When a major phone maker unveiled its new flagship smartphone last month, one feature drew more attention from younger buyers than the camera or the screen: a dedicated gaming mode. News. spent a week testing it with a group of teenage players in Riverton, and the verdict is mostly positive, with a few caveats.
What the mode actually does
Switched on from a quick-settings tile, the mode blocks notifications and incoming calls (except from favorite contacts), locks screen brightness and tells the processor to prioritize the game over background apps. It also raises the touch sampling rate, which makes swipes and taps register faster.
In practice, the difference is most noticeable in fast action and racing games. In a popular arena shooter, frame rates stayed at the screen’s maximum for longer stretches, while with the mode off they dipped noticeably after about 20 minutes, as the phone warmed up.
“It feels less sticky, if that makes sense,” said Elias, 16, one of our testers, after a session on the couch. “You notice it when you go back to normal mode.”
The trade-offs
The extra performance comes at a price. In our tests, an hour of play in gaming mode used about 22 percent of the battery, compared with 16 percent without it. The back of the phone also became warm enough that two testers took breaks.
Gaming modes mostly take the limits off the hardware. That gives you smoother play, but heat and battery are the bill you pay at the end.
Mara Lindholm, mobile hardware analyst
The mode also includes a screen recorder and an on-screen overlay showing frame rate and temperature, features that serious players will appreciate and most casual players will ignore.
Do you need it?
For puzzle games, card games and most casual titles, the mode makes no visible difference. Its value is for players who spend long sessions in demanding games and are bothered by stutter or by messages popping up mid-match.
Parents may find one feature particularly useful: the mode can be set with time limits that end the session and restore normal settings, and it keeps a weekly log of playing time.
The phone maker says further improvements, including better heat management, will arrive in a software update before the end of the year.
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