There are already a bunch of reasons why gaming on a foldable phone is great. Most of the best foldable phones have top-level chips, offering elite performance, and a bigger display is an obvious benefit. Still, the way we game on book-style devices is about to change, thanks to the Android 17 update, with Google revealing the upcoming foldable gaming mode feature.
As the name suggests, foldable gaming mode is a unique feature for foldable phones. The concept is pretty simple: you can use one half of the screen as a controller while the other displays the in-game visuals, kind of like a single-screen version of the Retroid Pocket Flip 2 or the iconic Nintendo DS. If, like me, you prefer using a controller to more abstract in-game controls, it sounds like a massively useful feature.
According to the details, the controller half of the foldable gaming mode display is dynamic, so developers should be able to adapt the layout to suit their games. At the time of writing, there are no foldable devices in our guide to the best gaming phones, but this feature alone could disrupt the current list of picks. I'm thinking in particular of my recent Honor Magic V6 review, which showed the phone already had the performance capabilities to compete. Now, it looks like it might be getting the software features, too.
In the official blog post detailing foldable gaming mode, Google notes that it'll be "available in the coming months." The post also claims that Android 17 improves the efficiency of memory cleanup, which should mean fewer instances of stuttering or frame rate drops in the most demanding picks from our list of the best mobile games.
The timing of the foldable gaming mode reveal is quite interesting, as multiple sources suggest we're mere months away from the rumored iPhone Ultra's reveal, Apple's first foldable phone. To me, it seems that Google is working to implement more features designed especially for foldables like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Pixel 10 Pro Fold to prepare for Apple's potential entry into the market. With that in mind, we'll have to see if the rumored foldable iPhone launches with any gaming-specific features.