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Top 10 gaming phones: August 2010

Changes are afoot

Top 10 gaming phones: August 2010
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It’s been just four months since our last round-up, but enough interesting things have happened in the world of mobile phone hardware to lend this list a surprisingly different flavour.

You’ll notice some old favourites have completely disappeared, while others have mysteriously multiplied.

On the Android front, we should probably explain why the likes of the DEXT, the G1, and the Nexus One (previously numbers two, four and five respectively) have been dropped. The former two have died a good, natural death after their hardware became too old and creaky to support the more intensive games that are gradually creeping onto the Market.

The N1, on the other, hand, has made a rather more ignominious exit. The device (along with the similar Desire, which should have been elbowing its way past the N1) should be in the prime of its life as a gaming platform.

However, serious hardware flaws in the shape of dodgy multi-touch implementation and a sub-standard GPU – both of which have been cruelly exposed in recent high-end iPhone conversions - have put a premature end to its place in our gaming affections.

But don’t worry, Android fans – there are two handsets here proudly flying the flag for Google’s OS. And we’re sure there are plenty more to come, with a host of punchy new handsets imminent.

But enough about that. On with our list of favourite gaming phones.

Sony Ericsson W995

Java gaming isn’t in quite the same rude state of health as it used to be, but there’s life in the old dog yet. With such recent releases as Final Fantasy and Zuma’s Revenge, there remains a steady flow of quality titles.

Sony Ericsson is the developers’ choice of handset manufacturer, with the trusty old K800i continuing to be used as the reference point for new Java games. This W995 is one of many handsets to share its DNA with the classic device.

It enhances the successful formula with a large (2.6-inch), pin-sharp screen and a responsive D-pad, making it one of the finest traditional phones to game on.

Nokia N900

The N900 keeps its place on our list (in fact it’s climbed one) thanks to its inherent outsider status. There’s nothing else quite like it on the market, and there probably won’t be until the as-yet-unannounced N9, so what we said about it four months ago remains true today.

To paraphrase: the N900 is a punchy, flexible handset with plenty of scope for the tech-savvy retro gaming tinkerer. The sadly underused Maemo OS, allied to the N900’s capable GPU, means that a whole host of emulators can be run – and run well – on the device.

Its resistive screen is beginning to show its age, but the fine physical QWERTY keyboard goes some way to making up for any control limitations, particularly when it comes to running console games of yesteryear.

Nokia N86

Nokia’s aging N86 may look like a phone from a bygone era to anyone closely following the cutting edge of smartphone technology, but it still has an awful lot to offer the budget-conscious mobile gamer.

The handset allows you to runs thousands of fine Java games very well, in landscape (where supported) and relatively cheaply thanks to Ovi. It also allows you to access Nokia’s now defunct N-Gage gaming platform.

Some may scoff at the latter point, but until someone finds a way to make the likes of Reset Generation and Metal Gear Solid Mobile available on iPhone or Android, it’s one of the only legitimate ways you’ll get to play such gems on a phone.

Sony Ericsson Yari

As we’ve mentioned, Sony Ericsson phones tend to run Java games the best, and they continue to be used as the target devices for game developers. Buy any game on a fairly recent SE unit and you’re guaranteed a smooth experience.

All of which makes the Yari well worthy of consideration if you want to experience all that Java gaming has to offer. It’s arguably the best at what it does.

The Yari is the company’s latest (last?) gaming-focused handset. It’s got a crisp 2.8-inch screen, a fine D-pad, landscape controls, and a decent selection of pre-installed games that take advantage of its accelerometer capabilities.

Nokia N97

Nokia’s “tremendous disappointment” (not ours words), the N97 is an undeniably flawed device thanks to memory and OS limitations that we won’t go into here.

More important to us – and particularly to this list – are the N97’s gaming credentials. On that front, it’s fairly hard to fault.

The Java game market is ticking along nicely, and most major publishers release S60 v.5 versions of their games. The plain English translation of that is: you can get touchscreen-enabled versions of all the best Java games on your N97.

Besides the N97’s 3.5-inch touchscreen, there’s a good physical QWERTY keyboard and a nicely-positioned D-pad, and the tasty bonus of N-Gage compatibility.

Samsung Wave S8500

It’s quite an achievement for the Wave, powered by Samsung’s fledgling Bada OS, to make it onto this heavyweight-populated list.

It’s helped no end by some outstanding hardware. The classy handset features a breath-taking Super AMOLED touchscreen, which is powered by a powerful 1GHz Hummingbird CPU and – crucially – a built-in PowerVR SGX 3D graphics engine.

That means that where the likes of the Nexus One struggles with recent high-end Gameloft game conversions like Dungeon Hunterthe Wave runs them with iPhone 3GS-levels of ease.

There remains a large question mark over the Bada OS – particularly how much developer support it will manage to attract – but Samsung has done everything it can with the Wave to give it the best possible start.

Motorola Milestone

The Milestone survives the Android cull on this list by means of its well considered design. Despite having a processor that’s clocked at half that of the Nexus One’s, it’s a far more capable gaming device.

For one thing, it has superior graphics hardware, allowing it to handle 3D graphics with iPhone-like aplomb. Also, it doesn’t suffer from quite the same multi-touch issues as the troubled HTC-developed handsets.

In addition, the Milestone sports a physical QWERTY keyboard, which benefits a number of the more arcadey games on the Android Market.

Google’s Market app store still has a long way to go before it even approaches Apple’s App Store in quantity or quality of gaming software, but it’s getting there. What’s more, if handset manufacturers look to emulate the Milestone’s balanced hardware design there’ll be far fewer fragmentation issues in future.

Samsung Galaxy S

The Galaxy S is an awesome bit of kit. With a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen that’s as huge as it is gorgeous, and a monstrous 1GHz Hummingbird processor powering it, it stands as one of the best – if not the best – Android handset out there.

It’s certainly the best at handling games. Its PowerVR SGX 540 is the fastest graphics processing unit in an Android device, handling complex 3D graphics with ease.

Indeed, Samsung claims that the Galaxy S’s Hummingbird CPU/PowerVR combo is three times more powerful than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon (used by the likes of the Desire and the Nexus One). Yikes.

That’s a whole lot of numbers and boasts, but rest assured that the Galaxy S is the real deal, and a major iPhone rival.

iPhone

What’s this? Two entries for iPhone? We’ll go into that further a little later, suffice to say that the new iPhone 4 has introduced an unmistakable degree of fragmentation into the Apple range.

The older iPhone units are still brilliant gaming devices – particularly the 3GS, which packs a powerful graphical punch and can be had relatively cheaply now that it’s been succeeded.

But even the now-standard iPhone 3G stands well clear of the rest of the devices on this list, thanks to Apple’s peerless App Store and the wealth of brilliant games it brings.

The Apple range may be getting increasingly and inevitably fragmented, but Apple’s domination of the mobile gaming field is singular.

iPhone 4

The iPhone 4 may have attracted some negative press since its release, but don’t let that distract you from its brilliance as a gaming device.

It’s suitably transformed and enhanced from previous iPhone units, in fact, that it’s prompted us to split them up. Even the pumped up 3GS retained much of the original’s blueprint, but the iPhone 4 is all-new, with a brand new look, a new custom processor and a new, pin-sharp screen.

Indeed, we’re seeing a number of games receiving updates to make the most of the iPhone 4’s capabilities, as well as certain games that will only work on high-end devices (though this often includes the 3GS, admittedly).

The iPhone 4 is a major step forward for a series of handsets that already ruled the mobile gaming roost. No amount of dodgy antennae can change that.

Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.