You don’t need a dedicated gaming phone to enjoy top-tier performance. Plenty of smartphones across different price points come with solid hardware that can easily handle heavy games like BGMI, Genshin Impact, Call of Duty Mobile, and more. We’ve tested hundreds of smartphones over the years, and in this list, we’ve rounded up the best gaming phones at every budget that offer smooth, reliable performance where it counts (September 2025 edition).
Selection criteria
At 91mobiles, we test every phone we review with a mix of benchmarks and real-world usage tests. One of those is our gaming test, where we run CoD: Mobile and BGMI, both of which are demanding titles, and closely track how the phone performs. For this list, we’re focusing mainly on gaming FPS performance and measuring the average temperature increase over 60 minutes to see how well these phones handle heat.
Table of Contents
Best gaming smartphones under Rs 15,000
Game settings:
- Call of Duty Mobile: Medium Graphics + High FPS
- BGMI: HD Graphics + High FPS
Winner: The POCO M7 Plus secures a surprising victory in our gaming test, based on its FPS and average temperature increase over 30 minutes. It uses the Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 SoC, which, while not the most powerful in the segment, delivers better sustained gaming performance than its peers and seems to be well optimised for these games. The phone’s thermal management is also excellent, showing a minimal temperature increase during our tests.
| Metric | POCO M7 Plus | Lava Play Ultra | iQOO Z10x |
|---|---|---|---|
| COD: Mobile FPS | 58.4 | 53.3 | 57.1 |
| COD: Mobile Temp. Rise | 2.7°C | 4.3°C | 5.2°C |
| BGMI FPS | 28.6 | 28.1 | 28.8 |
| BGMI Temp. Rise | 4.1°C | 2.9°C | 5.1°C |
Runners-up: Coming in at second place is the Lava Play Ultra (review), which delivers decent gaming results but has very effective thermal management, catapulting it to second place. In third place, we have the iQOO Z10x (review), which, despite boasting a much faster SoC and gaming results on par with the M7 Plus, falls behind due to its somewhat average thermal management. It isn’t bad by any means, but when compared against the first two, it does end up lacking.
Best gaming smartphones around Rs 30,000
Game settings:
- Call of Duty Mobile: High Graphics + Max FPS
- BGMI: HDR Graphics + Ultra FPS
Winner: The Realme 15 Pro (review) emerges as the winner in our tests, delivering excellent results in both COD: Mobile and BGMI while maintaining impressively low temperatures. Surprisingly, it dominates this price bracket, outperforming several dedicated gaming phones. This suggests that Realme has effectively optimised its software for these popular titles, allowing a non-gaming phone to excel in performance.
| Metric | Realme 15 Pro | OPPO K13 Turbo | Infinix GT 30 Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| COD: Mobile FPS | 59.8 | 56.7 | 59.0 |
| COD: Mobile Temp. Rise | 4.4°C | 3.9°C | 3.7°C |
| BGMI FPS | 37.7 | 39.3 | 37.7 |
| BGMI Temp. Rise | 2.4°C | 2.8°C | 4.1°C |
Runners-up: The OPPO K13 Turbo (review) takes the second spot, closely following the Realme 15 Pro. While its raw performance is comparable, even slightly ahead in BGMI, its higher temperature increase during gaming prevents it from securing the top position. In third place is the Infinix GT 30 Pro (review), which shows consistently strong results, especially considering it is priced a lot lower than the other two. While its performance is a bit behind, it offers excellent value and competitive gaming capabilities.
Best gaming phones around Rs 50,000
Game settings:
- Call of Duty Mobile: Very High Graphics + Max FPS
- BGMI: Ultra HDR Graphics + Ultra FPS
Winner: The Realme GT 7 Pro (review) is the best gaming phone in the Rs 50,000 price range. It uses 2025’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, which achieves impressive FPS in both games we tested. On top of that, its thermal performance is equally exceptional, ensuring the phone stays cool during extended gaming sessions.
| Metric | Realme GT 7 Pro | iQOO 13 | Vivo X200 FE |
|---|---|---|---|
| COD: Mobile FPS | 58 | 55.8 | 59.8 |
| COD: Mobile Temp. Rise | 4.9°C | 4.7°C | 5.3°C |
| BGMI FPS | 38 | 38.9 | 38.3 |
| BGMI Temp. Rise | 4.0°C | 5.5°C | 7.7°C |
Runners-up: The iQOO 13 (review) takes the second spot in this ranking, losing by only a narrow margin. In real-world terms, its scores are almost on par with the Realme GT 7 Pro, with slightly less effective thermal management in BGMI being the main differentiator. The Vivo X200 FE (review) secures the third spot, posting impressive results despite using an older flagship chipset, the Dimensity 9300+. Its performance is held back only by its thermal management, which was not as effective as the top two contenders.
Best gaming phones under Rs 80,000
Game settings:
- Call of Duty Mobile: Very High Graphics + Max FPS
- BGMI: Ultra HDR Graphics + Ultra FPS
Winner: The OnePlus 13 (review) takes the top spot as the best gaming smartphone under Rs 80,000. Powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite, it delivers excellent gaming performance, but its most noteworthy trait is that it has exceptional thermal management. In over an hour of gaming, it registered just an average temperature increase of roughly 2 degrees, which is, as I said before, exceptional.
| Metric | OnePlus 13 | Nothing Phone 3 | Galaxy S25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| COD: Mobile FPS | 55.5 | 54.8 | 52.4 |
| COD: Mobile Temp. Rise | 1.2°C | 3.1°C | 3.5°C |
| BGMI FPS | 35.1 | 39.3 | 38.3 |
| BGMI Temp. Rise | 2.6°C | 3.1°C | 3.1°C |
Runners-up: The second spot in the list goes to the Nothing Phone 3 (review), which is a little surprising, but the numbers don’t lie. Despite its somewhat average Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset for the price bracket, it does a decent job of managing both performance and showing great thermal management. At the third spot is the Galaxy S25 (review), which falls a little behind in gaming performance but delivers good thermal management.
Best flagship gaming smartphones
Game settings:
- Call of Duty Mobile: Max Graphics + Max FPS
- BGMI: Ultra HDR Graphics + Ultra FPS
Winner: The Vivo X200 Pro (review) takes the mantle of the best gaming smartphone on our list, powered by MediaTek’s flagship Dimensity 9400 SoC. This chip delivers excellent gaming performance while proving more thermally efficient than its competitors. While most devices in this price bracket are designed as all-rounders with a strong focus on cameras, their top-end hardware makes them highly competitive in performance, as seen in the close results.
| Metric | Vivo X200 Pro | Xiaomi 15 Ultra | OPPO Find X8 Pro | Galaxy S25 Ultra |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| COD: Mobile FPS | 53.8 | 59.1 | 57.6 | 53.5 |
| COD: Mobile Temp. Rise | 7.0°C | 7.9°C | 7.3°C | 6.9°C |
| BGMI FPS | 39 | 37.5 | 37.3 | 36.4 |
| BGMI Temp. Rise | 4.4°C | 6.5°C | 6.5°C | 5.9°C |
Runners-up: We have a tie for second place between the Xiaomi 15 Ultra (review) and the OPPO Find X8 Pro (review). The Xiaomi 15 Ultra boasts higher raw performance in COD: Mobile, but the OPPO Find X8 Pro counters with slightly better thermal efficiency, leading to a draw. The Galaxy S25 Ultra (review) takes the final spot. It delivers balanced performance and maintains reasonable temperatures, but its lower overall FPS places it behind the others in this ranking.
