If sustained gaming performance matters more to you than impressive benchmark numbers, I’d look closely at the OnePlus Nord 5.
The reason is simple: gaming performance is not just about how fast a phone performs for the first few minutes. During a long session, heat management, throttling, frame-rate stability, and cooling capacity become much more important.
The Nord 5 uses the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and a large 7,300 mm² vapor chamber. In testing, it maintained very consistent performance during extended gaming, with one test recording around 142 FPS in BGMI at 144 FPS settings while reaching only 38.6°C after 20 minutes. Another review found roughly 59 FPS average in Genshin Impact and about 88.5 FPS in PUBG Mobile on appropriate settings.
The interesting comparison is the POCO F7. Its newer Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 produces considerably higher peak benchmark numbers, but sustained-load testing shows significant thermal throttling. Notebookcheck measured temperatures up to 45.4°C and reported roughly a one-third performance loss in some continuous stress tests. Android Authority also recorded only about 57–60% stability in Wild Life stress testing.
So, if you're choosing specifically for long gaming sessions, don't simply pick the phone with the highest AnTuTu score. A phone that can maintain stable clocks and frame rates after 30–60 minutes can provide a noticeably better gaming experience than one that is extremely fast for the first few minutes and then throttles.
In short:
Prices vary considerably by country and storage configuration, so the actual value also depends on what these phones cost where you live.
