On 21st April 1989, Nintendo changed the world when it released the Game Boy. The company had originally launched its handheld games console in Japan and sold out its entire stock of 300,000 machines in just two weeks.
That grey box with just a few buttons and a primitive-looking green dot matrix screen might not look like much today, but at the time, it was groundbreaking. This almost pocket-sized machine had just 8 KB of memory, 8 KB of VRAM, and a 4 MHz processor running on an 8-bit architecture, making it look puny compared to the 16-bit SNES that came with 128 KB of memory and 64 KB of VRAM.
However, its underpowered hardware didn’t matter. What made the Game Boy a massive cultural and commercial success was the fact that, with just a few AA batteries, you could take your video gaming anywhere.
For the next three decades, portable consoles were a major market for video game hardware and software companies, with devices like the Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable dominating the space throughout the 2000s.
That dominance was eventually challenged, not by another gaming company, but a company that, at the time, made most of its revenue from niche PCs, MP3 players, and a digital music marketplace.
When Apple released the iPhone in 2007 and then launched the App Store in 2008, it changed gaming forever. Within just a few years, Apple and its competitors had placed a portable gaming device in the pocket of almost every adult in the developed world.
And while it took a bit of time for titles to evolve from Flappy Bird and Cut the Rope to Call of Duty Mobile and Forza Horizon 4 Mobile, we now have an environment where it’s possible to play full-sized titles on a smartphone.
But can a phone really rival a console? The answer isn’t as clear-cut as you might think as it depends on several factors.
Choice of Games
Owners of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S and X have more games than any typical person could play in their lifetime. Despite that, even when accounting for backwards compatibility from previous generations of hardware from the respective manufacturers, console gamers only have a few thousand titles they can play.
Not only this, but whilst the variety of games has expanded in recent years, the console market continues to be mostly dominated by big releases with far fewer options for other categories like casual games.
Smartphones, on the other hand, bring players millions of options. Just from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store alone, mobile gamers have around a million different gaming apps they can download and play, mostly for free.
On top of that, mobile players have access to a variety of poker options from online card rooms. This includes dozens of different rule variants like five card draw, Texas hold’em and razz, as well as several game types including ring games, freerolls, and tournaments. Some leading platforms even offer players the chance to use their online playing as a route into live events and tournaments. For example, the PokerStars Power Path has three layers of progression for players to work through, culminating with the Gold Pass which grants access to a European Poker Tour event.
Although mobile gamers have much more choice, they are severely limited when it comes to AAA titles. Save for a few mobile-friendly games like Fortnite and Minecraft, and mobile versions of titles like Call of Duty, you won’t find big blockbuster releases natively running on an iPhone or Android device.
Graphics
Smartphones have proven that a game doesn’t need cutting-edge graphics to be fun. However, good visuals can make a big difference to the overall playing experience.
Early smartphone games were severely restricted, which is why 2D titles like Angry Birds dominated the mobile gaming markets. However, this has changed more recently has the hardware has improved.
That’s how ported versions of games like Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and specially designed games like Forza: Horizon 4 Mobile can run on an iPhone and produce visuals comparable to consoles from a few years ago.
That said, if you want the best visuals possible from your video games, you’re still going to need to play them on a console. The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S both have high-end graphics processing units that are capable of real-time ray tracing, creating stunning images that appear to be lit naturally.