Should mobile gamers consider upgrading to iPhone 12?

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I’m not sure I know anyone who doesn’t use their phone as a gaming platform. In its latest study of the Canadian game market, the Entertainment Software Association of Canada reports that 94 per cent of Canadian adults use a mobile device for gaming. That’s nearly 19 out of 20 people.

Whether we’re casually playing The New York Times’ addictive daily Spelling Bee challenge on the couch while binging seasons of TV on Netflix or hunkered down and focused with headphones and a Bluetooth controller playing Call of Duty Mobile, mobile devices are an undeniably convenient way to get a gaming fix.

I’ve been using an iPhone 7 Plus for the past four years, and it’s met all of my mobile gaming needs. I’ve felt no particular urge to upgrade. But when Apple contacted me with an opportunity to put the iPhone 12 Plus through its gaming paces, my curiosity was piqued. In this world of incremental and cumulative mobile hardware upgrades, is four years long enough to see some truly significant enhancements in the mobile gaming experience?

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There’s no question Apple’s iPhone 12 family, which launched last fall, are powerful gaming devices. Hardware nerds know these A14 Bionic-equipped phones are crazy fast thanks to a six-core CPU, a new performance controller to distribute heavy workloads, and a four-core GPU, resulting in a computer mind capable of processing 11 trillion operations per second.

Put in terms we can all understand, the iPhone 12 munches through resource-intensive mobile games like Pac-Man set loose in a maze of glowing dots and power pellets without any ghosts to bother him.

More than that, it’s Apple’s first 5G phone (a key upgrade for online play), has LiDAR for improved accuracy of projected images in augmented reality (AR) gaming, an enhanced haptic engine for nuanced tactile control feedback, and a beautiful display with brilliant contrast and stunning clarity thanks to a pixel density ranging from 458ppi on the iPhone 12 Pro Max all the way up to 476ppi on the iPhone 12 Mini.

But will the average player notice these boons? That depends entirely on the kind of games they play.

Someone who uses their phone for crosswords and match-three puzzles probably won’t notice much of a difference in their gaming beyond quicker downloads and load times. Which means there’s really no pressing need to upgrade if your go-to mobile game is Candy Crush Saga.

However, players of games that are a little more ravenous for resources are bound to both see and feel some of the advantages of all this newfangled technology.

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Take, for instance, League of Legends: Wild Rift. Riot Games’ mobile version of its global PC sensation League of Legends — the most popular game on the planet, by some metrics — is exactly the sort of game that benefits from the latest and greatest mobile hardware. Launched in regional beta last year, this competitive multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game is designed to replicate the desktop experience to make it appealing to the millions who play on a computer.

“We rebuilt literally everything from the ground up,” said Michael Chow, the game’s executive producer. “We wanted to create the magic on mobile devices, including everything that makes League what it is to our desktop players.”

Given the impressive guts of the iPhone 12, it’s no surprise that the game looks great and runs like a dream when played on Apple’s latest family of phones. But serious players are likely to notice more than just the pretty graphics.

As Apple’s first 5G-enabled handset, people playing on one of Canada’s speedy new 5G cellular networks are more likely to enjoy a smoother experience while on the go. You’ll see this not just via a steadier and more reliable connection, but also in the controls, with the lag between tapping a button and seeing the command rendered onscreen noticeably reduced. This is key for competitive online games, where even a hint of lag can mean the difference between life and death.

“We think it’s literally the best 5G performance of any phone or device in the world,” said Chow of the iPhone 12. “We’re able to deliver the truest level of competitive integrity. It’s a stable, super low latency experience that really makes the game shine when every millisecond decision counts.”

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Chow’s team is also keen to take advantage of iPhone 12’s advanced haptic feedback capabilities to enhance the game’s touch controls. He refused to speak in detail of what Riot is working on in this regard, but he did provide some hints as to what players might expect.

“It can range from the mundane — like confirmatory buzzes –—to really feeling the heat of battle,” said Chow. “It’s pretty awesome, but none of it is live in the game yet.”

Stockholm, Sweden-based King is similarly excited about what the iPhone 12 means for its upcoming Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!, a mobile runner based on the long-running platformer series born on the original PlayStation a quarter century ago.

The game’s senior producer (and Canadian expat) Bob Woodburn reckons the iPhone 12’s prodigious processing power will make On the Run! shine on Apple’s devices.

“We’re aiming for best-in-class visuals,” said Woodburn. “We wanted to see how close to triple-A quality console graphics we can come. We’ve taken a lot of chances with stuff, like real-time shadows and complicated lighting changes, and we’re seeing a stable 60 frames per second and really responsive controls running on iPhone 12.”

Fellow Canadian Nathan Young, development director at Vancouver-based Kabam, which makes high-profile mobile exclusives based on pop culture properties, shares Woodburn’s enthusiasm for the A14 Bionic’s ability to take mobile game visuals to the next level.

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“The iPhone 12 really excites us because it allows us to push the envelope in terms of what’s possible with our games as we release them,” said Young while discussing his studio’s upcoming multiplayer brawler Marvel Realm of Champions. “It’s a visually stunning experience on iPhone 12. It really looks amazing. We believe that this is how Marvel is meant to be played on mobile.”

Another potentially significant advantage Apple’s A14 Bionic processor helps facilitate is extending battery life. Mobile games — especially those with sophisticated graphics — tend to be notorious power hogs, draining juice quicker than Superstore manager Glenn Sturgis. But Apple’s new processor can be leveraged to go a bit easier on the phone’s precious energy stores.

“It basically allows us to better optimize assets with features like memoryless textures,” explained Young. “We can optimize the assets we use so that they don’t burn as much battery or produce as much heat.”

As for my own personal experience with the iPhone 12 Plus versus my old iPhone 7 Plus, I’ve noticed significant benefits in many of the games I play, but not so much in others.

Some of the games to which I’ve been hopelessly addicted over the past couple of years — mostly entries in Nintendo’s mobile library (particularly Dr. Mario World) — show minor visual enhancements in colour and clarity that can be attributed to the iPhone 12’s improved Retina display. And I can anecdotally confirm that I’ve experienced a noticeable improvement in battery life (though I can’t say the degree to which this can simply be chalked up to a new versus four-year-old battery). These are the sorts of improvements I expect from iterative hardware change.

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However, some of the other, more visually intense games I enjoy playing — Sayonara Wild Hearts, Sky: Children of the Light, and The Witness, to name a few — feel much nimbler when loading and rendering. And they look great on the iPhone 12 Plus’ Super Retina XDR display, which is noticeably larger (despite a smaller, narrower chassis — a benefit for one-handed play), brighter and crisper.

And I’m looking forward to being able to download hefty Apple Arcade games in a flash over 5G once I finally begin leaving the house again.

Circling back to our original question, is the iPhone 12 a worthy upgrade for avid mobile gamers?

The answer will be different for everyone, but in my case it’s yes. My four-year-old phone has had a very good run, but gains in processing power, display technology, and battery life over the last few years combined with the potential benefits of features like 5G support make for a pretty compelling argument to level up my mobile hardware.