Smartphone Game Console

Yes, it's possible. Yes, it's powerful. Yes, it saves you money. Here's how I did it.

1. Get a smartphone. (You may already have one)

Did you know that even older smartphones from the mid-2010s are capable of better 3D graphics than many basic laptops? 

If you have a later model Android with USB-C (e.g. a Samsung Galaxy S9+) or iPhone then this will definitely work.

2. A/V Adaptor

Get one with the flavour of jack - Lightning or USB/C - that suits your phone. I ordered a cheap one from Amazon for about USD$15, but you can pay up to USD$40 if you want.

If you're worried about wasting money on an incompatible adaptor, most sellers will list the devices theirs work with. If your smartphone is in the list, you're good to go. 

Setup is fairly intuitive: Adaptor plug goes into smartphone. Power, HDMI, and USB peripherals go into adaptor. (See picture.)

Naturally, this also assumes that you will have a power adaptor for your smartphone, an HDMI cable, a decent-sized TV, and some controllers. (Using the touchscreen while watching a big screen is quite awkward).

3. USB/Bluetooth Controller

Android natively supports USB/Bluetooth keyboards, mice, and game controllers, even Sony PS3 Dual-shocks. I'm pretty sure iOS, which is also Linux-based, does too. 

I got my controller and mouse second-hand for about USD$10. (See picture.) My keyboard was discarded by a housemate.

Plug them all together...

... and you have 'assembled' a pretty beefy game console.

How beefy? 

Beefy enough to play Genshin Impact, which runs on PS4 but not on my laptop.

Wait ... Didn't you also just build a PC?

Why, yes. Yes, I did. You can use mouse, keyboard, and giant TV to respond to email, messages, and edit documents.

Now you don't need to get an extra PC, just as you don't need to get an extra console.

Total cost: USD$35

Easily a tenth of the price of a PlayStation 4 at time of writing. Of course, this doesn't count the cost of the phone, but betraying my first-world assumptions here, most people would already have one. Or at least, more readers would have a phone and no console rather than the other way around.

Problem: No controller support

While the OS may support controllers, the game itself may not. In this case, you'll need software that maps controller signals to screen touches. 

Enter Mantis Pro. It guarantees no bans (because it doesn't interfere with the game), and is ad-free. While it is paid, at less than USD$10 it won't break the bank, and it sure is worth it to get your gamepad, mouse, and keyboard working with your favourite games.

Final Plug

If you really want to go big-brain time, you can use your phone as a terminal for a cloud gaming service like GeForce Now. That gives you top-tier graphics on-demand. Just download the relevant app. 

Keep in mind though, that cloud gaming at the moment is certainly not cheap, which kind of goes against the thrifty spirit of this post.