Unlock the Ultimate Gaming Phone for COD: Mobile Experience: Expert Tips for 330+ Days of Dominance
The Shape of Gamer: Unpacking the Five Key Factors to Consider When Buying a Gaming Phone
In 2024, popular online mobile game COD: Mobile did its own version of Spotify Unwrapped, revealing how often I’ve gamed and what my stats are. To my surprise, I discovered that I’d logged into the game on over 90% of the days in this year (please, don’t tell my family!). This got me thinking – what makes a phone worth it for gaming? As someone who tests mobiles for a living, I’ve dug into the nitty-gritty and come up with the top five factors to consider when buying a gaming phone.
The Shape of Gamer
The shape of a phone is the single most important factor in making a gaming phone worthwhile. I’ve used hundreds of smartphones over the last few years, and gamed on most of them. A phone that’s too big can be a real pain, making it hard to reach the on-screen buttons that COD: Mobile uses. On the other hand, a phone with bezels that are too small can be just as frustrating, as your fingers easily slip over the top of the device, accidentally tapping buttons. Some design issues can be overcome by getting used to gaming on a mobile, but there are devices that I’ve tested and never grown accustomed to. A surprising number of annoying design flaws can be found on devices intended for gaming – and sometimes, these small issues can ruin the gaming experience.
What are the Charges?
A good battery is crucial for a gaming phone. A huge battery doesn’t just ensure you can use your phone throughout the day; it also increases your gaming time. I’ve used phones with short battery life, and the worry of running out of charge has paused my gaming on those devices. Gamers should look for a phone with a battery of at least 5,000mAh – this is easy in 2024, given that most modern mobiles exceed this benchmark. A larger battery cell means you’ll get more gaming time, plain and simple.
Charging speed is also vital for the same reason. It means you can quickly top up your phone if you’re in a pinch – battery anxiety will dissipate. The ‘fast’ part of ‘fast charging’ is important, as it allows your phone to gain battery power while gaming, rather than just slowly discharging.
Looks that Kill
You’d think the screen would be one of the most important aspects of a gaming phone, but I’ve never used a mobile and thought, "Wow, this screen looks awful for gaming." Almost every phone around now has a 1080p screen, and most games output at this resolution – by default, COD: Mobile uses this resolution. What you should look for in a screen is a high max brightness. If you can make your display brighter, the contrast is more pronounced, and this has a noticeable effect in-game. It means you can spot other players (i.e., enemies) against their backgrounds, so you can react to situations a bit quicker.
Getting Triggered
Some gaming phones come with physical triggers on top, which you can map to commands, giving you extra controls. Different manufacturers approach this in different ways, some with physical triggers and others with haptic areas you tap. When triggers work well, they super-charge your gaming experience – I’ve played COD: Mobile with triggers that made me feel like I was playing with cheats enabled, reacting so quickly it felt unfair. However, I’ve also used triggers that held me back because they didn’t work well, requiring multiple taps to pick up a command, or introducing a delay, so my response times would be worse than normal. Generally, I’d recommend physical triggers as a fantastic bonus for hardcore gamers. Haptic triggers, on the other hand, have proven less reliable in my testing, and I tend to steer clear of these.
Chips (et) and Dips
A chipset is the ‘brain’ of a smartphone, and you’d think a smarter phone would be better at handling complicated games. However, I’ve tested phones with top-end and bottom-end chipsets, and I’ve come to realize that this isn’t actually that crucial. That’s because most smartphone games seem to be optimized to work on all manner of phones, so if you’re playing on a $200 Android, the game won’t feel much worse than on a $1,000 iPhone – sure, you might experience some lagging and freezing, but not as much as high-end phone manufacturers would have you believe. In fact, your ping (or network connection strength) will impact the speed and responsiveness of your gaming experience much more than the chipset, especially on a multiplayer title like COD: Mobile. Improved phone internals will bring a few benefits: you’ll be able to play games using higher-quality graphics options, if the title offers that, and loading times might be quicker if you’ve got more RAM. However, I often favor mobiles with mid-range chipsets, as the extra cost of a top-end one isn’t usually worth it.
