Highlights
- Apple's upcoming iPhone 15 Pro line of phones focuses on gaming, with ray-tracing support and a robust line-up of games planned.
- The new phones feature the industry's first 3-nanometer chip, offering a 10% performance boost and 20% faster GPU for improved gaming capabilities.
- The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max come at a premium price, starting at $999 and $1,199 respectively, with pre-orders beginning on September 15 and the official launch on September 22.
Apple's early details about its upcoming iPhone 15 Pro line of phones tease an array of gaming-related enhancements, including the addition of ray-tracing support. Apple devices have been a rapidly growing market for gaming over the past decade. Apple clearly wants to see that continue going forward and has made gaming a key focus of its Apple Wanderlust event. The iPhone 15 Pro has a robust line-up of games planned for release, and the technology to support major releases going forward.
On Tuesday, September 12, Apple debuted its iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max devices. The new phones offer a range of new features and improvements for Apple users to consider upgrading to acquire. That includes a new lightweight design, a 48MP main camera system, a USB-C connector, and support for various new software features including additional video formats and Roadside Assistance support. The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will launch on September 22.
A major pillar of the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max is mobile gaming. That starts with a chip that Apple has named the A17 Pro, which it says is the industry's first 3-nanometer chip. The A17 6-core CPU is said to offer a performance boost of 10%, with a 20% faster GPU. Apple says that the improvements will allow the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max to play games that were previously incapable of reaching mobile devices.
Another key gaming addition for the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max is hardware-accelerated ray tracing. While software-based ray tracing has been something iPhone game developers could implement in the past, hardware-accelerated ray tracing will have substantial performance enhancements. Apple describes the ray tracing improvements as 4x faster than before.
While no examples of games featuring ray tracing were shown by Apple during its event, it did confirm a line-up of upcoming AAA releases to look forward to. Games including Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4, Death Stranding, and Ubisoft's upcoming Assassin's Creed Mirage are now confirmed for iPhone. Expect further iPhone game release announcements later this year.
As is expected of Apple's annual iPhone releases, potential buyers should expect to pay a premium for the new features in the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. The iPhone 15 Pro starts at $999 with a base storage amount of 128GB. The iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at $1,199 with 256GB of storage. Pre-orders will begin for the new phones starting Friday, September 15.
The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max launch on September 22.