With our recently published itel S23+ review, we said that it was a great smartphone. The design is great, display is superb, camera is decent…well, how about its gaming performance? I know you folks are waiting for the game review so here it is!
In the gameplay video below, we have also included the battery drain within 10 minutes for each game as well as a snippet for their graphics settings:
What? You don’t want to watch the whole 5 minutes video? Well, here is a summary formatted in a table:
| Game | Graphics quality | Refresh Rate | Battery drain | Minutes |
| Mobile Legends | Ultra | Super | 4% | 10 min. |
| Call of Duty: Mobile | High | Medium | 3% | 10 min. |
| Genshin Impact | Lowest | 60FPS | 4% | 10 min. |
The itel S23+ runs on a Unisoc Tiger T616 processor clocking in at 2×2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 & 6×1.8 GHz Cortex-A55. It has 8GB of RAM that can be expanded up to 16GB with its Virtual RAM function. This raw hardware power should be good enough to run most games very well with decent graphics settings but do not expect much from it.
Mobile Legends – the game itself is incredibly well optimized for entry-level smartphones so playing this at max settings isn’t really an issue. The phone is responsive so you can do some killings using your favorite character. The only issue here is that it certainly showed some framedrops especially when gaming for a long duration with the highest graphics settings possible which is incredibly normal. We advise hardcore gamers to not crank up the graphics quality too high to ensure a stable FPS when gaming.
Call of Duty Mobile – Playing the game on High graphics and medium refresh rate is a breeze. The Unisoc T616 processor handles this game fairly well however, expect some hiccups when there’s plenty of visual effects and players in the same place.
Genshin Impact – The Unisoc T616 processor is powerful, but not as powerful as other mid-range chipsets so we expect the FPS to be inconsistent. What’s surprising though is that Genshin Impact has managed to maintain a comfortable FPS throughout the gaming session. The thing is, with the latest Genshin Fontaine update, it should be expected that there will be some stuttering but not enough to make you uncomfortable. Playing Genshin Impact albeit on the lowest settings on this phone with a respectable FPS is already a huge milestone for the itel S23+.
In summary, considering its sub-₱7k price point, heavy gaming isn’t typically expected from smartphones in this category. However, it’s quite impressive that the itel S23+ manages to deliver respectable gaming performance. The battery drain is also not an issue in this smartphone, the battery life is quite robust, with a capacity of 5000 mAh. And an average of 3.66% battery drain percent within 10 minutes is quite good. This phone isn’t just about appearances; it packs a solid punch.
Click here for the itel S23+ unboxing and first impressions article; and click here for the full review.
If you want to take a look at the phone’s specs, click the link below:
