Apple Wants Its New iPhone To Be Your Next Gaming Device

On September 12, Apple held an event showing off its entire line of iPhone 15 devices, including the iPhone 15 Pro, which features a USB-C port (thanks, Europe) and the ability to run modern AAA games like Death Stranding and the remake of Resident Evil 4. Apple predictably touted the news as the “next generation of mobile gaming” and while that remains to be seen, seeing such technically demanding games running on such a small device is undeniably impressive.

Apple’s latest iPhone Pro will hit stores on September 22. And Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4, and Death Stranding are expected to arrive on the device later this year. Surprisingly, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, the next entry in the long-running stabby-stab-stab series, will also land on the iPhone, just a little later than its October 5 release on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. For now, it seems these games only run on the Pro and Pro Max versions of the iPhone 15. It’s an impressive feat, particularly in the case of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which is a brand new, fully fledged AAA title. During its event, Apple explained a bit about its new chip and how it expects modern games to run on the handheld device.

According to Apple, the Pro’s new A16 Bionic chip sports a five-core GPU that sees a 50% improvement in memory bandwidth, as well as a six-core CPU, which Apple touted as using 20% less power than the previous phone’s processor.

And believe it or not, Apple also touted the ability for its devices to feature “hardware-accelerated ray tracing,” a cutting-edge lighting technique that usually requires pretty demanding hardware such a high-powered gaming PC to pull off reliably. Yeah, you can read that a second time if you need to. Much like the games themselves, we’ll be eager to see just how well this feature actually performs on the device. It’s easy to be skeptical about all of this, and many on X (formerly Twitter) are raising concerns about things like just how long the device’s battery will last while running these demanding games.

The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will start at $999 and $1199 respectively. You can also give Apple 70 bucks for a damn USB-C cable if you’re so inclined.

Buy the iPhone 15 Pro: Best Buy
Buy the iPhone 15 Pro Max: Best Buy