Do you have an old iPhone or iPad and are you not sure what to do with it? With these tips you (or your children) can still use it as a handy game console.
Use your iPhone as a game console
Have you just gotten a new iPhone or iPad and you don’t know what to do with your old device? Then it can be a nice idea to set it up as a portable game console. Below we have listed a number of things that you should take into account.
Check the battery of your iPhone
If you want to reuse an old iPhone as a game console, it is a good idea to check how your battery is doing. If you have an iPhone 6 or higher, you can check the health of your battery with iOS 11.3. You need to use the battery management feature of iOS 11.3 for this. This is not available for iPads, but the batteries of Apple’s tablets usually wear out less quickly.
When the battery of your iPhone is worn out, it is less able to cope with situations where a lot of energy is used. These kinds of situations are more common during games. The Power Management setting automatically throttles your iPhone’s performance, so there are no crashes. So it may be worth it to have the battery replaced with a new one. You can have this done by Apple itself until the end of 2018 for 29 euros.
Restore your iPhone or iPad to factory settings
It may seem obvious, but if you only want to use your old device for games, it can help to reset it to factory settings in advance. This will remove all your sensitive data from the device in one go and start with a clean slate. In addition, your entire storage space is available for games.
Check out our in-depth article on how to factory reset your iPhone. There you will find different ways to reset your iPhone or iPad, and all the things you need to take into account.
Purchase a controller for your iPhone
You can of course operate your gaming iPhone via the touchscreen. Many games take this into account and can therefore be operated with touch without any problems. However, if you are used to a console, gaming with a physical controller is a lot more pleasant. You have countless options for this: from extensive iPhone cases with built-in controllers to separate gamepads.
One of our favorites is the Steelseries Nimbus. This compact controller looks a bit like an Xbox controller, so you can put it in your bag. The Nimbus connects to your iPhone or iPad via bluetooth so you don’t have to deal with wires. If you want an iPhone case with a built-in controller, you can check out the Gamevice controller for iPhone look. The latter option is relatively expensive, but it turns your old iPhone into a handheld game console in one go.
Set parental controls
Do you want to set your old iPhone or iPad as a game console for a child? Then it can be useful to put a child lock on it so that nothing goes wrong. In the article below you can read all about how to set this function on your old iOS device.
→ Set up parental controls on an iPhone or iPad: this is how you do that in 4 steps
Game tips from iPhoned
Of course, an iPhone or iPad game console is not complete without an assortment of cool games to play. Fortunately, the iPhoned editors do like a game, and you will regularly find articles with great gaming tips here. Therefore, check out our large overview of iPhone games, so that you never end up playing. You will also find our monthly game overview there, so that you can stay up to date with the latest games for your iOS device.
In April, iPhoned will give extensive attention to the theme Family. Throughout the month, our articles focus on all things Apple and family. So keep an eye on iPhoned and sign up for our newsletter or download the iPhoned app to stay informed.