Best gaming phones 2026 - buyer’s guide

The RedMagic 11S Pro remains the only gaming-oriented, flagship-level Android phone. It has a handful of unique features under the Game Space suite and the only shoulder triggers on the market. The cooling system is gimmicky, adding weight to an already bulky phone, but at least it looks cool.

The phone also does well in our battery, display and charging tests, albeit not stellar. But the 11S Pro offers a great value proposition as it's one of the cheapest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-powered phone at launch.

Indeed, RedMagic is asking less than €800 at launch for the entry-level version, and that's a price no one can match right now, especially with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 on board and gaming-centric features.

The Poco F9 Pro is a great all-rounder with some small drawbacks in the camera department. Sure, you can easily find better camera phones around the same price, but the Poco offers flagship-level performance, battery life, display quality and charging, the qualities we are looking in a proverbial flagship-killer.

Our main issue is with the dated 8MP ultrawide camera. Perhaps a longer zoom wouldn't have hurt either, considering how close the main 200MP camera's 2x crops get to the telephoto's quality.

The overall greatness of the F9 Pro is quite enticing, making the camera trade-off easily justifiable. The handset has dependable battery life, excellent screen, snappy charging, and there aren't many phones in this price range offering a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.

Now priced at about €700, the Poco F9 Pro can easily be considered as a flagship killer if you are not that picky about camera quality.

The Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max is undeniably a top-tier flagship - combining a durable premium build, a sharp display with a smaller cutout, class-leading battery life, outstanding cameras, and fluid iOS performance.

And while few people will feel the A20 Pro upgrade in everyday use right now, we do believe its extra performance and memory bandwidth will pay off in the years to come, making the iPhone 18 Pro Max one of the best gaming-oriented smartphones right now.

Despite the impressive achievement of Apple's redesigned chip, the iPhone 18 Pro Max remains one of the most incremental updates in recent years. This is somewhat understandable, given that the 20th anniversary iPhone 20 arrives next year and the new iPhone Duo took center stage as this year's "one more thing."

Just like previous iPhones, the iPhone 18 Pro Max does amazing videos - no matter the camera, the conditions, the chosen format - the iPhone 18 Pro Max will ace the scene. Once again Apple deserves praise for making a camera app that's suitable both for mainstream and pro users, something no one else in the industry can quite pull off.

So, is the iPhone 18 Pro Max worth buying? Absolutely. It remains an exceptional flagship packed with top-tier features. If it fits your needs - or if you're upgrading from an iPhone 15 Pro Max or earlier - it's an easy recommendation. And it can stand tall against any Android rival, too.

The Xiaomi 17T Pro is a solid all-rounder that's easy to recommend. It impresses with great camera hardware, excellent display, high-performance chipset for gaming and speedy wired and wireless charging. This year, the handset also stands out in the battery life race with solid endurance.

The Leica cooperation is paying off, as all rear cameras (50MP main, 50MP 5x tele/macro, 12MP UW) deliver outstanding photo and video quality day and night. Admittedly, if selfies are of utmost importance, one of the niche areas becomes more of a pressing issue.

Long story short - the Xiaomi 17T Pro is a very competent offering with a compelling set of flagship-grade capabilities and it’s one of the, if not the best phone you can get for about €700. A flagship killer, if you will.

At first glance, the Motorola Edge 70 Max seems like a maxed-out model in the Edge 70 family. You get a large OLED screen, great gaming performance, excellent battery life and competitive fast charging, along with support for magnetic wireless charging.

However, the suboptimal camera experience is hard to ignore, especially when it's not difficult to find alternatives with better cameras across various price points. You could argue that Motorola focused on performance instead, and that’s the trade-off you are making if you choose the Max.

Long story short - the Motorola Edge 70 Max offers maximum performance at the expense of mediocre camera. But a gaming phone never really needs to be a cameraphone, too, doesn’t it.