hardcore gaming. Thus, it’s really important for you to choose a gaming phone with the perfect OS and UI.

Gaming Phone Buying Guide Tip #6: Help yourself with our post on the Best Android UI and Skins in 2023.

Gaming phones that come with liquid cooling are the best ones if your concern is about the heating issues that come with them. Though, a liquid cooling system on a mobile phone would also increase the overall cost for a user. So, the best option for gamers who are looking for cheaper gaming phones is a vapor chamber cooling system. It does the same work as a liquid cooling system, though not on the same scale, but stays easy on the pockets too.

An overheating phone might not sound so bad to many. But, it’s important to understand that when a phone overheats, its AI limits the output of the processor, making it run slower and ultimately making the phone slower and laggy. Although there are smartphone processors that come with great heat management, gaming is a task that would pressurize even the best of the best Android chipsets. Therefore, having a cooling system on a gaming phone is always the best idea.

Gaming Phone Buying Guide Tip #7: Buy a gaming phone with liquid cooling or vapor chamber cooling system, whichever fits your budget.

Most gamers are part of competitive online gaming and gaming tournaments that even pay the winners. In such competitions, having a 3.5mm jack on a mobile phone is like having a superpower. Most TWS earbuds and Bluetooth neckbands have some sort of latency, which would make it difficult for gamers to react in time to any given situation in a game. But, that problem is nowhere to be found in smartphones with 3.5mm headphone jack. They offer instant output, making it easier for gamers to respond in time and be victorious too.

Gaming Phone Buying Guide Tip #8: If you are one such gamer who competes in online gaming, it’s best to buy a gaming phone with a headphone jack.

Not all gaming phones come with gaming accessories. Forget it, there are hardly any phones that come with any accessories in this era when brands are removing chargers from the boxes too. But, if you prefer using gaming accessories, it’s advisable to choose a gaming phone that is compatible with the accessories that you have or that you plan to get. If you find one such phone, it would definitely be a game changer and will add more value to your purchase, boosting your gaming skills too.

Gaming Phone Buying Guide 2023 Tip #9: Get a gaming phone which is compatible with your gaming accessories too or comes with gaming accessories if you are paying higher.

It’s understandable if your budget gaming phone doesn’t look like the ROG phone 7, but its design should have its merits. For starters, mobile phones with glass bodies generally feel premium in hands and they do not get as hot as phones with plastic bodies. Moreover, it’s even important for you to choose a phone that is not too slim. Why is that? Because phones that are too slim do not get any space to let out the heat generated by their processors, which makes them gain higher temperatures faster.

So, it’s best to buy a gaming phone with a glass back and a design that helps in heat dissipation. But, it’s generally difficult to get glass back phones under Rs. 20000. So, you can choose a gaming phone according to your budget but with the best design and built quality.

Gaming Phone Buying Guide Tip #10: Choose a gaming phone with a glass body and a design that makes heat dissipation easy. For lower budgets, the design can be compromised.

All the tips and suggestions that we have included in this gaming phone buying guide are probably the most important ones that one needs to take into consideration. Though, it’s still better to assume that it’s almost impossible to buy a perfect phone as of now. If one smartphone falls under your budget, it would have one or more flaws. But if you somehow find a phone with no flaws, it will be out of your budget; such is the condition with smartphones right now.

But, we will still try our best to help you get the best gaming phones under your budget. So, make sure to ask us any questions that you may have regarding any smartphone or this buying guide. Also, if you think we might have missed an important aspect to consider when getting a gaming phone, you can help us in the comments section below.

Also read:

• Best Gaming Phone Under Rs 20000

• Best Gaming Phone Under Rs 30000

• Best Gaming PC Under Rs 80000

• Best Gaming Laptop Under 1 Lakh