Looking for the best gaming smartphone in 2022? Our ranking of these top 5 picks should help you decide whether this is right for you. They all have excellent specs and are easy to use.


I'll start with a bit of hardware. The first thing that immediately jumps out at me about both phones is their high-end specifications. You get an incredible 8K display, 4k video recording capabilities, plenty more RAM than I had back when mobile computers were tiny little laptops, and most importantly it's got one of the best cameras available right now, so no matter what you want to buy your phone will be able to do a lot more than is possible from anything else you've ever bought. At least up until Apple releases its own line it.


Now let's take a look at some software you need to install, which is going to make or break how many games are played on your device. We're only talking about PC/Mac OS here but even then things can be a bit complex depending on exactly what type of operating system you run (Apple iOS etc.) and the amount of open source code there is around it. Also, if you want something truly portable (like XDA) the iPhone models are fantastic for portability, but unless you have a ton of money to spend you're better off sticking with Android as well. So we'll focus on iOS this time. Even though Google might still sell new models every year, they're constantly making improvements in UI so you don't need to worry that your phone isn't going to be usable no matter how much development time has passed over the years. This also means manufacturers won't sell last gen models with "gen" thrown in. It doesn't seem like Sony does either, although my personal experience with Oppo is pretty awful. Again, this depends entirely on the model that you want. If it's a flagship model (i.e. iPhone 11 Pro Max) with huge camera sensors and lots of extra features on board you probably don't need any additional apps besides Camera, especially considering that everything else already works just fine. But that's not really our concern. What matters is that your apps work properly.


Finally, because what we're testing here is essentially an iPad (no MacBooks for the moment), the screen isn't too bad either. Unfortunately, iPhones aren't known for having great displays but that doesn't mean they aren't capable. Plus most people I know love them anyways. Some reviewers actually say that they prefer them to any other screen on a smartphone, and I agree with this sentiment. Still, LG didn't try very hard to hide this problem on recent devices so that makes absolutely no sense at all.


Speaking of screens, this was another area where there may be some variance between the two phones we tested. While Samsung has a fairly generic design philosophy overall, LG has decided to stick with boring old looks as much for aesthetic reasons as practical ones so far. However, from what I've seen it seems LG is trying hard here to stand out as being unique and innovative. There doesn't appear to be much difference between the current flagships compared to previous generations, apart from maybe slightly less battery life than before. Maybe you could look into getting a cheaper option from Asus (which is basically owned by OnePlus). In terms of resolution, while none of the new Samsung mobiles have quite the same level of detail as the latest model of Galaxy S20 FE (which is definitely good for photography at 1080p) only the $399 A5300 ($500 USD) delivers acceptable image quality thanks to the big 48MP sensor at wide angle. At the same time, both phones should deliver fairly accurate HD video at up to 4K resolution plus HDR video at up to 120fps. Both support wireless charging as well so it's unlikely you will need a cable whenever you want to charge, but it's just not practical. Finally, we'll talk about performance, which is the important part. On average, LG's newest series performs rather poorly on the CPU front. The Snapdragon chips are mostly solid but in general, Qualcomm is still using older architectures like 2x Cortex cores which are now nearly 30 years old. Meanwhile, Apple’s M1 chips are currently delivering lightning fast speeds even on Windows processors, but again, they're far from mainstream benchmarks. Of course, you could argue that Apple’s GPUs are the fastest ever built, but I’d question whether it could easily outpace Nvidia because they're selling fewer cards now than ever. Just remember that since Apple removed GPU compute options from MacOS devices back in 2019, it's been harder to find GPUs in shops. My test unit came equipped with a brand new computer that used an Intel i7 processor that worked decently without needing graphics card power, but without the ability to connect my second laptop via Thunderbolt or HDMI to it I wasn't able to take advantage of all the performance gains available from my newer HP laptop. Similarly, neither of us wanted to use a TV to stream movies anyway because our eyes hurt. That said, at least each handset provides its own custom monitor so you can play games on more than one display or pick up remote controls from our review units in order to set the refresh rate and game settings. So there's nothing stopping you from playing games on multiple screens or playing streaming services such as Twitch when connected via USB 3.0 instead of wirelessly.


Again, battery life is the biggest issue for all three phones, although admittedly we managed to squeeze in 16 hours of straight playbacktime in normal use thanks to the lower frame rates offered by the low-end OLED panels found on the A5300. Obviously, with the 60Hz displays found on the budget end of the spectrum the maximum frame rate the phone manages is capped at 60fps (which means those 6am workouts you see sometimes on YouTube are superimposed and probably not representative of the real thing).


While we did manage to squeeze in 40 total hours of regular usage per day, none of that includes active gameplay, which only totals 15 hours. Since they're so expensive, LG didn't bother including a separate battery indicator but I'd assume this would save you several bucks on shipping costs. Meanwhile, the iPhone 13 offers 25 hours of typical usage with the included charger in the box, which is a small benefit over the others but it still pales in comparison to how great the Pixel 6S Pixel 5a and 6 show compared to Samsung's entry level offerings in the market overall. Note that these numbers include heavy usage with Wi-Fi turned on and Bluetooth off since they're unable to handle all the data transfers required to load games properly. And I'm happy to report that all three offer similar levels of performance in everyday settings as evidenced by this benchmark:


As far as ports go, on the whole it's fair to say that everything is close to competitive across the board. With the exception of the massive 64MP shooter present on the $700 Xperia 1 III (with a single lens f/2.4 OIS lens, of which there seems to be no sign of replacing the main 10MP ultra-wide on the competition's next flagship) and the relatively minuscule 12MP combo camera found on the iPhone SE 2022 ($599). As with the rest of the core setup, the combination of the standard headphone jack, MicroSD card slot, Wi-Fi, GPS/A-GPS and NFC/Magnet (including a Lightning to USB connector) is all there on the new handsets. Not to mention that the phone's speakers are surprisingly darned loud! All that aside, LG seems to have added quite a few smart upgrades to these models. The notch has gotten smaller and it seems odd that the Ultra Wide selfie camera gets replaced by none other than an ultrawide camera, but thankfully it's just for selfies. The rear camera array now supports macro shots but you're limited to 90° while filming because otherwise you'll get blocked by the screen. Now that the camera is so close to the edge of the phone it almost feels wrong that in addition to a dedicated shutter button the phone has a pop out mode. Fortunately, the screen tilting mechanism for portrait mode is back and it's pretty decent. Another nice touch is a redesigned fingerprint reader and face unlock. Lastly, LG has upgraded the software so that you can now set up accounts with Facebook Messenger, Messages, Instagram and Snapchat directly through the interface.


On the flip side, while I appreciated the lack of a microSD card slot, and the fact that the larger 64MP telephoto lenses aren't coming from Samsung, it feels weird that the likes of Fujifilm and Olympus who are releasing mirrorless cameras are able to get away with having a full SD card slot. The Pixel lineup lacks any kind of storage expansion technology (except perhaps memory cards) but we haven't heard anything officially from Sony. The Z Flip 3 is one of those situations where Apple simply needs competitors to compete at this price point but since they're clearly taking this space as seriously as their rivals they'd probably have some room to grow here if the Pixel line continued to perform strongly in tests.


The bottom line


While I think some compromises have to be made here, for the sake of consistency I'm going to keep comparing apples to apples. Despite being an international company, LG is usually ahead in developing cutting edge tech concepts and LG's latest range appears to pack a punch at launch. It's not inconceivable that Samsung would eventually catch up with LG's high-end smartphones in terms of pricing. For example, if you're shopping at Amazon for a pair of inexpensive AirPods and want to switch to a faster model, you'll have to pay $400 for the original AirPods Pro; the similarly priced Redmi K50i is currently rated around this same price point and is almost identical to the AirPods Pro on paper. Of course, we're looking at the differences this way with a lot of caveats