In case you’ve spent the last 10 years living under a rock, you would have noticed that the smartphone gaming scene has moved on a bit from Fruit Ninja-this, and Angry Birds-that. In fact, today the smartphone gaming sector is among the most lucrative, diverse and innovative segments of the global gaming industry. Not only can gamers enjoy ports of classic console games like GTA III or Final Fantasy VI, but due to the flexibility and expandable nature of these devices, they can hop online and make use of comparison websites such as oddschecker to take their pick of one among the online slots games out there. Furthermore, the raw horse-power behind most modern smartphones nowadays means that they are capable of running games at a graphical level that matches the 7th console generation, like the Xbox 360 or PS3.
It’s for this reason that a whole new type of smartphone has come along to cater to these circumstances – the dedicated gaming phone. Devices like the ASUS ROG Phone 6 and Nubia RedMagic 7 have higher refresh rate displays, more RAM and bigger batteries than even Samsung’s flagship devices. But, unsurprisingly, they also cost a premium. Fortunately, you don’t need to shell out north of $1000 to get your gaming on with your smartphone. And there are a few things you can do to squeeze every last bit of performance out of any device to boot. Below, we’re going to take a look at some basic tricks and tips to optimize your smartphone for gaming.
Close background processes
Smartphones typically try to do a hundred things at once, largely because we ask them to without realizing. Programs such as social media apps are constantly refreshing in the background in order to furnish us with notifications as soon as someone likes a photo of ours. But is this necessary? Well, that’s subjective — but when it comes to maximizing your phone for gaming, you want to be minimizing the amount of stuff your phone is doing in the background when you’re playing, as it prevents your device from focusing all its available processing power on your gaming session. What’s more, be sure to delete random apps you don’t use or need, as these will further clog up performance.
Get a controller
One of the main things that holds back smartphone gaming is its reliance on touch-screen inputs. While plenty of games are built around this input method, the vast majority of titles do better with a dedicated controller. Not only does this improve the accuracy and tactile feedback of your inputs, it frees your screen up to serve as a display without you blocking the action with your thumbs. What’s more, if you have a console controller lying around, you can normally connect this via Bluetooth to your phone. With the inclusion of a clip-on frame such as the PowerA MOGA Mobile Gaming Clip 2, you then have a high quality gameplay rig at minimal cost.
