iPhone 15 Pro offers smooth AAA mobile gaming experiences.

The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max could transform mobile gaming, bringing AAA console titles like Resident Evil Village, Death Stranding, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage.

At the ‘Wonderlust’ event, Apple unveiled the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, showcasing their seamless integration with console games, featuring notable titles such as ‘Resident Evil’ and ‘Assassin’s Creed Mirage.’

Highlighting the capabilities of the A17 Pro Bionic chipset, Apple emphasized its role in powering the iPhone 15 Pro series. This chipset introduces hardware-accelerated ray tracing support, a feature surpassing even the latest Macs.

Apple asserted that hardware-based ray tracing delivers a substantial fourfold speed improvement compared to software-based alternatives. However, this holds true in the realm of desktop GPUs, where AMD’s Radeon series trails NVIDIA’s RTX GPU series with dedicated Ray-Tracing cores. The real-world performance of Apple’s latest GPU in games with ray tracing support remains untested.

Harnessing TSMC’s 3nm process node, Apple claimed a noteworthy 20 percent performance boost over its predecessor for the pro-class GPU. Featuring a novel 6-core architecture enhancing energy efficiency, the A17 Pro Bionic introduces mesh shading, allowing games to render intricate environments with reduced power consumption. It also incorporates support for the AV1 decoder, a feature commonly found in mid and high-tier GPUs.

Apple officially confirmed that the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max would natively support games like Death Stranding, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Village, and Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed Mirage. While the first three games are expected later this year, Assassin’s Creed Mirage for iPhone is anticipated in the first half of 2024. However, Apple has not disclosed details about the devices’ battery life during gameplay of graphics-intensive AAA titles.

In recent years, iPhones gained popularity among gamers. While some prefer Android devices for gaming due to factors like rapid charging, Apple’s Bionic chipsets stand out for maintaining performance without thermal throttling, unlike recent Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets.

As an increasing number of AAA console and PC games become accessible on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple appears positioned to compete with handheld gaming consoles like the Lenovo Legion Go and ROG Ally. These consoles enable on-the-go PC gaming but have limited battery life, typically a couple of hours. Therefore, investing in a pricier smartphone that serves both as a gaming console and a regular device may be a more cost-effective choice. The iPhone 15 Pro starts at Rs 1,34,900, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max is available for Rs 1,59,900.