Testing games on an older phone on purpose

Most reviews are written on the newest, fastest phone in the house, which is exactly why so many of them are useless to normal people. We keep a deliberately old device around and run everything on it too.

The difference is eye-opening. Games that feel silky on a flagship can stutter, overheat, or drain the battery fast on hardware that's a few years old — and that's the hardware most people actually carry.

When I note that a game 'stayed cool' or 'ran smooth,' I mean on that old phone, not just the good one. If a title only works on the latest chip, that's important context, and we'll say it.

It slows our reviews down a little, but I think it makes them honest. A game should be judged by how it treats the phones people really have.