Experience of continuous gaming on iPhone 15 Pro Max: Does it get as hot as rumored?

Many rumors suggest that iPhone 15 Pro Max heats up during gaming or heavy usage, but is it really true?

iPhone 15 Pro Max has officially launched in the Vietnamese market since 12:00 AM on September 29. This year, Apple and retail distributors have made thorough preparations to prevent local users from experiencing 'out of stock' situations. On the first day of sales, many people got their hands directly on the phone, which is considered the 'hottest' in Q4/2023.

Prior to this, there have been numerous reports indicating that iPhone 15 Pro Max overheats during gaming or heavy usage. This has left the gaming community somewhat concerned as this year the phone focuses heavily on providing a gaming experience for users.

Do you remember the world's astonishment on September 13 (the day Apple announced this year's new product lineup) when Console games were introduced to mobile devices, pioneered on Apple's Pro line of products? That's why Apple used the A17 Pro chip version on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max to handle the complex graphics effects of Console games like Resident Evil Village (introduced at the unveiling event).

According to Apple's introduction, the A17 Pro - the first 3-nanometer chip in the smartphone industry. A17 Pro brings many improvements across the entire chip, including the most comprehensive new design in Apple's history for GPU. The new CPU is 10% faster with many improvements in architecture and design, while the Neural Engine is now also twice as fast. The GPU on the A17 Pro chip is 20% faster, featuring a new 6-core design to maximize performance and energy efficiency. Hardware accelerated ray tracing technology, four times faster than software-based ray tracing, brings smoother graphics and more vibrant AR gaming and app experiences to the iPhone 15 Pro. Therefore, it's not difficult to conclude that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will not encounter many issues with popular games today, even Genshin Impact.

Does continuous gaming on iPhone 15 Pro Max really lead to overheating? Let's uncover the truth behind this rumor with a quick test of the endurance of iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Device: iPhone 15 Pro Max

Test conditions:

- Phone with case on

- Room temperature (no air conditioning); Playing under direct sunlight

- No use of cooling devices

- iOS version during test: 17.0.2

- Test duration: 1 hour

- Selected games: Arena of Valor and Genshin Impact

- Experience settings: Highest at 120FPS

Test begins

1. For the game Arena of Valor

A typical Arena of Valor match lasts about 14 – 15 minutes, which is enough time to evaluate whether a phone gets too hot and suitable for online gaming. This game now allows users to enable 120FPS mode to utilize devices with high screen refresh rates. Of course, enabling the highest settings will consume more energy, and the heat dissipation will also be higher.

For the case of iPhone 15 Pro Max, this phone encountered no difficulties in handling the visual effects/graphics in the 'national MOBA' game. Despite Arena of Valor becoming increasingly demanding.

iPhone 15 Pro Max remains 'mildly warm' after about 15 minutes of gaming at the high graphic settings of 120 FPS. Throughout intense combat scenes, with continuous visual effects, the iPhone 15 Pro Max shows no signs of frame drops or overheating. Even when touching the screen or the camera cluster, there's no discomfort felt, as everything remains under control.

In terms of battery life, the phone dropped 4% from 96% at the start of the match and was at 92% at the end with a duration of 14 minutes.

2. For Genshin Impact

The choice of Genshin Impact in this 'light-duty' endurance test is simply because it's one of the games that demands heavy configuration on smartphone devices. Not many users dare to continuously experience this game on mobile but usually play it on PC/Console. Genshin Impact might fairly reflect the durability and heat dissipation capabilities of the latest Apple phone.

For Genshin Impact, iPhone 15 Pro Max does experience some warmth but not to the extent of discomfort. However, this occurs when the device has to download the game's file size of around 24GB and keep the screen continuously lit. At this point, the iPhone 15 Pro Max shows slight stuttering when multitasking.

However, when in-game and set to high graphics with 120 frames per second, the iPhone 15 Pro Max still handles smoothly. The device doesn't get excessively hot but only warms up, with the temperature naturally higher than when playing Arena of Valor. Yet, considering the temperature conditions in Hanoi around 2 PM, which fall around 30 – 31 degrees Celsius, playing under direct sunlight while wearing a case is still completely acceptable for gamers.

Of course, to address the temperature issue of this phone during gaming, players can completely remove the case instead of forcing the iPhone 15 Pro Max to operate in 'hardcore' conditions like that. Remember, this year's iPhone 15 Pro Max offers a very good grip experience, as users can feel significantly lighter weight, combined with a gently tapered back design, without causing discomfort like the iPhone 13 or 14 Pro Max.

Conclusion: Although iPhone 15 Pro Max experiences warmth when handling heavy tasks and continuous gaming. However, this is completely normal as current mobile games possess configurations that are 'not for the faint-hearted.' The power of iPhone 15 Pro Max and the A17 Pro chip will need to wait until the end of 2023 - when Console games officially launch on the App Store, these are the experiences worth waiting for with this latest phone.