Apple has announced its latest iPhone, the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro. If you've been paying attention to smartphone upgrades, you'll probably have guessed that all the new features are small--the cameras are better, there's some neat new software tricks, and the screen is slightly brighter. The iPhone 13 is no different, even with its new A15 chip. But it's this chip that could be a big deal for mobile gaming.
With huge games like Fortnite, Call of Duty: Mobile, Genshin Impact, and more, mobile gaming requires more power than ever before. Couple this with advancements in game engines, such as Fortnite moving to Unreal Engine 5, and it's simple to understand that smartphones will need to keep up. Apple's silicon has been ahead of the competition for years now, but the A15 makes a big deal about being better for gaming.
In the iPhone 13, the A15 chip features a 4-core GPU for accelerated gaming performance, with Apple claiming that you can expect up to 30% faster performance in games. The iPhone 13 Pro is a step further, with a 5-core GPU letting you take advantage of the phone's 120Hz True Motion display. Both models feature OLED panels, just like last year, so you don't have to go all in with the Pro for the best-looking display, but that extra horsepower might be useful if you really need all the performance you can get.
This doesn't just apply to native apps either. The iPhone 13, like many other smartphones, will be a great device for game streaming, whether it's just remote play with your Xbox Series X|S and PS5 or cloud gaming via Xbox Cloud Gaming or Google Stadia (although native support for either is still missing on iOS). Having more GPU performance will only serve to make these gaming experiences smoother, and the benefit of 5G in both the standard and Pro models mean you can take advantage of the low latencies the technology offers, if you're in a supported region.
The iPhone 13 launches on September 24 for $799, while the iPhone 13 Mini starts at $699. The iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max launch on the same day for $999 and $1099 respectively. All models now start at a base of 128GB of storage, and improvement from last year without a price bump.