Best smartphones for gaming

Following our review of the best tablets for gaming, and the comments that followed, we realised that a simple aggregate review score and a GPU benchmark were not enough to hail a device as “good for gaming”.

Cue round two, and our look at a bunch of smartphones and how well they stack up against each other based on gaming-relevant benchmarks.

What we have below is a table of 15 phones, graded according to 3DMark tests, AnTutu scores, GFX Bench FPS, and battery life tests, along with an overall aggregate review score form Engadget – because your phone has to do more than just play games.

Phone (processor unit)	3DMark – Graphics	3DMark – Frame Rate	3DMark – Physics	Phone Arena – AnTuTu	GFXBench Egypt HD 2.5 FPS	GFXBench: Battery Life	Engadget Avg. Review
LG G Flex (Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 2.3 GHz)	n/a	n/a	n/a	36180	54	269 mins	83%
LG G Pro 2 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 2.3 GHz)	n/a	n/a	n/a	28615	n/a	n/a	88%
LG Optimus G Pro (Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 APQ8064T 1.7 GHz)	8784	39	9942	21303	28	n/a	88%
LG G2 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 2.3GHz)	18622	86.4	8569	35376	49	210 mins	87%
Motorola Moto X (Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro MSM8960 Pro 1.7 GHz)	13875	62.7	6646	18483	53.6	186 mins	88%
Samsung Galaxy S4 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 (APQ8064AB) 1.9 GHz)	11481	51.5	10002	24701	40.6	186 mins	88%
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 2.3 GHz)	13551	60.4	9917	31543	53.5	163 mins	87%
HTC One (Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 APQ8064T 1.7GHz)	11285	49.4	12331	23308	40.1	162 mins	92%
Apple iPhone 5s (Apple A7 1.3GHz – iOS 7.0)	12692	58.4	7197	N/A	53	116 mins	92%
ASUS Padfone Infinity (Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 2.2 GHz)	12636	58.2	12753	N/A	32.4	150 mins	n/a
Google Nexus 4 (Qualcomm APQ8064 1.5 GHz)	11451	50.7	9953	16749	44	169 mins	n/a
Google Nexus 5 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 2.3 GHz)	n/a	58.7	n/a	26340	50.1	152 mins	n/a
Sony Xperia Z1 Compact (Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 2.2 GHz)	n/a	n/a	n/a	33468	54	207 mins	88%
Sony Xperia Z1 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 2.2GHz)	n/a	n/a	n/a	30838	53	207 mins	88%
Sony Xperia Z Ultra (Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 2.2 GHz)	n/a	n/a	n/a	29732	52	196 mins	n/a

As you can see, the LG G Flex, LG G2, and Asus Padfone Infinity came up tops in multiple/single categories, while the Apple iPhone 5s fared well in the overall review score.

The Sony Xperia Z1 and Z1 Compact were not far behind, with the Z1 Compact tying for first in the GFX Bench Egypt test.

A note on the N/A values for some of the tests – our scores were taken form single sites that benchmarked and tested multiple phones. We decided against taking individual scores off phone review articles from multiple publications as this would lead to inconsistency when phones were ranked against one another. Unfortunately, some sites had not tested all the phones we featured at the time of publication, hence the omitted results.

So, what do you make of our analysis? Do you game on any of the above phones, and if so what is their performance like? Let us know in the comments and forum.