Play Games
1 week ago
46
Plus iOS 18 and new Game mode out next week.
Image credit: Apple
Apple has unveiled its iPhone 16 line-up, announcing it'll be possible to play AAA games on all devices in the range - and not just the pricier Pro model, as was the case last year.
Apple started bigging up iPhone's AAA gaming credentials with 2023's iPhone 15 line-up, announcing the likes of Assassin's Creed Mirage and Resident Evil 4 Remake would all be playable the £999+ ray tracing enabled iPhone 15 Pro.
12 months on and the iPhone 16 is here with a 30 precent CPU and 40 percent GPU boost over last year's model, courtesy of the new A18 chipset in preparation for Apple's computationally demanding on-device AI features, due later this year. And that extra oomph (which includes hardware-accelerated ray tracing on the iPhone 16) means AAA is no longer relegated to the Pro.
Apple says the base iPhone 16 is capable of running the already released likes of Death Stranding: Director's Cut, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil: Village. Digital Foundry has previously looked at all four games running on the iPhone 15 Pro, reporting mixed results, so it'll be interesting to see how this year's iPhones compare - even if claims of low AAA sales on iOS mean we might not be seeing an influx of new big-name titles anytime soon.
The iPhone 16 (which includes a new physical Camera Control button, and the previously Pro-only Action Button) starts at £799 for 128GB of storage and at 6.1-inch display. The 6.7-inch iPhone 16 Plus, meanwhile, costs £899 for the same amount of storage, and it's only up from there. Over on the Pro side of things, pricing starts at £999 for the 6.3-inch/128GB model, or £1199 if you're after the 6.9-inch Pro Max. All models launch on 20th September, with pre-orders available from 13th September.
In related news, Apple has confirmed iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 will both launch next Monday, 16th September. These both introduce a new Game mode, designed to minimise background activity to improve frame rates - and there's promise of improved responsiveness for wireless game controllers and AirPods too.
