Get some extra life
Advanced graphics and stunning special effects can really enhance your gaming experience. But they can also drain your battery pretty quickly too. So what’s the solution?
For starters, try turning down the brightness on your display. Dimming down the on-screen action to a less eye-melting level is a great way of saving power. You should also think about disabling Bluetooth and Wi-Fi if you’re playing an offline game, and even turning down the volume.
These days, most good games come with their own power saving options. Typically, these will reduce the quality of the graphics to extend your battery life. So if your favourite game is hitting your battery hard, dive into its settings and look out for a battery or power saving mode.
Last but not least, why not treat yourself to some back-up power? Hardly any smartphones have replaceable batteries any more (boo), so a power bank is the thing you need. As a rough size guide – a 2,000mAh power bank should be enough to fully charge your phone. A 4,000mAh power bank will charge it twice over, and so on.
Keep an eye on your data
If you’re playing an online game on the go, it’ll be using up some of your monthly data allowance. But actually, your mobile data might get you further than you think. One hour’s play uses as little as 60MB (it could be more though). We don’t know about you, but we thought that was surprisingly low. So, if you’ve got a decent amount of data in your monthly allowance, that’s a lot of playing time.
Or why not go offline? From the insanely addictive Plants vs Zombies to the action-filled racer Asphalt 8: Airborne, there are some amazing games that you can play offline, without using an ounce of data.
Get the right phone
A good phone can really add to your mobile gaming experience, especially if it has features designed with gamers in mind.
For example, there’s the stunning Sony Xperia XZ2. Its 5.7-inch HDR display gives you amazing visuals, and dual front-facing speakers blast out all those in-game sounds in stereo. Best of all, the unique ‘Dynamic Vibration System’ lets you experience all the action in your fingertips - it’s a little like the feeling you get with the DualShock PlayStation 4 controller, and really does add an extra dimension.
Check out our Sony Xperia XZ2 deals here.
Stay safe
Finally, a few words on safety. We strongly recommend that you sit or stand somewhere safely when you’re playing a game on your phone. Yes, it’s called mobile gaming, but try not to do it when you’re actually walking about.
Having said that, we realise that there are certain mobile games that use augmented reality to interact with your real-life surroundings.
Pokémon GO is the obvious example here, but newer games like The Walking Dead: Our World also use the same technology. So if you really can’t stand still when you’re playing a game, always be aware of your surroundings and don’t get distracted. A recent study estimated that Pokémon GO caused more than 100,000 traffic accidents in the US. So if you’ve really gotta catch ‘em all or fight off hordes of marauding zombies, be safe. That’s all.