Are you looking to buy a gaming smartphone? While there are a lot of gaming smartphones in India, finding the right one can be pretty confusing. This article has listed the best gaming smartphones that you can buy in India right now. We carefully created this list after taking a detailed look at the smartphones' features, performance, and pricing. While any smartphone with a powerful processor can be a good gaming smartphone, we picked the ones that offer a good balance of performance, audio and visual quality, additional gaming features, longer battery life, and a reasonable price. Since the primary intent is gaming, we preferred lower pricing than camera quality.
Best Gaming Smartphones in India (2021)
POCO X3 Pro – ₹18,999
Realme X3 – ₹22,999
Realme X7 Pro – ₹29,999
Xiaomi Mi 10T – ₹32,999
Vivo X60 – ₹37,990
iQOO 7 – ₹39,999 (Expected)
OnePlus 9R – ₹39,999
ASUS ROG Phone 3 – ₹41,999
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G – ₹47,999
ASUS ROG Phone 5 – ₹49,999
Note: The list of the best gaming smartphones above is arranged and sorted according to increasing prices.
To know the best gaming smartphones in India in the order of their gaming performance, look at the list of phones as mentioned below.
Why These Are The Best Gaming Smartphones In India (2021)?
A good gaming smartphone needs a fast processor with a powerful GPU and an excellent thermal design to stop the phone from overheating or experiencing performance throttling. But that's not enough. To translate all that power into a smooth gaming experience, the phone needs a high-resolution and high-refresh-rate screen with high brightness. The presence of stereo speakers and a dedicated headphone jack elevates the whole audio-visual experience. Other features to look out for are at least 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage.
A high-capacity battery (4,000mAh or higher) is necessary for longer gaming sessions, primarily to support power-hungry processors and high-refresh-rate screens. Additional gaming-focused features include dedicated shoulder buttons, intelligent software, and fast network connectivity (Wi-Fi and LTE). In our detailed gaming smartphone buying guide, you can read more about what an ideal gaming smartphone should have. All the smartphones listed in this article meet all the expectations of being a good gaming smartphone.
1. ASUS ROG Phone 5 – ₹49,999
The ROG Phone 5 is the best gaming smartphone globally and an improvement over last year's ROG Phone 3 that was already so good. The phone has a 144Hz AMOLED display with HDR10+ and 1,200 nits peak brightness (800 nits typical). The Snapdragon 888 inside the phone offers the world's best gaming performance, and ASUS' clever thermal design means that there is no performance throttling at all. With the ROG Phone 5, ASUS has even been brought back. The company has also released a bunch of official gaming accessories that you can buy to make the gaming experience even better.
The phone has a high-quality design with a metal frame and glass at the front and the rear. It has 8GB/12GB RAM, 128GB/256GB storage, a decent 64MP+13MP+5MP triple-camera setup with 4K 60fps video recording and 8K 30fps video recording, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, two USB Type-C ports, an under-display fingerprint reader, and a 6,000mAh battery with 65W fast charging. Its stereo speakers are by far the world's best speakers on a smartphone ever. Its shoulder buttons are the most customizable globally, and its software features are the most mature in the industry. It is the best gaming smartphone in the world. Period.
Pros
Sublime 144Hz AMOLED display with HDR10+, no notch, no punch-hole for the selfie camera
World's best gaming performance on a smartphone, thanks to Snapdragon 888 and no performance throttling
World's best stereo speakers on a smartphone
Dedicated headphone jack
Extremely customizable shoulder buttons
RGB lighting for extra gamer-y bling
Wi-Fi 6E, dual-USB Type-C ports
Extremely long battery life with 6,000mAh battery and quick 65W fast charging\
Helpful software features for gaming
4K 60fps and 8K 30fps video recording
Cons
Average camera setup, no OIS, no telephoto camera
2. ASUS ROG Phone 3 – ₹41,999
The ROG Phone 3 is last year's best gaming smartphone, and it's still among the best gaming smartphones of 2021. It's that good. The phone has an excellent design, blazing fast performance with Snapdragon 865+, a perfect 144Hz AMOLED display without a notch of a punch hole for the camera, a whopping 6,000mAh battery, and dedicated shoulder buttons. But that's not the most impressive thing about the ROG Phone 3. Thanks to its excellent thermal design, the phone doesn't throttle at all, even if you play games for hours.
The phone has a decent 48MP triple-camera setup on the rear, featuring a 13MP ultrawide camera and 4K 60fps video recording abilities. The screen's refresh rate can be set to 60Hz, 60Hz, 120Hz, and 144Hz, depending on the game you're playing. The ROG Phone 3's shoulder buttons can detect presses, slide gestures, and even squeezes. Plus, there are dozens of software features on the phone that can help you while gaming. It lacks a headphone jack, but its stereo speakers are among the loudest and most transparent in the smartphone world.
It has a second USB Type-C port on the side so that you can charge it while gaming without disturbing your fingers. The company has a bunch of official accessories that can elevate your gaming experience and even improve performance. The ROG Phone 3 is truly an excellent gaming smartphone for its price, even if it is a year old now.
Pros
Class-leading 144Hz AMOLED display with HDR10+, no notch or punch hole
Extremely loud and clear loudspeakers
Truly outstanding performance with Snapdragon 865+ and no throttling
Dedicated shoulder buttons with multiple use cases and pressure sensitivity
RGB lighting for extra bling
Excellent software features that help while gaming
Long battery life, thanks to 6,000mAh battery
3. Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G – ₹47,999
The Galaxy S20 FE 5G might not be a great gaming smartphone, but it is no slouch either. It is among the most balanced phone on this list. The phone has a beautiful design, an excellent 120Hz Super AMOLED display with HDR10+, an in-display fingerprint reader, stereo speakers, good gaming performance, a microSD card slot, IP68 rating for dust, and water resistance, and good battery life. If you are someone who wants a good gaming phone, but not at the expense of average cameras or water resistance, then the Galaxy S20 FE 5G is the way to go. Moreover, Samsung's One UI software is filled with useful features, and the phone will get two more Android OS updates.
The Galaxy S20 FE 5G has a Snapdragon 865+ processor for excellent gaming performance. Its 12MP+12MP+8MP triple-camera setup, featuring wide-angle OIS, ultrawide, and 3x telephoto OIS cameras. The phone can record 4K 60fps videos using both front and rear cameras. The phone probably has the best camera quality among all the other phones listed in this article. The Galaxy S20 FE 5G comes with a 15W charger, but it supports up to 25W fast charging (fast enough to charge the battery in an hour).
Pros
Excellent 120Hz Super AMOLED display with HDR10+
Good gaming performance with Snapdragon 865+, 8GB RAM
High-quality stereo speakers
Excellent One UI 3.0 software, and promise of two more Android OS updates
Good battery life
IP68 rating for dust and water resistance
4. iqoo7 – ₹39,999 (Expected)
The iQOO 7 is another excellent gaming smartphone for its price. It uses the latest Snapdragon 870 processor, 8GB RAM, 128GB/256GB storage, a 120Hz AMOLED display with high brightness, and a 4,400mAh battery with a whopping 66W fast charging. It lacks dedicated gaming buttons, dust and water resistance, a headphone jack, and stereo speakers. Its triple-camera setup has a better than usual 48MP primary camera with OIS and a 13MP ultrawide camera.
Pros
Sublime 120Hz AMOLED display with HDR10+ and 1,300 nits brightness
Excellent gaming with Snapdragon 870
48MP OIS triple-camera
4,400mAh battery and extremely fast 66W charging
Good design
Cons
No dust or water resistance
No headphone jack or stereo speakers
No shoulder buttons for gaming
5. Poco X3 Pro – ₹18,999
The POCO X3 Pro is the best gaming smartphone below ₹20,000 by a long margin. If anyone comes to me for advice on buying a good gaming smartphone without spending a lot of money, I would advise them to buy the POCO X3 Pro. Yes, it's that good for the price. It has a 120Hz IPS LCD screen, stereo speakers, and a powerful Snapdragon 860 processor. It has 6GB/8GB RAM, 128GB storage, a microSD card slot, and a dedicated headphone jack. It even features dust and water splash resistance with its IP53 rating.
Would we have preferred an OLED screen instead of an LCD? Yes. But since we are talking about gaming smartphones and more games that are now supporting high refresh rates, at this price, we are okay with an LCD screen because it has a 120Hz refresh rate.
It's the camera where the phone falters. It has a quad-camera setup in which two cameras are useless, and even the remaining cameras are average. Despite the chip and the primary camera sensor supporting the phone even lacks 4K 60fps video recording. Moreover, it also lacks shoulder buttons like some other gaming phones do. Still, at this price, there's no better gaming phone than the POCO X3 Pro.
Pros
Excellent 120Hz LCD screen with HDR10
Stereo speakers and headphone jack
The best processor in its price segment: Snapdragon 860
Long battery life and fast charging
IP53 rating for dust and water splash resistance
Cons
Cameras are strictly average, no 4K 60fps video recording
No shoulder buttons for gaming
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