As for gaming, iPhone 17e appears to be one of the most powerful “budget” iPhones Apple has designed so far, largely due to the fact that it shares the same A19 chip and display as the mainline iPhone 17 series. This, along with the overall positioning and early benchmarking results for the chip itself, indicates that it will be more than happy with the latest big-name mobile and AAA-type games.
Apple itself has confirmed that the iPhone 17e features the latest-generation Apple A19 chip, which features a 3 nm process, a quicker 6-core CPU, and a new GPU with hardware-accelerated ray tracing, as well as “console-level gaming on the go.” In the mainline iPhone 17, which also features the same chip, it has been shown that the A19 achieves some 3,701/9,460 in Geekbench single/multi-core tests, as well as 130.97 frames per second in the 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited test, which puts it firmly into flagship territory for mobile gaming.
The iPhone 17e sports this processor with a 6.1-inch OLED display and Dynamic Island, and the iPhone 17 with the A19 processor might come with one less GPU core compared to the regular iPhone 17, which would mean that the device would be slightly lower on the GPU front, though the architectural improvements would still be the same. In the case of games such as BGMI, COD Mobile, and MLBB, the processor and GPU features would be more important than the missing core.
Since the iPhone 17e has just been announced, the gaming performance has been based on the regular iPhone 17, which sports the same processor. According to the gaming experience, the gaming experience has been quite good, with the GPU having enough power and cooling systems that do not allow the device to overheat, though the battery might drain slightly more compared to the competition. In the case of the iPhone 17, the device has been found to be able to run demanding games at 30-60 frames per second with stable frame pacing, assuming that the game has been optimized for the latest Apple processor.
However, for high refresh rate gamers, this device will not be a good choice as the display is capped at 60Hz. Even though FPS games are more stable on iPhone, the unavailability of a 120Hz display might be the deal-breaker for pro gamers. What’s your opinion on the new iPhone 17e? Will you use it for gaming? Let us know in the comments below.
