The settings that save your battery without ruining the game

Nothing kills the fun faster than a phone that's hot to the touch and down to 20 percent in half an hour. The good news is most games hand you the tools to fix this, you just have to dig into the settings.

Start with the frame rate cap. Many games default to 60fps or higher, and dropping to 30 often makes almost no visible difference on a phone screen while dramatically cutting battery use and heat. Next, look for lighting or bloom effects — turning those down is usually the single biggest win for graphics-heavy games.

Resolution scaling is another one people miss. On a small screen you genuinely can't tell the difference between full and slightly reduced resolution during actual play, but your battery certainly can. And if a game has a dedicated battery-saver mode, try it before assuming it looks bad.

We test these things on every game we cover, which is why you'll see battery notes in our reviews. A game can be brilliant and still not worth playing if it leaves you tethered to a charger.