This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
The iPhone 17 Pro first benchmarks are here and... they are kind of a big deal.
Apple introduces a new A19 Pro chipset with the iPhone 17 Pro series and early results show that this new chip brings a big leap over the previous generation. Couple that chip with an upgrade to 12 GB of RAM for the Pro iPhones, and you have a very appealing package.
But the bigger story this year has a lot to do with one other aspect of the new iPhone: the redesign.
With an aluminum unibody housing, the iPhone 17 Pro is MUCH better at effectively dissipating heat. This means that its performance shines not only in benchmarks that only run for a couple of minutes, it also performs surprisingly well with longer workloads.
iPhone 17 Pro 3D Mark stress test results, courtesy of Dave2D
Let me decipher the 3D Mark gaming benchmark scores you see above. Notice how in the graph on the right, the performance only drops by about 20% for the duration of the 20-minute test. And it stabilizes to almost a flat line after the initial drop. The iPhone 17 Pro Max is so good at dissipating heat that its processor runs at 81% of its initial capacity after 20 minutes.
Improved Sustained Performance
iPhone 17 Pro new aluminum unibody construction
In comparison, when you run the same test on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, there is a huge drop in performance. Its stability score is merely 65%, much worse than the 81% on the iPhone.
YouTuber Dave2D who first published those results suggests that even if the iPhone 16 Pro Max had the vapor chamber passive cooling technology of the 17 Pro Max, it would still not do much because of the glass design. The new model's vapor chamber dissipated heat towards the edges of the phone, but it is the presence of the aluminum unibody that can that release that heat much faster than glass or titanium.
Aluminum is supposedly 20X better at dissipating heat compared to titanium
This brings me to one big realization. If the iPhone 17 Pro series can now dissipate heat so effectively, and they have such a powerful new processor, do we really need gaming phones anymore?
What about the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro?
ROG Phone 9 series
In a direct comparison with the most popular gaming smartphone, the ROG Phone 9 Pro, Apple is still behind, but by a much smaller margin than before.
In sustained gaming sessions, the iPhone 17 Pro Max scores around 5,120 points compared to around 5,810 points on the ROG Phone 9 Pro.
It's still behind, but the gap is much smaller, around 15%.
So... what did that difference look like last year, on the iPhone 16 Pro Max? Apple's best phone for last year scored just 2,900 points after 20 minutes of intense gaming, which was... half the score of the ROG Phone 9 Pro. What a progress in just one year!
3D Mark Sustained Performance Scores
Phone
Score
ROG Phone 9 Pro
5,810
iPhone 17 Pro Max
5,120 (-12% vs ROG Phone)
iPhone 16 Pro Max
2,900 (-50% vs ROG Phone)
Indeed, this proves that the new iPhone 17 Pro chip coupled with the new thermally efficient design makes for a killer combination.
Broader implications: Do we still need gaming phones?
It's already a fact that many games are ported to the iOS platform with better quality and render at higher detail, and now you basically have fantastic sustained performance, all while having incredible cameras and very solid battery life.
This leaves very few reasons for people to buy a dedicated gaming phone.
There are still a few areas where gaming phones have the upper hand. Some of those phones have the following advantages:
even better cooling
active cooling accessories
dedicated hardware like shoulder buttons
dual-port charging, etc
However, most people would probably agree that these are nice extras, but not alone enough to convince many people that a gaming phone is worth the sacrifice.
And on the flip side, there are indeed some sacrifices. Should gamers really settle for phones with terrible cameras and often tacky designs now that an iPhone with a very powerful camera is an option (and it's just as capable for gameplay)?
Couple this iPhone with a proper game pad, so that you don't obstruct the view of your screen with your fingers, and the only thing left is to wait for those AAA games to arrive to mobile platforms. The rest is pretty much covered by Apple's clever new aluminum design and the high revving A19 Pro chipset.
Victor, a seasoned mobile technology expert, has spent over a decade at PhoneArena, exploring the depths of mobile photography and reviewing hundreds of smartphones across Android and iOS ecosystems. His passion for technology, coupled with his extensive knowledge of smartphone cameras and battery life, has positioned him as a leading voice in the mobile tech industry.
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