Gaming phones

Gaming phones are smartphones specially designed to perform continuously at the highest level. To this end, they feature extra cooling, sometimes even in the form of a separately available fan. Stereo sound and the smoothest screen also come as standard.

To play the occasional game like Subway Surfers or FarmVille, almost any smartphone will suffice.

Brands of gaming phones

There are some brands that market phones specifically for gamers. One example is Asus with its ROG Phone series. Or what about Redmagic? Still others release gaming smartphones alongside regular smartphones, such as Honor, Nubia and Xiaomi with its Black Shark.

• Asus ROG gaming phones
• Redmagic gaming phones

True gamers have a love/hate relationship with gaming on phones. They prefer consoles or the PC. Dedicated smartphones for gaming therefore remain a niche market. We therefore also see a lot of dropouts. Think of Razer.

History of mobile gaming

Phone manufacturers recognised early on that you can also game with a mobile phone. The first example came in 1997 when the Nokia 6110 came on the market with the game Snake on it. It turned out to be a huge hit, albeit for its sheer simplicity.

2003: Nokia N-Gage

In 2003, Nokia competed with the Nintendo Game Boy Advance with the release of the Nokia N-Gage and N-Gage QD. The separately formed phones did not enjoy much success after which Nokia stopped development.

2008: Apple App Store

After Apple released the first iPhone in 2007, it would take until 2008 for an official App Store to appear. Soon developers started making games that could sometimes be played for free, and otherwise for a one-off fee. This triggered a veritable wave of popular titles such as Angry Birds and Candy Crush.

2011: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

Sony Ericsson surprised in 2011 with the Xperia Play. This was an Android smartphone with slide-out gamepad. Sony had already gained experience in mobile gaming with the PSP since 2004, so it was somewhat unclear what this Xperia was supposed to achieve. It therefore remained a one-off adventure; the device did not have a successor.

2017: Motorola Moto Gamepad

Now that most smartphones are powerful enough for (simple) games, the need for separately shaped gaming phones with gaming buttons disappeared. Instead, we saw accessories to make gaming easier. In 2017, for instance, Motorola launched the Moto Gamepad for its Moto Z range. This separately available accessory clips onto the back of the device and features physical gaming buttons.

2018: Asus ROG

Asus released its very first ROG Phone in 2018; an otherwise regular Android phone but with the ability to add accessories. These include the AeroActive Cooler and the ROG Tessen controller. The ROG phones are optimised to deliver high-quality performance for long periods of time and are therefore considered high-end flagships.