I played Elden Ring on my phone and couldn't believe my eyes

Gaming is becoming increasingly expensive due to rising hardware prices. Budget gamers, in particular, are affected and often have to look for alternatives. One of these has been found by our tech author Jan Hartmayer, who simply repurposes his smartphone into a gaming PC.

I used to have only an old office computer with terrible hardware for gaming. You had to get creative and find suitable low-end titles if you wanted to play something. But technology has advanced significantly since then, and modern smartphones have quite a bit of gaming power under the hood.

I’m not a big fan of most mobile games like Candy Crush or PUBG Mobile and prefer playing Soulslikes in front of a TV or PC. However, a while ago I came across something that convinced me about mobile gaming after all.

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Steam is also available for mobile

Using free third-party apps like Game Hub or GameNative, I emulate games from my Steam, Epic, and Battle.net libraries. This gives me quick access to all my games on my smartphone.

For example, I was able to play Elden Ring with low settings at 1280 × 720 resolution and no upscaling with about 35 to 42 FPS on my Red Magic 11 Pro. Cyberpunk 2077 also runs in 1280 × 720, according to YouTuber ETA Prime, with low settings and FSR at about 30 FPS on the same device. I was speechless at first because such performance would have been unthinkable 10 years ago.

I only had to install the GameNative app on my phone and log in to my Steam account to completely download the game. Depending on the game, this takes up quite a bit of storage. Only titles that you have already purchased on Steam or another platform like Epic are available. I quickly noticed while gaming that the built-in touch controls are not ideal for gaming. Therefore, I got a gamepad for my phone.

Once installed, the overlay in the app looks something like this.

This makes gameplay much more enjoyable, and I quickly lost track of several hours of gaming. If you like to game on the go and don’t want to buy a Steam Deck, I recommend a power bank with fast charging capability and good capacity, as depending on the game your phone’s battery will drain quickly.

Not Without Flaws

But such applications are not universal solutions for gaming on smartphones and do not replace mobile ports of games like Slay the Spire or Vampire Survivors. They come with limitations:

Performance varies depending on the phone. My flagship Red Magic 11 Pro, for example, achieves more FPS in games than the older Samsung Galaxy S23.
Some games cannot be emulated at all depending on the smartphone model, and others require technical know-how to find the right launch options. However, there are compatibility lists on the GameNative website that simplify the process.

Nonetheless, it is worth taking a look, especially for gamers who have no access to a PC or are often on the go. For example, I love to play indie titles like Hades 2, Slay the Spire 2, or Vampire Crawler on the go, and all of these titles ran smoothly on my smartphone. Therefore, I find myself using my Steam Deck less and less while traveling.