A few weeks ago, we spoke about some of the best gaming laptops available in the market. Undoubtedly, gaming laptops belong to a well developed niche, one where there is immense competition giving way to some high quality laptops. However, it will be some years before the same can be said of gaming smartphones. While there are a few smartphones designed especially for gaming purposes, there is ample room for improvement as of now. Nvidia, the leading chipmaker announced that smartphone graphics would definitely beat Xbox 360 by the year 2014. As a matter of fact, Nvidia also declared that the current quality of graphics on smartphones was quite comparable to gaming consoles like Play Station3.

What to look for in a gaming smartphone?

When it comes to gaming smartphones, priorities undergo some major changes. For instance, the first thing you should look for is the kind of graphic card and how it performs in the smartphone. Additionally, the screen resolution becomes crucial along with the audio performance. Once you have checked these features, you can move on to the more traditional ones like the processor, OS and battery life. More often than not, the batter life takes a major hit in gaming smartphones. So, you might need to compromise on that aspect.

Best gaming smartphones as of now

As has been mentioned earlier, there is a long way to go before we witness a flawless, high quality gaming smartphone. Having said that, there have been many encouraging signs in the form of some promising gaming smartphones. Let’s have a quick look at them.

1. Sony Ericsson Xperia Play- The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play was the first major smartphone for gaming enthusiasts. It was Sony’s attempt at creating a hybrid device which would match the performance of gaming consoles and double up as a smartphone. In a lot of ways, the company managed to do so quite successfully. In technical terms, this smartphone comes with Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, 1 GHz Snapdragon processor and a 4- inch touchscreen display. The USP of this device is the gaming pad which bears a striking resemblance to a PS3. It’s performance both as a gaming device and a smartphone should satisfy most people. Recently, Sony also released a 4G version of the Xperia Play.

2. Motorola Atrix 2- The Motorola Atrix 2 is one of the most highly acclaimed smartphones produced by Motorola. What makes it so ideal for gaming is its solid technical configuration- it comes with a dual core 1 GHz processor, Android 2.3 Gingerbread and a 4.3 inch qHD display. The touch screen is decently responsive and the dual core processor ensures that there are no time lags whatsoever. All in all, a great phone if you are crazy about gaming.

3. HTC Titan- Unlike the other two phones, HTC Titan is powered by Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, 1.5 Qualcomm processor and a larger touch screen. As with all phones which run on Windows Phone OS, there is directly connectivity to Xbox and that precisely is the USP of HTC Titan. Besides these smartphones, others like Motorola Defy, Sony Xperia Ray and Sony Xperia S have also been acclaimed by hardcore gaming fans.