Playing strategy games without cooking your phone

Strategy and tower defence sessions run long, and phones don't love that. If your device gets uncomfortably warm during a marathon run, a few settings usually help without ruining the experience.

Drop the frame rate cap if the game offers one. Sixty frames on a slow-paced defence game looks nice but heats things up fast, and thirty is plenty when you spend half the time paused anyway.

Lower brightness and turn off background sync while you play. Both quietly drain battery and add heat. We also keep the phone off a bed or blanket — those trap warmth and make the fans-that-don't-exist situation worse.

None of this is dramatic, but small changes add up. On a long train ride they're the difference between finishing a campaign and watching your battery hit red at the worst moment.