Saving battery without ruining the look

Phones get hot and batteries drain, and nowhere is that clearer than in graphically heavy mobile games. But you don't have to choose between a dead phone and an ugly game. A handful of settings usually do most of the work.

The biggest culprit is the frame rate cap. Dropping from unlimited to 60, or 60 to 30 in a slow game, cuts heat dramatically. Next is particle effects — Ember of the Hollow looked almost identical with particles on medium but ran far cooler.

Screen brightness is the quiet killer. Half the drain in a long session is just the display. Turning on a lower brightness and disabling any 'high refresh' option for turn-based games can add real minutes.

I test every game with these toggles because it tells you how well optimised it is. A game that only runs decently at max settings is a game that'll cook your phone. The good ones scale gracefully.