> The quality of games on a platform is not directly related to its technical capabilities or SDK, but to the business model and platform incentives.

And also (mostly) the ergonomics.

Comparing a phone whose main purpose is definitely not gaming (at least the iPhone, I know there are some gaming-first phones) to a handheld console will always make the former look pathetic for this use-case.

Yes.

The problem with touchscreen-only is that it doesn’t feel very good, and also any sort of control scheme will mean at least temporarily reducing usable area for UX since you can’t see through your hands.

I remember being completely impressed by my Note 3 (10 years ago almost exactly) playing games like Dead Trigger 2 and NFS: Underground. From then on, GPU performance / graphics on these tiny displays seemed good enough for me with only minor subjective improvements.

I'll second another comment, that another big challenge is the simple lack of ergonomics on any phone.

It seems so immensely cynical. The latest-and-best Apple Event PR is in a car crash with the reality - from a gaming POV, the iPhone is a platform for user addiction.

I've been watching people around me and the amount of time everyone seems to spend tapping away at a phone, head down, is like something out of a dystopian movie.

The game addiction market must be worth billions to Apple. For all the environmental and other ad copy, there doesn't seem to be any concern about the mental and psychological effects of creating an ecosystem that knowingly relies on exploitative behaviour modification.

I also think the colour scheme is quite cynical. Pastel shades on the base model for the - let's say - less technically-oriented users. Strong blacks, whites, and metallics for the hard-core performance nerds who want that Pro tag.

There's something regressive about it all.

I mean, there is a point where user agency should definitely be taken into account. For what it’s worth, apple does have good tools in this area, like measuring screen time, limiting it, parental controls. But you can’t stop people from drinking bleach either..

People talk about Gen-Z having the most depressed/suicide driven people of any generation and they largely came of age after the smartphone took over.

At the same time, the advent of a professional easy to access camera in everyones pocket transformed the world: Arab spring, George Floyd, everything we are witnessing in Ukraine. Made possible thanks to the ubiquity of the same device that causes a lot of harm.

>I also think the colour scheme is quite cynical. Pastel shades on the base model for the - let's say - less technically-oriented users. Strong blacks, whites, and metallics for the hard-core performance nerds who want that Pro tag.

I think they do pastels every other year no? And a lot of people buy Pros: all the "influencers" treat it as a tool to earn income so of course they prefer the best device of them all, I dont think they are actually looking at the specs though.

I though the hard core nerds buy things like the Pixel phones or the ASUS ROG type phones?