The 8 Best Mobile Gaming Accessories for 2022
We all love gaming. Our favorite consoles and mobile devices have provided countless hours of entertainment and fun with friends. So, why not make an already-great experience even better?
Anyone who loves gaming as much as we do loves gaming peripherals as well. We’ve come a long way from the utter disaster that was the Nintendo Power Glove. Modern gaming peripherals are anything but gimmicky and can have serious positive implications for your experience.
Below, we’ve gathered several of the best types of mobile gaming accessories for 2022. These will improve your audio, visuals, and playtime and even provide possible health benefits.
Phone Stand
Let’s start with one of the simplest but most practicality-efficient gaming accessories.
If you’re playing on a mobile device, you have a choice to make: You either have to hold your phone or prop it up while you hold an unattached controller. You can get creative and prop up your phone with books or a pop socket, but these are inelegant solutions.
Instead, consider using a phone stand. With phone stands, you simply attach your device and play. These are best for when you have a controller handy that you want to use.
Because you are keeping your phone stationary in this setup, you can easily attach other peripherals too. These include making demands of ports or jacks that may otherwise be uncomfortable to utilize with a standard controller grip.
Gaming Clip
Our next option is an alternative to the phone stand for those who want to keep their device close at hand. Gaming clips attach to controllers to keep your phone steady and close to you. If you want more versatility with where you play, this is an ideal option.
There’s only one issue when it comes to gaming clips: Many stands are universal, to a degree. Adjustable grips can help keep devices of various sizes attached and secured. However, we have to ask more of gaming clips when creating our builds.
Gaming clips need to attach to both device and controller, and the latter doesn’t have the luxury of being rectangular.
If you are using particular third-party controllers, it may be tricky finding a perfectly sized gaming clip. Thankfully, many controllers take sizing and scale inspiration from current console manufacturers. The Switch Pro, Xbox controller, and Dualshock/Dualsense form templates for many designs.
Regardless, gaming clips are a way to secure your device when gaming on mobile. They also showcase the way that all peripherals reflect upon each other.
Adaptor Cables
We’ve included adaptor cables in their own category because of how many types of cables there are.
If you have a non-smart TV or monitor you want to play mobile games on, you’ll need an HDMI adaptor. These are easy to find but only target specific connector types. This marks an easy way to improve the audio and visual components of your gaming experience.
HDMI is far from the only important adaptor cable available to mobile gamers. It improves your audio and scale of visuals, but still merely converts a mobile experience to a home one. Much more significant than HDMI adaptors are ethernet adaptor cables.
An ethernet adaptor cable might not matter as much to you if you are playing single-player mobile games. In single-player mode, a little bit of lag or delay won’t cause major issues — but in online multiplayer games, a faster connection can mean the difference between victory and defeat.
By connecting directly to your router, you forge a connection that can be faster than wireless options. More importantly, you’ll form a connection that’s more stable than a wireless setup.
A more stable connection — even with significant ping — is easier to react to than one interrupted by lag spikes. (Fortunately, ping is an easy problem to solve if you have the right tools.)
Power Bank
Mobile devices — and their predecessor, the handheld console — have always had a battery problem. Gaming is power intensive and can take a lot out of a battery. With dedicated handheld consoles, at least you only use them for gaming. On the other hand, your mobile device is a lifeline to the world at large and an extremely useful navigational device.
Power banks solve the issue of battery usage when gaming. You don’t have to worry about being close to an outlet, and you can always charge your phone portably afterward.
The biggest power banks can reach battery sizes of 20,000 mAH, with many in excess of 10,000 mAH. By comparison, the larger number is enough to charge the largest-battery iPhone almost five times over.
If you don’t own a power bank, it’s an essential tool for all tech users and not just mobile gamers. It can help you consciously improve your battery life while gaming, and save you in emergencies in your daily life
Mobile Game Controllers and Grips
Keeping your hand clutched on your phone isn’t for every gamer.
For gamers with large hands, a larger phone can be unwieldy and too small to properly operate as a controller. Others may simply prefer the feel of a real controller compared to the flat surface of a smart device. A controller can be particularly helpful for fighting games, where rapid, precise inputs are necessary.
Controllers and grips both serve to address the issues gamers may have with using mobile devices as controllers, and they generally work in one of two ways:
The first type of controller is a standalone piece. This includes some modern console controllers, too. After years of gamers using Xbox and Playstation controllers on PC, now even Nintendo controllers support Android and iOS.
The second type of controller attaches directly to your phone, turning it into a hybrid device. These have the benefit of being truly usable anywhere, not requiring a space to place your phone.
Even the first type can be converted to something similar by using a gaming clip, however. If you want to build a new, budget-friendly PC setup, you can solve two problems by buying a controller that works on a PC.
Gaming Gloves
Admittedly, this next accessory might be cheating. After all, gaming gloves can be worn whenever you play, and not just in relation to mobile devices. Some may also scoff at the idea of specialized gloves for gaming. The truth is that not only are gaming gloves real, but they can also help your performance and your health.
Gaming gloves have some overlap with compression gloves. They both fit tightly but gently and serve to alleviate pain as a result of various health conditions.
Some researchers are taking gaming gloves to the next level, with smart fabric that can act as a game controller. This fabric is proposed as a therapy tool, mapping wrist and finger movements in a gamified manner. It may be that within the next 20 years, though, we will see mass-market gloves of this type widely available.
Until then, gaming gloves as they provide a way for gamers to protect themselves while playing. Some even have rubberized grips on the fingers. This allows you to maintain a better grip, especially if you have a tendency to sweat while gaming.
Screen Magnifiers
Our next offering is an added way to enhance the visuals without needing a dedicated smart TV to stream to. A screen magnifier uses your phone as a projector to stream an enhanced image, while still being portable. You slot in your phone, and the magnifier increases its screen size to the size of the magnifier.
A screen magnifier lacks all the benefits of streaming to a larger smart device. However, thanks to its scale, it is easier to move and use according to your exact needs.
MicroSD Card
For many gamers, storage space is always at a premium. There’s never enough time to play all the games you may be interested in. Similarly, there never seems to be enough storage to keep all your games in one place. At least for Android users, microSD cards can offer a solution.
You can choose a storage level based on your data needs. Unlike console and PC games, mobile games rarely exceed the single-digit mark in terms of gigabytes. This means that a 128GB or 256GB SD card can easily keep all your games in one place.
Unless you find yourself regularly playing over two dozen storage-heavy games, this should cover all of your needs.
Better Mobile Gaming
Not every mobile peripheral can be used at once, nor should they be. The point of the mobile gaming accessories above is to upgrade your gaming experience. It’s not to transform mobile gaming into something that can no longer be portable.
WTFast does have one final accessory to help improve your mobile gaming. Our Gamers Private Network (GPN) offers an easy solution to ping and ping-related issues to gamers on mobile and PC devices. Use it with the above accessories to elevate your gaming physically and digitally — and win because you’ve earned it, without lag getting in the way.
Sources:
How the Nintendo Power Glove Worked | HowStuffWorks
Best Power Banks 2022: Reviews and Buying Advice | PCWorld
Sensorized Fabric Glove as Game Controller for Rehabilitation | IEEE Conference Publication
