Technologies

The Apple iPhone 17 Pro Keeps Cool While Playing the Hottest Mobile Games

Its cooling vapor chamber is a standout feature for the powerful phone, though its design isn’t the best for gaming.

The iPhone 17 Pro is the best phone Apple has ever released — top specs, long battery life, a crisp screen and outstanding cameras. The first three also make it a great gaming device, but how great? I decided to test it to find out. And if you can find another phone that doesn’t heat up when playing a graphics-intensive, console-quality game like Resident Evil 8, I’d like to see it.

Most games will play on even the lowest performing phones. Game developers want to open their market to as many players as they can, even if that means having their games run slow and look ugly. But better specs mean sharper graphics, more frames per second and an overall better gaming experience. The iPhone 17 Pro is at the top of the performance rankings among all our tests, so it’s no surprise that the phone handles games well. It’s fast, powerful and beats most other handsets in battery life.

And its specs are impressive. The A19 Pro chip and estimated 12GB of RAM or more (according to iFixIt and GSMArena — Apple never releases RAM numbers) handle game graphics smoothly. With a starting storage of 256GB, owners have plenty of space to download games, as well as options for 512GB and 1TB, or 2TB on the Pro Max, ensuring there’s enough room for photos and other files with large data footprints.

The 6.3-inch display is large for a “smaller” phone, and its 2,622 x 1,206-pixel resolution is vibrant. Even better is its 3,000-nit maximum brightness, which might be one of the highest among phones sold today, making it easy to see in bright daylight.

For clarity, I’ve been playing games on an iPhone 17 Pro, meaning I miss out on the slightly longer battery life and larger display of the phone’s sibling, the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

While the latest iPhones regularly match or overcome their competitors in photo or video quality, in recent years, Apple has pushed the narrative that all of its devices, large and small, are capable of playing the latest top games — another usage niche that the company wants to dominate. That’s been true for the small selection of console-quality games that have been ported to iOS, like Resident Evil 8 and Alien: Isolation, complete with phone-friendly touch controls. Obviously, this is a feather in Apple’s cap to hold over competing Android devices, but it also shows off the iPhone’s horsepower.

This year, the iPhone 17 Pro added something on top of its premium silicon: a vapor cooling chamber that sits on top of the A19 Pro chip. While gaming phones have long incorporated these cooling infrastructures, which are typically tiny chambers filled with water to vent hot air away from graphics-processing silicon, this is the first iPhone to have one. Apple also reverted from its titanium frame in prior years’ Pro models to an aluminum one, which is better at venting heat. This combination allows the iPhone 17 Pro to run games for longer without overheating.

I put these claims to the test, pitting my two-year-old iPhone 15 Pro Max with a titanium frame against the new aluminum iPhone 17 Pro with a vapor chamber. Downloading and playing the first 20 minutes of Resident Evil 8, which is heavy on in-game cutscenes and dramatic graphics, with both phones was illustrative. The older iPhone 15 Pro Max heated up quickly and its glass back was slightly toasty under my fingertips, while the iPhone 17 Pro remained cool until I reached an overlook in the game with a nice view for a photo (above), at which point it got warm.

Heat is key for gaming: A hotter phone drains battery more quickly, can automatically shut down if overheated and is unpleasant to hold. While a case can insulate fingers from toasty phones, it can also keep the heat inside, preventing natural cooling and potentially cooking the phone.

The iPhone 17 Pro also used less battery, draining 15% in the download-and-play session compared to the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s 28% in my casual Resident Evil 8 test. The 17 Pro was also noticeably smoother when playing the graphically intensive game, and while there wasn’t a frames-per-second counter, I saw frame rate dips on the older iPhone that I didn’t on the newer model.

What it’s like to game on the iPhone 17 Pro

Like other high-end phones, playing games on the iPhone 17 Pro is a smooth experience. There are quirks, both in the phone’s design and software, that throw some curveballs into the gaming mix — not all of which are bad, but many affect how you can play on the phone.

Apple Arcade, which is only available to iOS devices, is the first and most obvious factor that sets the iPhone 17 Pro apart from other gaming phones. For a $7 monthly fee, you get access to a catalog of ad-free games, many of which are exclusive to the service. While the catalog skews family-friendly, it does have a range of games across a lot of genres, such as Cult of the Lamb Arcade Edition, What the Clash, PowerWash Simulator and NBA 2K26 Arcade Edition. In general, the quality is higher than the average game on the App Store.

The Games app is a new standalone center for gaming on the iPhone that launched in September with iOS 26. Truth be told, I’m stuck in my ways, laboriously swiping through every home screen until I get to the app tile for the game I want to play just like I’ve done since the iPhone 4 (my first iOS device). But the Games app does automatically collect every game you’ve downloaded in an easy hub, which is a blessing for those who’ve given up on organizing their apps. It also alerts you to updates and events for downloaded games and lets you challenge your friends to in-game contests, as well as indicating what they’re playing (which is how I know when pals succumb to another time-devouring round of Balatro). It’s not overwhelmingly better than the other game centers on non-iOS phones, but it’s nice to have.

The iPhone 17 Pro’s design has a slight flaw when it comes to gaming. Many games, like Resident Evil 8 and shooters like Call of Duty: Mobile, require the phone to be rotated on its side for a widescreen format. When it’s oriented horizontally, my right hand cups the side of the handset covering the single downward-firing speaker, which noticeably mutes the game’s audio. Other phones have better-placed speakers, and some, like the OnePlus 15, even blast audio from under the display, meaning it isn’t covered up no matter where your hand is placed.

The camera block (or plateau) is another design quirk that unexpectedly affects gaming. This year’s camera bump extends across the width of the phone, and I feel it under my fingers while holding the phone horizontally. (Vertically oriented games like Pokemon Go or What The Clash aren’t affected.) I can curl my fingertips around the lip to get a bit of grip while playing, so it’s just an oddity to get used to. Its raised surface is evened out with a case. (I prefer Apple’s TechWoven case for the texture under my fingers while I’m gaming.)

The camera bump is more of an issue with third-party controllers wrapping around the iPhone 17 Pro. I tucked the phone into my Backbone One controller after taking off the TechWoven case, which was blocking the USB-C port on the peripheral, and tried to fit the top end into the spacing tab — a wedge that can be removed and replaced with different sizes to fit various phones. I found that the iPhone 17 Pro’s camera bump sticks out too far from the back of the phone to fit the spacing tab. These can be swapped out, but even the smaller tab didn’t fit, so I had to remove it. Not a deal-breaker, but the camera bump’s thickness protruding from the back of the phone might block its compatibility with some third-party accessories.

Speaking of cameras, the Camera Control button on the bottom right side of the phone (where a shutter button would be on a conventional camera once the phone is rotated horizontally) is suitably positioned to be a useful extra button for gaming. Alas, as of iOS 26, it can only be set as a shortcut to open the camera app or a couple other functions, and can’t be put to use while playing games. This is unfortunate, since gaming phones like those from the RedMagic line have been using capacitive shoulder buttons for years.

Once I got it situated, the Backbone was a dream to use with the iPhone, giving me physical and shoulder buttons I sorely missed. While the touch controls of most games make them roughly playable on phones, having controller inputs elevates gameplay significantly. Games like Dead Cells that benefit from fast reaction times are so much more enjoyable when I have the security of a physical button under my fingers, unlike onscreen buttons that my fat thumbs somehow find ways to miss. Shooters like Call of Duty Mobile are also better with the Backbone than touch controls, as I can aim, jump, move and shoot at the same time with dedicated thumbstick and trigger inputs. Fast-paced horror games like Resident Evil 8 are improved when it’s the fright that keeps me from playing well, not mistakenly tapping the wrong cluster of onscreen touch controls.

There are some quirks that even controllers can’t overcome. Unlike other phones, the iPhone 17 Pro’s iOS settings are limited in tweaking its display refresh rate, meaning you’re stuck with whatever 1-120 frames per second the phone decides is appropriate unless you want to manually cap it at 60Hz through roundabout controls (Settings > Accessibility > Motion > Limit Frame Rate). Without an FPS counter, I wasn’t sure how good the performance is relative to other handsets. And unlike other phones, I can’t drop the frame rate down a step to 90Hz, otherwise I’d have to hope that games themselves would have FPS limits included in their app settings.

The battery seems about average for a premium smartphone, draining no more or less than similar devices like the Samsung Galaxy S25. Playing a round of Call of Duty Mobile might drain 1-2% at maximum settings, while playing Dead Cells for 10 minutes might shave off another 3%. The phone’s 40-watt maximum recharging is a nice upgrade from previous iPhones, and while it’s not as fast as the 80-watt charger included in the OnePlus 15’s box, Apple says it’ll juice an iPhone 17 Pro 50% of its battery in 20 minutes — which is nice to top back up after playing games on the road.

Luckily, CNET’s Patrick Holland found that to be true in testing. In CNET Labs 30-minute wired charging test, the iPhone 17 Pro went from empty to 74% and the Pro Max from 0% to 69%. By comparison, the OnePlus 15 gained 72% in the same test. And both of Apple’s Pro phones almost hit 50% after 20 minutes, with the Pro adding 55% and the Pro Max with 49% in that time.

Ultimately, the iPhone 17 Pro is a powerful gaming device in addition to being a top-notch photography and videography phone. Its premium specs deliver smooth gameplay, though its design is a mixed bag, with an inconvenient speaker and obtrusive camera block that is balanced by the heat-managing vapor chamber and good battery life. Compared to Android phones, Apple’s software perks give it a slight edge, with Apple Arcade and the App Store’s try-before-you-buy feature giving players more options than in the Google Play Store.

There’s nothing revolutionary about gaming on an iPhone 17 Pro, but considering everything else it does well, that it’s also a good gaming device (and even better with a Backbone or other controller) makes it a serious contender for people who want to play on a device that does everything else well, too.

Technologies

Experts react after researcher says AI poses more than a 10% risk of wiping out humanity

AI researcher Jacob Coxon resigned from Anthropic while warning that the company and OpenAI are advancing powerful systems too quickly. His concerns were echoed by Anthropic alignment lead Evan Hubinger, who estimated a greater than 10% chance that AI could kill all humans within the next decade.

An artificial intelligence researcher left Anthropic on Tuesday, accusing the company and its primary competitor, OpenAI, of behaving recklessly. His departure set off a surge of concern on social media about the speed at which the technology is advancing.

Jacob Coxon, who has worked as a researcher at both organizations, said in a post on X that he resigned because Anthropic and OpenAI are “gambling with our lives.” He said the people developing AI “earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”

“Do not underestimate the power of this technology,” Coxon wrote. “These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources.”

Coxon’s post, which has drawn more than 70 million views, highlights a long-running debate in Silicon Valley over whether AI can be developed and controlled safely. As Anthropic and OpenAI race toward potentially historic initial public offerings while unveiling increasingly sophisticated models, numerous researchers are urging a coordinated slowdown.

OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki said in a blog post Sunday that no AI company has “solved alignment and monitoring to a sufficient degree to continue responsibly scaling at maximum speed for much longer.” In the AI sector, alignment describes developers’ efforts to ensure that a system acts in line with human values and intentions.

“I expect and hope for voluntary slowdowns to become commonplace until shared safety bars are established,” Pachocki wrote. “And I believe that international coordination on future AI development needs to become a top priority for governments around the world.”

Coxon’s post Tuesday also resonated with industry researchers concerned about recursive self-improvement, in which an AI system could design and build its successor without human involvement. Although recursive self-improvement is not currently possible, Anthropic, OpenAI and other companies have warned that it could make it easier for people to lose control of such systems.

“Neither company is acting responsibly,” Coxon wrote. “They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence.”

Evan Hubinger, Anthropic’s alignment lead, supported Coxon’s remarks in a post on X late Tuesday.

“Jacob is correct here—we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade,” Hubinger wrote. “I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to.”

Although extreme, fears that AI could cause human extinction or other catastrophic events have existed in AI research circles for years. In 2023, prominent researchers and executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, signed a statement declaring that “mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

Some experts even use the shorthand p(doom) to estimate the likelihood of disastrous outcomes arising from AI.

Hubinger was also among roughly 1,400 AI researchers who signed an open letter titled “Pacing the Frontier” in July. The letter called on the U.S. government to create the tools needed to support an effort to “deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development.”

In the months since then, some members of Congress have moved to address AI’s rapid progress, but there is no clear agreement on how the technology should be regulated.

In July, Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., introduced the FRONTIER Act, legislation designed to create a framework for overseeing the deployment of advanced AI models. Earlier this month, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which would temporarily halt advanced AI development until the federal government puts safety rules in place. Both proposals have received mixed reactions.

“Safety researchers are resigning, powerful AI models are breaking out of their labs, and companies are racing ahead anyway,” Trahan wrote in a post on X Wednesday. “It’s past time for Congress to get off the sidelines and do its job.”

Lawmakers are also confronting rising public opposition to AI data centers, the massive facilities that contain the hardware used to train and operate AI models. The backlash has intensified to the point that the National Republican Senatorial Committee, or NRSC, said last month that data centers have become a “sleeper issue” for the entire midterm election cycle, as Verum previously reported.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this month that AI companies have done a “horrendous job of explaining themselves to the American people.”

“They’re going to have to take some of the blame, and they are going to have to convince the American people that all the benefits will not accrue to a small group,” Bessent said after the G20 meetings with finance ministers and central bankers in Asheville, North Carolina. “That’s what they hear from me.”

Technologies

Hit TV show ‘South Park’ becomes ‘South America’ in apparent reference to Trump’s geographic name changes

Show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said in a statement that they were “inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google.”

Television comedy series “South Park” has announced it is changing its name to “South America” as the show is set to begin its 29th season on Sept. 16.

The show’s creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said, “Inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google, we are changing the name of South Park to SOUTH AMERICA. We especially want to thank our parent company Paramount — a Skydance Capitulation.”

Parker and Stone’s statement comes after U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America amid a trade spat with Canada. Canadian officials said they will not recognize the new name.

Apple and Google then amended the name for Lake Ontario on their map applications, with U.S. users seeing “Lake America,” while Canadian users saw “Lake Ontario.”

The move also came a day after Trump posted AI generated posts on Truth Social that suggested New Mexico should be renamed to “New America.”

Last year, the president used an executive order to change the name for the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, drawing international opposition.

“South Park” won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for the “Sermon on the Mount” episode which premiered last year and parodies Trump’s presidency.

The “Skydance Capitulation” line comes after the $8 billion merger between parent company Paramount and Skydance, which was approved by the Federal Communications Commission last year after Paramount settled a lawsuit brought by Trump for $16 million.

Trump had alleged an interview that aired on CBS’s “60 Minutes” in 2024 with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, was deceptively edited.

Paramount subsidiary CBS News in July 2025 said it was canceling comedian Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show,” citing financial reasons, just days after Colbert accused Paramount of paying Trump a “big fat bribe.” The final episode of the show aired in May.

Paramount and the White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Technologies

Trump says he has no regrets about starting the Iran war as U.S. dials up economic pressure

Speaking to Fox News presenter Laura Ingraham, Trump said that he would have attacked Iran despite the impact on the midterm elections.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he has no regrets about starting the Iran war and added that “If I had it to do again, I would do exactly what I did.”

Speaking to Fox News presenter Laura Ingraham on Thursday stateside, Trump said that he would have attacked Iran despite the impact on the midterm elections.

“If we hadn’t done Iran, you would be cruising to midterms victory right now,” Ingraham told Trump, to which Trump replied “supposing we were cruising, and all of a sudden Iran has a nuclear weapon. They would use it.”

He added that if Iran had a nuclear weapon, the Islamic Republic would “wipe out” Israel and the Middle East, and start hitting U.S. cities.

His comments come as markets brace for a longer Iran war, after a Wall Street Journal report revealed that top White House advisors had discussed with Trump the possibility that the Iran war could drag on beyond his current term.

Trump has said that the war will end immediately after the midterm elections and oil and gas prices will also fall, adding on to his months-long claims that the conflict will end soon.

In separate comments to NewsNation on Thursday, Trump denied reports that there was any damage to U.S. assets, after Iran claimed it had hit multiple U.S. fighter aircraft at a base in Jordan.

“No damage. No nothing,” Trump said, when asked if there was any truth to the reports.

Economic pressure

Washington is continuing efforts to isolate Iran from its economic network, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent flagging sanctions against “a large bank” next week.

“We’re going to do it on Monday because we want to honor the memory of our fallen citizens on 9/11. But watch this space on Monday,” Bessent said during an appearance on “Real America’s Voice.”

Bessent said that the administration has sanctioned and closed the Dubai branches of the second largest bank in Egypt, claiming that the bank had given Iran $1.8 billion dollars. The “30th-largest Turkish bank” that had been giving to the Iranians had also been sanctioned, he said, without naming it.

The U.S. had sanctioned Turkey-based Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonim Sirketi (Golden Global Bank) and its subsidiaries last week.

Trump, in the NewsNation interview, was also asked how Iran could continue holding out under the current economic pressure.

“I don’t know that they’re gonna be able to hold out,” Trump said. “But it’ll get settled after the elections. Or maybe sooner. But it’ll get settled right after the election.”

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Bessent said the 30th largest Turkish bank had been sanctioned. An earlier version misstated the bank’s ranking.