In the mobile space, having a gaming smartphone is just like having a sports car. They are built for power, performance and speed. When you chance on a sports car, there is one thing that comes into your mind, speed! They may not have all the modern technologies of the other luxury cars like Rose Royse, Maybach and the rest. This is because sports cars are made with one main focus, “Just Drive”.

That’s how gaming smartphones are made. They may not come with all the modern technologies of other flagship phones like the iPhones, foldable phones and the rest. Gaming phones are built with performance as the main goal. This means gaming phones aren’t for everybody. Even though most of them have pretty good cameras, they are not for those whose main focus is to take some beautiful photos for the gram.

Gaming phones are gaining popularity each day and the numbers will keep going up as more gamers keep getting on board. The types of gaming phones on the market today are just mind blowing. Most of them can play any PC game or PS5 games with ease looking the specs.

Having a gaming smartphone now is just like having your gaming PC or your gaming console in your pocket. The makers of such phones make sure they put in everything to give users the best mobile gaming experiences ever.

Some gaming smartphones can go as high as 18GB of RAM and 165Hz refresh rate. With all these, they also feature cooling fans and air vents or vapor chambers. We will talk about all the great features and the top-notch specifications of these smartphones in this article.

The phones we have listed in this article are phones that we have gathered through our own research. Our research was based on specifications, prices and of course, reviews. Through this, we have been able to gather the top 5 gaming smartphones that are worth your money this year. Let’s get right into this.

To make things clearer, we will list the phones from the 5th position to the first position which is the very best gaming phone on our list. We will also talk about each phone’s specs, additional features, design and price.

The Nubia Red Magic 7 Pro is one the best gaming smartphones you can get in the year 2023. It is a full package gaming smartphone that tries to depict the characteristics of a real gaming PC. This device was launched in early 2022 with a lot of commanding statement to the mobile gaming industry. The semi-transparent back design and the RGB light cooling fan gave it a lot of popularity and good reviews from users and tech reviewers.

The Red Magic 7 Pro has a very unique design as compared to most of the gaming smartphones out there. It features a semi-transparent back glass which reveals some of its internal components. This device also has a flat-panel display and a curvy-edge back glass design to make it feel comfortable in the palm. It also comes with vapor chamber through which heat comes out to keep the temperature of phone down at all times. It has a side-mounted dedicated gaming mode button as well.

This device comes with some top-notch specifications which defines its true gaming nature. It features a 6.8-inch AMOLED display with up to 120Hz refresh rate. The display also has a total resolution of 1080 x 2400 Pixels and a touch sampling rate of 720Hz. the display on this device is excellent with accurate colors but the screen brightness is just 600 nits with 387ppi pixel density.

With the Red Magic 7 Pro, you get Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset which is coupled with up to 18GB of RAM. The device also features a 65W charging capabilities as well as a 5,000mAh battery capacity. It comes with a triple camera setup with 64MP main sensor, 8MP ultrawide sensor and 2MP Macro lens. To enhance the overall gaming experience, the Red Magic 7 Pro also features a 16MP under display front camera.

One of the main highlights of the Red Magic 7 Pro is the dedicated gaming mode switch key. when you switch on the gaming mode, it automatically switches to the custom settings the user has set for their personalized gaming. So you don’t have to do a lot the next time you want to play your favorite game.

When a game is opened, the user can also swipe from the right corner to see the gaming settings and how your phone is handling them. You can also quickly change some settings from this menu. For better gaming experience, the Red Magic 7 Pro also features shoulder triggers that uses haptic feedbacks to give you the experience of traditional gaming controllers.

The Red Magic 7 Pro currently sells around 800 EUR.

The Black Shark 5 pro is another great gaming phone which pips the Red Magic 7 Pro with one or two specs. It was launched just a month after the launch of the Red Magic. It is an interesting looking smartphone which packs-in all the top features that every gaming smartphone should have. Which is why it is one of the best gaming smartphones you can buy in 2023.

Like I stated earlier, the Black shark 5 Pro comes with quite an interesting simple looking design. It may not have that gaming looks of the other gaming phones, but it sure has some power to stay in the top 4. It is also one of the smallest gaming smartphones you can get. So, if you love mobile gaming but don’t really like bulky phones, the Black Shark 5 Pro is the best choice for you. On the back, you get a simple looking camera bump and an LED action illuminator beside the camera. This also doubles as a notification light.

As a smaller form-factor gaming smartphone, the Black Shark 5 Pro features a 6.67-inch OLED display with 144Hz refresh rate. Just like the Red Magic 7 Pro, the Black Shark also has a screen resolution of 1080 x 2400 Pixels and pixel density of 395ppi. The device comes with a screen-to-body ratio of 85.7% with support for HDR10+.

On the performance side, the Black Shark draws its speed from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip with support from a 16GB RAM. The camera specifications on this device are also better here. It features a triple camera setup with 108MP main camera, 13MP ultrawide and 5MP Macro Telephoto lens. The front camera is also a 16MP center punch hole camera.

The 4650mAh battery pack in this device is quite smaller due to the size of the phone. However, the 120W charging speed can fully power it from 0 to 100% within just 15 minutes.

Just like most gaming smartphones, the Black Shark 5 Pro also has hidden shoulder trigger buttons. You can activate these buttons by just pressing a button. You can also switch to gaming mode which opens the full power of the device at your disposal. When in a game, you can also swipe from either side of the top corners to access all the gaming tools. You can block notifications and configure trigger buttons from this menu.

As you may expect from every gaming smartphone, the Black Shark 5 Pro also features a dual vapor chamber. This keeps the device running at lower temperature even after long term gaming. One feature that makes this phone even special is the ‘Bypass battery option’. With this, you just have to plug-in your charger while gaming. The charger is only going to keep the phone working but will not charge the battery. So, if your battery was at 57% before beginning the game, you still get 57% after hours of gaming. This protects your battery from disrupting and also helps the phone maintain a lower temperature.

The Black Shark 5 Pro gaming smartphone sells around 600 EUR.

Launching in March 2021, the Asus ROG Phone 5 is the oldest gaming smartphone on this list. Nonetheless, it still beats a lot of other phones out there when it comes to gaming capabilities, features and specs. The Asus ROG Phone 5 is still a very great gaming phone to buy, especially with the price reduction due to the release of the Phone 6 Pro. As a phone which is made for the purpose of gaming, you get the shoulder-mounted touch sensitive triggers as well.

The Asus ROG Phone 5 is one of the heaviest phones among these 5 gaming smartphones weighing 238g. With a peak brightness of 1200 nits, it also has one of the brightest displays. This device features a Gorilla Glass 3 on the back with a glossy finish and a Gorilla Glass Victus front glass. The ROG Phone 5 also features an RGB back light which also doubles as a notification light. It is a phone with a very simple design with few artistic designs to give it that gaming look.

The Asus ROG Phone 5 features a 6.78-inch OLED display with 144Hz refresh rate. It has a screen brightness of 800 nits and a peak brightness of 1200 nits. it comes with a screen resolution of 1080 x 2448 pixels and a screen-to-body ratio of 82%. Just like the Black Shark, this phone also has a pixel density of 395ppi.

Because this is the oldest phone on this list, it features the Snapdragon 888 chip which is still powerful enough to handle any tough game easily. For storage configuration, you are getting up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage in this phone.

On the back side, you get a triple camera setup with a 64MP main sensor, 13MP ultrawide sensor and a 5MP Macro lens. The Asus ROG Phone 5 also features the highest selfie camera megapixels count amongst these phones. It features a 24MP front facing camera which is embedded in the top bezel.

The Asus ROG Phone 5 also boasts one of the biggest batteries here with a 6,000mAh battery capacity. It comes with a 65W fast charger which can charge from 0 to 70% in 30 minutes. However, it requires about 52 minutes to give you full charge. This is still fast enough taking into consideration the battery size.

Right from the booting process to the setup screen, Asus lets you know what you have in your hand. You are greeted with animations and sound effect to excite you even before you get into the main home screen.  The phone allows you to customize your interface using some really cool game themes as well.

With the tap of one icon, it takes you to the gamer UI where you can access all your games. Here, you can set individual profiles for each game so that you can activate it whenever you need to play a particular game.

The Asus ROG Phone 5 now sells around 680 EUR.

The Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro comes as an upgrade to the Phone 5 with some similarities and of course, upgraded features. The main similarities here have to do with the display. Both phones have the same screen size of 6.78-inches and the same resolution of 1080 x 2448 pixels. You also get the same pixel density and battery size. However, the upgrade is quite huge and very noticeable.

Starting from the design of the phone, it looks quite different from its predecessor especially when viewing from the back. First of all, it weighs slightly more than the Phone 5 with a weight of 239g. It features a frosty back glass with a 2″ LED display on the right side. This one has a bit of aggressive design which makes a lot of gaming statement just by looking at it.

The Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro features a 6.78″ AMOLED display with 1200 nits’ peak brightness. This phone also has one of the highest refresh rates you can ever find in any phone in the world with 165Hz refresh rate. Just like its predecessor, it has a screen resolution of 1080 x 2448 pixel and 395ppi pixel density. Due to it having a slightly compact body size than the previous edition, you get about 82.2% screen-to-body ratio on this phone.

The whole power of this phone is also drawn from the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip from Qualcomm. It also has a memory configuration of 18GB RAM and 512GB of storage. The ROG Phone 6 Pro rocks a triple back camera setup with 50MP main sensor, 13MP ultrawide and 5MP Macro lens. The front camera is sadly downgraded from 24MP to 12MP on this version.

This device also rocks a larger battery size of 6,000mAh and 65W charging support just like the previous one. Asus says that the device can charge from 0 to 100% in just 42 minutes.

Just like all the other gaming phones on this list, the ROG Phone 6 Pro also features pressure sensitive shoulder triggers (Air Triggers). You can customize the Air triggers to perform a number of actions. For example, you can swipe to the left or right for a gaming character to perform a specific action. For faster gaming experience you get a higher touch sampling rate of 720Hz on this device.  With this, you just can’t miss a shot when playing some demanding action games. You can also adjust the touch sensitivity in the “Game Genie” menu to suit your style.

This device also has a very good and loud audio to enhance your gaming experience. This is helpful because of the front-mounted speakers which throws the sound right into your face. The Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro also comes with a vapor chamber to help cool down the temperature when gaming. Asus also sells a separate cooling system for intensive gamers. This takes some power from the phone since it is plugged-in through the USB-C port. That would not be much of a problem because this phone comes with two USB ports. One at the bottom and one on the side. So, you can keep charging your phone even when you plug in extra accessories.

The Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro sells at 1,028 EUR.

The Red Magic 8 Pro is the latest gaming phone on the market at the time of writing this. It comes with some top-notch specifications that cements its name at the very top of the best gaming smartphones list. From the design, built quality and shape, this device defines gaming all round. Even the packaging box makes a statement. The Red Magic 8 Pro has received a lot of hype since it was launched, and the specifications are there to justify the hype.

The Red Magic 8 Pro has the most unique design amongst all the gaming smartphones. Its square frame and flat edges remind us of the Sony Xperia smartphones’ designs. The flat and bright display that covers the full surface of the phone makes it a beauty to look at. The under-display front facing camera technology makes it look even better. On the back, the triple camera set up is arranged in vertical order to make it easier to hold when gaming.

The Red Magic 8 Pro was built with the true gamer in mind. The device is one of the lightest weight phones on this list weighing just 230g. It features a front and back glass with aluminum frame. ZTE has designed the Red Magic 8 Pro to make it very easier to use for gaming.

The Red Magic 8 Pro features a massive 6.8″ AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate which is quite disappointing for a 2023 gaming phone. With a screen resolution of 1116 x 2480, this device also has one of the highest resolutions on any gaming smartphone today. Even peak brightness also edges pass the other phones too. It has a peak brightness of 1300 nits and 400ppi pixel density. You also get 89.1% screen-to-body ratio on the Magic 8 Pro.

This is the only gaming smartphone on this list that comes with the latest and the power efficient Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip. In terms of memory configuration, you also get 16GB RAM and up to 1TB UFS 4.0 storage on this phone.

The Red Magic 8 Pro features a triple camera setup with 50MP main sensor, 8MP ultrawide and 2MP Macro lens. The front camera is an under-display camera with 16MP sensor. It comes with a 6,000mAh battery capacity with a whooping 165W charging capability. The phone should charge from 0 to 100% in just 14 minutes.

The Red Magic 8 Pro has quite a lot to talk about, but we will touch on a few of them. It features a vapor chamber and couple of RGB lights behind it. You can customize the RGB to light for notifications, calls, music, charging and of course gaming. It also comes with a special widget for changing the refresh rate when gaming. It features a single button slider that launches the game space and activates all your personalized game settings.

Just like the other gaming phones, the Red Magic 8 Pro also comes with pressure sensitive shoulder triggers with 520Hz touch sensitivity. This device comes with its own internal cooling fan to keep the phone at a lower temperature at all times. One good side of the Red Magic 8 Pro is that, it comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack. This will allow you to use your headphone with the phone.

In case you don’t seem to agree with us for placing the Red Magic 8 Pro on top of the list, bear in mind that the prices also play important role. The Red Magic 8 Pro sells for just 700 UER.

Through our own research and testing, these are the best gaming smartphones to spend your money on this year. So, if you love mobile gaming, you may have to consider one of them. Do you have your favorite gaming smartphone in this list? Share your thoughts and experience in the comments section.

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