iPhones are great for gaming, but plenty of players will find that their handset is not performing as optimally as they might like, which can spoil the experience somewhat.
To help you address this, here are some tips and tweaks to try implementing on your own Apple device that could make a big difference the next time you hop into your game of choice.
Close background apps
Your first stop in any session of iPhone optimization should be to close down any apps which are running in the background unnecessarily.
There are two reasons for doing this; firstly it will prevent any system resources from being hogged by an app that you are not currently using, which should ensure that your games can run as smoothly as possible, and secondly it will avoid any of your network bandwidth being eaten into.
Killing background apps is relevant whether you are trying to rein supreme in Fortnite or work out how to win at slots on iPhone, since all online activities you participate in will alter performance levels, and the more secondary tasks that are chugging away behind the scenes, the worse it will get.
The simplest way to see which apps are active is to head to your home screen and swipe up from the bottom to get into the App Switcher. This not only lets you jump between apps, but also swipe upwards on any open app cards to get rid of them as necessary.
Use Wi-Fi rather than your provider’s network coverage
While mobile networking has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years, and 5G technology is pushing download speeds ever higher, it is important to recognize the limitations that still exist from an online gaming perspective.
For gamers, it is not just the speed of the connection that matters most, but also the consistency and the latency. And if you are dipping in and out of your provider’s area of coverage, then the responsiveness of your game could suffer, particularly in the case of titles that require quick reaction times.
The answer is to stick to Wi-Fi hotspots where possible, and aim to be in close proximity to the router. At home this is obviously easier to achieve, and if you are playing in a different room to your Wi-Fi base station, consider investing in range extenders to overcome this and give you a stable connection at all times.
Disable automatic updates
Another type of background task which can sour the online gaming experience are automatic updates. While these are convenient for general use, if your phone suddenly starts downloading a large update while you are gaming, this will of course monopolize your connection and create a raft of issues as a result.
Updates can be turned off in the iTunes subsection of the settings menu, although bear in mind that if you forget to turn these back on after your gaming session is over, you will need to download updates manually in the future.
Free up storage space
You might not realize it, but if your iPhone’s onboard storage is close to full, this will have a negative impact not only on in-game performance, but also on the overall snappiness of the user experience. Because of this, you should definitely aim to avoid reaching the limit of your allocated memory, and there are a few ways to do this.
Uploading your photos and videos to the cloud, then deleting them from your local storage, is arguably the best way to clear the largest amount of space in the shortest amount of time, without really needing to think about it. Just make sure that your backup has been completed successfully before you go deleting your content.
Uninstalling apps that you no longer use is also sensible, especially if there are games that you no longer play, as these can take up a surprising amount of room.
Avoid hot environments
Smartphones are essentially miniaturized computers, and like full-blown laptops and desktops they can encounter performance issues if they get too hot. This is all the more concerning since they are passively cooled and do not have internal fans to ramp up if the chipsets become overly toasty.
You will probably have noticed that your iPhone warms up when you are gaming, and this is perfectly normal, but clearly if you are in a very warm room, the ambient temperature around you could prevent your device from properly dissipating the heat, which might make the processor throttle back and thus tank performance in games.
Avoiding direct sunlight and keeping your phone away from warm surfaces is sensible in this context, and should be the final way to give you the edge when you are gaming.
