Apple says all its new iPhone 16s play AAA games, no iPhone Pro required
iOS 18 out next week with new Game mode.
Apple has unveiled the iPhone 16, claiming it'll be possible to play AAA games on all devices in the line-up - and not just on the pricier Pro models, as was the case last year.
Apple started bigging up the iPhone's AAA gaming credentials with 2023's iPhone 15 range, announcing the likes of Assassin's Creed Mirage and Resident Evil 4 Remake would all be playable exclusively on the ray tracing enabled iPhone 15 Pro.
12 months on and the iPhone 16 is here, offering what Apple claims to be a 30 percent CPU and 40 percent GPU boost over last year's model, courtesy of the new A18 chipset - designed to handle the company'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 iPhone Pro.
Apple says the base iPhone 16 is capable of playing the already released likes of Death Stranding: Director's Cut, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Resident Evil 4, and Resident Evil: Village. Digital Foundry 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 phones compare - even if claims of low AAA sales on iOS mean we might not see 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 a 6.1-inch display. The 6.7-inch iPhone 16 Plus, meanwhile, costs £899 for the same 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 new operating system upgrades 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.