iPhone 16 Pro Max gaming review: Not console-level yet, but making strides

With a growing library of exclusive titles and long-awaited support for retro gaming emulators, the iPhone 16 Pro Max has something for everyone

Apple has been making strides in the gaming space. With last year’s iPhone 15 Pro lineup, Apple announced its intention to bring console-quality games to iOS, leveraging the power of Apple Silicon’s graphic rendering capabilities. This included titles from popular franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Resident Evil, and more.

As someone accustomed to playing such titles on more powerful hardware, the idea of experiencing them on a smartphone was intriguing. Now, with the launch of the iPhone 16 series, Apple is doubling down on its “console-level” gaming ambitions, introducing Mac’s “Game Mode” to iPhones, boosting performance, and expanding its gaming library.

 

To put these claims to the test, I picked up the new iPhone 16 Pro Max to evaluate its gaming prowess based purely on gameplay experience, steering clear of benchmarks and metrics.

Testing the AAA titles

I started with some of the heavier, iPhone-exclusive games like Assassin's Creed Mirage, Resident Evil 4, and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. So, how does the experience compare to dedicated gaming consoles? While it’s not quite the same, Apple’s promise of delivering a solid gaming experience on iPhones does hold up, albeit with some compromises.

It appears that developers have the freedom to decide which aspects of the game to compromise on for optimisation. For instance, Assassin's Creed Mirage runs smoothly, with Ubisoft maintaining much of the open-world experience, but even at the highest graphic settings, the visuals appear slightly pixelated, despite noticeable attempts to soften details.

Assassin's Creed Mirage on iPhone 16 Pro Max

On the flip side, Capcom’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard boasts impressive graphics, but you can feel the trade-off in terms of smoothness, particularly during scene transitions, where jitters are evident with motion blur disabled. Resident Evil 4 fared slightly better in terms of movement and transitions, likely due to its lower resolution, which frees up hardware resources for a steadier frame rate.

Resident Evil 7 Biohazard on iPhone 16 Pro Max

I also had the chance to play Infinity Nikki, which is still in beta at the time of writing. While the gameplay wasn’t as smooth, it’s reasonable to expect improvements by the time of its official release.

Despite some compromises, the light and shadow details in these games are on par with those on actual handheld gaming consoles, thanks to Apple Silicon’s hardware-accelerated ray tracing. This means the GPU dedicates some cores specifically to rendering light rays, improving visual effects for lighting and shadows.

As for thermal management, the iPhone 16 Pro Max remained surprisingly cool, with only slight warmth near the camera after an hour of gaming. The new Game Mode in iOS 18 likely contributes to this, optimising performance by prioritising game processing and limiting background activities. Additionally, the native support for controllers in most exclusive games is a welcome feature.

While I only tested a handful, there are more heavy titles with their mobile versions exclusively available on iOS, including Resident Evil Village, Death Stranding: Director's Cut, and more.

Testing popular mobile games

Beyond the exclusive titles, I also tried more widely available games like Genshin Impact, Devil May Cry: Peak of Combat, FC Mobile, and others. The iPhone 16 Pro Max offers a 120FPS mode for Genshin Impact, delivering a noticeably smoother experience than the 60FPS mode. However, prolonged play led to overheating, which caused sudden frame drops. In my opinion, the best experience was at 60FPS with high graphics settings—great visuals with no significant frame jitters.

Games like FC Mobile, Devil May Cry: Peak of Combat, Injustice 2, and Real Racing 3 were easily handled by the hardware, running smoothly without any issues.

For multiplayer titles like Battleground Mobile India (BGMI), you can select the Extreme frame rate (60FPS) option. In this setting with lower graphics, the gameplay was smooth, with minimal heating and no stuttering. However, switching to higher graphics settings, such as HDR, introduced occasional stutter and more noticeable heat.

Verdict

Overall, the iPhone 16 Pro Max stands among the top-tier smartphones for gaming, even though it’s not marketed as a gaming phone. It lacks certain software features found in dedicated gaming devices—like performance customisation, the ability to exceed set frame rates, and native performance monitors—but it still delivers an impressive gaming experience.

While it hasn’t quite reached the level of gaming consoles or dedicated gaming machinery yet, Apple is steadily closing the gap. With a growing library of exclusive titles and long-awaited support for retro gaming emulators, the iPhone 16 Pro Max has something for every type of gamer.