A new way of gaming
You might think that gaming on a smartphone is all about smashing jewels or playing fiddly first person shooters - but they're actually capable of rivalling the console, whether that's by bringing your mobile games to the TV or streaming console games to your phone.
While the Xbox One and PS4 are leagues ahead in terms of power, the phones we're leaving idle on the sofa are more than capable of playing brilliant games or streaming high-end graphics to much sharper screens than the one on your wall - and here we'll even show you the easy steps you need to do it too.
Can smartphones match consoles?
In some ways yes. We spoke to Qualcomm, responsible for delivering the chipsets in most phones offering high-end gaming, and spokesperson told us "we believe that the latest high tier Snapdragon processors are already able to deliver sufficient performance to render the graphics, audio and video for console quality games."
That doesn't necessarily mean you'll always be getting a console quality experience however
"The very highest end games will likely remain on consoles for the foreseeable future, but the vast majority of other games are coming to mobile, where the mobile form factor and memory makes them appropriate to do so."
As an alternate way to experience your favourite smartphone games a proper controller and TV output are great options that won't break the bank, but if the smartphone is going to be a genuine alternative for the console for those people who crave a powerful gaming experience on the go there needs to be a change in perception for the technology.
The key thing is making the smartphone a platform that warrants the same fanfare for a new game that a console or PC gets. Right now, we're lucky to get a basic offshoot of a larger game, but with phone capacity, graphic processing and power growing all the time, the ability to port better titles over is finally here:
"Last October Activision launched Skylanders Trap Team on mobile. It was the first time a full AAA console game launched day-and-date on both console and tablet," said the Qualcomm spokesperson. "The tablet version of the game was developed alongside the console versions and contains the same cut scenes, voice overs, and game play as the console versions.
While for smartphone exclusives the spokeperson also pointed to Godfire: Rise of Prometheus by indie developer Vivid Games as a title that's really starting to take advantage of the power and processing on offer.
A brief look at the games shown off every year at Apple's WWDC conference, where the brand tries to show off the power of its new software, confirms that we're getting some impressively good graphics from a small handset.
High-powered handsets
If you're serious about gaming on your phone, well, you're going to want a serious phone. While all smartphones can run some level of gaming there are a few that are a lot more accomplished than others.
A powerful handset is obviously crucial if you want to play high-end games. The Samsung Galaxy S6, HTC One M9, Sony Xperia Z3+, LG G4, iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus would all be ideal options, but you should be safe with most recent flagship phones from lesser brands.
Many of these have 64-bit octa-core processors and 3GB of RAM, so they've got a lot of grunt. The Snapdragon 810 chipset which powers a number of recent high-end phones, such as the One M9 and Xperia Z3+, is also designed to allow for online 3D gaming.
Apple is a big player in the mobile gaming space now too, thanks to the creation of Metal, a new technology found in recent versions of iOS (which makes more effective use of recent hardware, with the iPhone 6 Plus particularly shining), which allows the CPU and GPU to work together for more detailed graphics and impressive visual effects.
Gaming is already a key focus for top of the line phones and handled well...and it's only going to get better as newer handsets and technologies emerge.
So while you do need something decent right now, there's good news for the more budget-concious gamer. We spoke to Qualcomm, which creates the high-end Snapdragon 810, and they told us a change is coming.
"We're typically improving our performance by roughly 30%-40% a year on average.
"Even the next generation of low tier smartphones, based on Snapdragon, will be able to support very advanced graphics APIs, full HD, responsive capacitive touch displays, and a level of performance that's not very far from what the highest tiers of smartphones were able to support last year.
"Game developers need to get a maximum return on their investment, so it is raising the feature support and performance bar for the entirety of mobile devices that will bring about better games, rather than just raising the bar on the most capable, but lowest volume, products."
In short, the cheaper devices will be able to handle really high-end graphics as the industry looks to enable a wider range of smartphones rather than just the expensive flagship devices.
Tools of the trade
There are a variety of controllers available that are compatible with, or in some cases even designed specifically for smartphones.
Some of them, such as the Moga Pro controller, include a cradle for the phone so that you can essentially turn your handset into a true handheld console, complete with the necessary buttons and sticks.
Others, such as the Nyko Playpad Pro, are just standard controllers, which don't clip to your phone, so they're no good for gaming on the move, but will be ideal if you stream or output your games to a television or monitor through a dedicated MHL cable or mirroring device.
Some phones, such as the Sony Xperia Z3 and many other Xperia handsets, can even be made to work with Sony's DualShock 4 pad via Bluetooth, giving you the comfort of a familiar controller.
These aren't overly expensive either, if you want to upgrade your gaming experience. A controller is likely to cost at least £15 and in many cases you also need a cable to link your phone to a television, which will also cost at least £10 for a half-decent option, while a console comes with everything you need out of the box. But if you're serious about smartphone gaming they're worthwhile investments.
How can my phone replace a console?
Mirroring your screen
Once you've got the requisite controllers and cables you'll need to get them set up with your phone. The exact process will depend on what you're using, but there are a few things you'll probably have to do.
If using an MHL adapter (as you likely will be to mirror your screen to a TV or monitor), it's as simple as plugging one end into the micro USB port on your phone and the other into an HDMI cable, which itself needs to run to an HDMI port on your TV.
Not only will that mirror your screen, but there's usually an extra port in the adapter which you can plug into a charger, so you can enjoy a marathon gaming session. MHL keeps getting better too, with the latest superMHL standard supporting higher resolutions, faster frame rates and more.
Other options exist, such as wireless screen mirroring with Chromecast or Miracast, but these aren't generally ideal for gaming as there's more likely to be lag than when using a wired solution.
Note that not all phones support MHL though, so it's worth checking if yours does before investing in an adapter.
It's not an option with any iPhone for example, although you can get dedicated Lightning connectors for the same task. You can mirror your screen using AirPlay, but you'll also need an Apple TV, so it's a bit pricier to get set up. If you have an Apple TV then simply head to Control Centre on your iOS device, tap AirPlay, select Apple TV, turn mirroring on and launch a game.
Connecting a controller
For a true console experience you're not going to want to use on-screen controls, so as well as mirroring the screen you'll probably want to hook a controller up to your phone.
The exact process for this will vary but it's usually fairly straightforward. The popular Moga controllers for example use a dedicated Moga Pivot app on Android, which will automatically pair your controller to your phone assuming both are on.
The Logitech PowerShell controller for iPhone on the other hand requires a physical connection, plugging in to the phone's Lightning port to pair.
If you have a Bluetooth controller and there's no obvious setup instructions then you pair it the same way you would any other Bluetooth device- enable Bluetooth on your phone, scan for devices, select the controller from the list and enter the pairing code.
Big screen gaming
Even once you've got a controller and screen to hand a phone is never likely to fully replicate a console experience. We put big screen gaming to the test with a £20 Moga Mobile Gaming system controller and an MHL cable paired with an HTC One - and the bad news is that it's nowhere near a console experience, thanks partly to the games on offer.
We found that while the gaming was reasonable, it was no substitute for a home console.
On a 32-inch screen Asphalt 8 looked a little blurry and lacking in detail, though Dead Trigger 2 fared rather better, almost passing off as a low budget console game.
It's understandable that blowing the games up led to lower quality visuals though, as a Gameloft spokesperson told us "a high-end mobile game may be able to push 30% - 50% of the polygons of current-gen consoles," so it stands to reason that visual quality on a large screen is likely to be 50% - 70% worse.
The controls weren't perfect either. Using a controller was definitely better than a touch screen, but there was slight lag with some inputs due to using a Bluetooth connection.
Worse than that, the games just didn't feel like they'd been designed for a controller as there was none of the precision or smoothness you'd experience on a home console, with jerkiness and stiffness creeping in.
Speaking of consoles though, there's always the likes of the Ouya or GameStick, which are attempts at making an Android-powered home console. Laggy performance and a lack of games hold them back, but it points towards a future when smartphone games could be as comfortable on a television screen as on the move.
PS4 Remote Play
Outputting your phone to a larger screen is one way to turn it into a games console, but you can also bring your console games to your phone. Or at least you can if you've got a PS4 and a Sony Xperia Z3+, Xperia Z3, Xperia Z2 or Xperia Z3 Compact.
To get started just download the Remote Play app and make sure your new Playstation is on and connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your phone.
Then launch the app, follow the instructions to pair your DualShock 4 via Bluetooth, log in to your Sony account and it should automatically find and connect to your PS4. You'll then be able to play your PS4 games on your phone, using your DualShock controller, though for a comfortable experience you might want to invest in a controller mount.
If you don't fancy the mount or want to take the controller out of the equation entirely you can also use on-screen controls, but these have the typical issue of obscuring some of the action and not being as precise as physical buttons.
However you choose to control it the result is fairly impressive. The games look good and play quite well, though they don't always feel at home on a small screen and there is sometimes ever so slight lag.
Remote Play is a bridge for bringing the console experience to a smartphone, but as phones become ever more powerful the games will inevitably be more akin to their console counterparts, the technology will become more capable and we'll start seeing a big jump former - it's clear we could see the phone truly matching a console before the end of the PS4's life cycle.
Now... back to finally being able to complete Sonic the Hedgehog...
source TechRadar: All latest Mobile phones news feeds http://ift.tt/1CX1WQv
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