We've just completed a thorough round of game testing on the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and a number of other iPhones and Android phones. For the first time, we've even tested some Chinese Android phones (i.e., phones intended primarily for the Chinese market), to see how they compare. 

Some of our key findings are presented below, including charts comparing average frame rates for each device as measured across a sample of popular games based on the Unity engine. Frame rate metrics are widely considered to be the best objective proxy for smooth gameplay and hence a good user experience, and our charts compare three such metrics: the median average, the stability around this average, and minimum (i.e. worst) frame rate observed during gameplay. For more information, you can register to receive our full, free-of-charge report in PDF format:

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• GameBench Staff
• 01. December 2015
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When: 11am to 6pm, October 15th

Where: Dolby Theatre, Soho Square, London

What: open(London) is a unique gathering of developers, publishers, chip designers and device makers who share a common goal of improving mobile gaming. Confirmed speakers include people from ARM, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Thumbstar, Unity and more.

Check out our event page to learn more and book your tickets, which you can get free if you're an indie dev or TIGA member. Also, we still have two slots free for game showcases, which will give indies a chance to show off their latest game on the big Dolby screen, talk about the performance challenges they've faced and meet potential supporters on the hardware side of the industry. Get in touch with sharif@gamebench.net if you're interested. 

Event page: GameBench presents open(London) 2015

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• GameBench Staff
• 14. September 2015

• gamebench, open(london), event

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When it was first unveiled, the LG G4 made a great first impression as an all-round smartphone. It came with a nice leather option, a rich and extremely high-resolution “Quantum Display,” plus a sophisticated rear camera that has been much raved about by mobile photography gurus.

But gamers and hardware enthusiasts probably found that their eyes settled on a different characteristic of the G4: its relatively uncommon Snapdragon 808 processor. There were fears that this chip was somehow a last-minute compromise, perhaps made in response to rumours of overheating issues with the higher-end Snapdragon 810. Whatever the reason behind LG's choice, many prospective buyers have asked whether this supposed downgrade of the chipset might hurt gaming performance, and that's precisely the question we're going to try to answer using the real-world tests below. 

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• GameBench Staff
• 10. August 2015

• performance, ios, android, frame rate, gamebench, lg g4, battery, snapdragon 808

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Beyond a certain point, increasing the resolution of a smartphone game just doesn't have the same visual impact that it would on a PC or console. On a 24-inch monitor you can really see the difference between 720p (60 pixels per inch), 1080p (90ppi) and 1440p (120ppi). But on a smartphone screen, where even 720p can exceed the 300ppi density of a glossy printed magazine, you need good visual acuity just to be able to be spot further increases, and you need to be even more eagle-eyed for these increases to improve your overall game-playing experience. 

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• GameBench Staff
• 30. June 2015
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Back in April, we published a comparison of the real-world gaming performance of the Apple iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S6. This was the first cross-platform analysis of its kind, revealing significant differences in the way each phone handled a sample of 10 popular mobile games. However, this report didn’t include the iPhone 6 Plus, which we felt belonged in different commercial category to the two more mainstream rivals.

We’ve since had numerous requests for iPhone 6 Plus performance data, and we’ve just completed our testing, so we figured its about time we made the numbers public. This blog post should therefore be considered an addendum, and we recommend that you download the original Battle of the Sixes report in order to get the full picture -- including a better understanding of GameBench’s approach and methodology (which is very different to the way traditional mobile benchmarks work).

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• GameBench Staff
• 30. June 2015
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