Getting smooth gameplay out of a budget phone

A lot of our readers game on mid-range or older phones, and the good news is that the genres we cover most — strategy and tower defence — are usually the kindest to modest hardware.

The first thing I do on a new install is drop the graphics preset and turn off any 'high frame rate' toggle. Strategy games look fine on medium settings, and the steadier frame rate matters far more than shiny effects when a screen is full of units.

Closing background apps genuinely helps too, especially on phones with less RAM. A tower defence game recalculating dozens of projectiles will stutter if it's fighting three chat apps for memory. Give it room to breathe.

Finally, watch the storage. Many of these games stream assets and slow down when the phone is nearly full. Keeping a few gigabytes free made a bigger difference to my old handset than any in-game setting.