Is the new iPhone the best gaming phone in the market today?

Apple recently launched the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max into the world and early reviews are promising. The dual-lens camera on the back seems to be the big talking point but the phone also comes with impressive battery life, a durable case, and perhaps most surprisingly of all, a cheaper starting price than the previous iPhone model at £729 (£1,049 for the Pro and £1,149 for the Pro Max). However, the question on our lips is how does the iPhone 11 stand up in the mobile gaming arena? We want to know if it competes with the other popular gaming phones on the market at the moment.

It should be noted, though that different games have different requirements from today’s smartphones. Online multiplayer games like Fortnite and Vainglory require a high refresh rate of at least 90Hz, if not 120Hz for optimum gameplay. Strategic games like Clash of Clans, demand large amounts of RAM in order to satisfy all of the constant updates and large data requirements. Mobile games like Winstar.com real money online slots, on the other hand, are not as demanding and can run smoothly on any high quality mobile phone. So, with this in mind, let’s take a closer look at Apple’s new phone to see how it stacks up against the current mobile gaming market:

Screen quality

The iPhone 11 comes with a 6.1-inch LCD screen and this is more than adequate for your gaming needs but the iPhone 11 Pro models do come with brighter OLED screens if your budget stretches that far. We’ve noticed that the iPhone 11’s screen refresh rate has been locked at 60Hz which is far from the current gaming trend of 90Hz-120Hz. The premium Razer 2 comes with the beautifully fluid 120Hz refresh rate and this really is the benchmark to which gaming phones should set themselves to from now on. In summary, the faster the refresh rate the smoother the gameplay, so the iPhone 11 falls somewhat short of the recommended screen requirements here. It might look crisp but there might be some noticeable lag in high-demanding games like Fortnite and PUBG mobile.

Processor andc storage Capacity

The A13 Bionic processor sitting inside the iPhone 11 makes it the fastest phone on the market at the moment, no arguments there. The previous A12 even beats the Snapdragon 855 processor found in most of Android’s top models. The 4GB RAM helps to keep the phone running smoothly but many of the top gaming phones, like the Honor 20 Pro and Razer 2, hold at least 8GB RAM which ensures the very best performance. However, It’s the storage capacity that turns out to be the one major downfall in the iPhone 11’s spec. The standard 64GB falls well short of the typical 256GB that mobile gamers require, and you’ll need to put your hand in your pocket to increase the memory capacity to either 128GB or the maximum 256GB available.

Battery life

The iPhone 11 comes with 10.5 hours of battery life as standard and nearly as much as 12 hours on the Pro Max model. You don’t need much more battery life than this and, to be honest, you won’t find many stronger battery performances on the market at the moment. The Samsung Galaxy S10 averages out at around 9.5 hours and the Razer 2 is even lower at around 8 hours. It should be noted that the long-life of the iPhone 11 battery would be reduced if the phone was

increased to premium gaming specs, but as it stands, you’re getting a well-balanced phone that offers a solid gaming performance as well.

Gaming Accessories

The smartphone gaming accessory market is full of weird and wonderful gadgets and most options will fit most smartphones. However, we think most gamers only need one or two additions to improve their mobile gaming experience. The ‘Gamevice iPhone Mobile Controller’ is a perfect controller add-on for iPhones that offers two joysticks, a d-pad, and the standard four action-button layout. You don’t need much more. All of this gaming puts a lot of pressure on your phone and buying a case that has been specially designed to cool it down is a smart idea. Razer cases are the current growing trend and their latest designs just so happen to fit the new iPhone 11 models, they look pretty smart as well which is an added bonus.

Price

As we mentioned earlier, the price point of the iPhone 11 is going to attract a lot of interest from the public and £729 is impressive when you look at the overall spec, compared to the RRP of £699 for the Razer 2. We’ve highlighted a couple of downfalls in the iPhone 11 and also pointed out where the premium gaming smartphones excel, but the premium setup of 8GB RAM and 256GB storage memory all come at a cost. This leads us to the opinion that the iPhone 11 offers amazing value for a high-spec phone. It hasn’t been built solely for gaming and so it doesn’t hold the premium spec of the likes of the Razer 2 and the Honor 20 Pro, but it does offer a great gaming experience, not the best, but good enough for most!

The editorial unit