The First Five Settings I Change In Any Game

Before I play anything seriously, I open the settings. It takes two minutes and it saves the phone from a lot of grief. Here's the routine I use on every install.

First, the frame-rate cap. Sixty is lovely but thirty is usually plenty on mobile and runs much cooler. Second, resolution scaling — dropping it a notch is often invisible on a small screen. Third, motion or camera shake, which I turn off to avoid queasiness.

Fourth, haptics, because constant buzzing burns a surprising amount of battery. Fifth, control layout — resize and move buttons to fit your hands before you build muscle memory the wrong way.

Do this once at the start and the whole experience improves. It's the closest thing to a free performance upgrade you'll find.