[Saka]

I've stumbled upon a video from last month, so not so new, about the Apple A16 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chips. It goes quite a lot in-depth, explaining architecture intricacies, comparing performance per watt and dives into mobile gaming, actually using a busy area in it as a benchmark. If you spare 20 minutes, it is a really nice watch.



TL;DW:

• Apple still has the crown of the processor performance
• A16 is barely an improvement over A15, cosmetic changes, a bit worse performance per watt compared to predecessor
• Qualcomm is catching up in leaps, used to be much worse than Apple, is getting pretty close nowadays
• Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 suffers from not so efficient architecture, but got some clever design changes to compensate
• Battery life on Android is getting close to iPhone
• The Adreno 740 graphics are really good. Big improvements in efficiency compared to previous generation. Beats the A16 in graphics. Performance comparable to a desktop 1050 GPU
• iPhone Pro Max is prone to throttling, hurting its game performance. The regular version performs better. Android flagships have better cooling and more even heat spread, they don't throttle as much. Thus giving the Android platform the win for stable framerate
• You can do some crazy stuff with the Adreno graphics on a rooted phone

[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka Informative but, to me, sadly, not very relevant. I could never agree with a touchscreen, it does not cooperate with me at all. I tried different phones with touchscreen and always find it frustrating how it does not respond the way I want it to. So I am limited to physical keyboard phones. Limits my options quite severely, but what can you do.

Still, it is nice to see more phones designed specifically with gamers in mind.

[Saka]

@DoctorEldritch There are more and more people playing only on phones. In Europe more people are still tied to traditional consoles and computers, but in Asia mobile gaming is really popular. Some people don't even have a desktop computer or laptop at home, but almost everyone has a phone. These people, too, count as gamers nowadays.

I found this graphic about gaming market, not sure how reputable is the source, but it gives some idea (as the general reports in the internet all show that mobile gaming is huge):

• China, the United States, and Japan were the top three markets in 2021 by mobile game revenues with $56 billion, $43 billion, and $20 billion in revenue, respectively. (AppAnnie)
• China, India, and the United States were the top three markets in 2021 in terms of downloads, with 98 billion, 26 billion, and 12 billion downloads, respectively. (AppAnnie)
• Players downloaded 82.98 billion mobile games in 2021. (AppAnnie)
• By 2025, 58% of the App Store’s revenue is projected to come from non-gaming apps and 42% from gaming apps. (SensorTower)
• 71% of Google Play’s revenue is estimated to come from mobile games by 2025. (SensorTower)
• User penetration is expected to hit 28.5% by 2025. (Statista)
• Google Play’s revenue continues to increase at a greater pace than iOS App Store’s revenue –6% to 13.2%. (GameAnalytics)

Some of the very popular mobile games support crossplay too, just to name a few: Genshin Impact, Among Us, RuneScape, Old School RuneScape, Hearthstone, Diablo Immortal.

[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka A growing market indeed. It is hard to compete with the accessibility and portability of a smartphone, so no wonder many games are developed with that in mind. That being said, I can't see myself ever switching from a PC, even if I bought a controller, I prefer a big screen and proper keyboards and functionality of a PC. And laptops are portable enough.

Then again, this is coming from a person who never owned a smartphone in his life, so there is also that.

[Saka]

@DoctorEldritch The charm is that you don't need to own every type of gaming device to be a gamer. I never had a PlayStation console or XBox.

I don't game much on my phone, but sometimes I do. Nice for long bus or train rides and works even when it's so packed that no way I could use a laptop there. I also use Spotify on the phone a lot. To be fair, I use my phone a lot in general, because it became my accessibility crutch lately.

But it is also completely fine that some people just don't find smartphones appealing.

[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka I spot a sort of a parallel to that article you shared recently about when to call yourself a gamer, and I remember there was a bit about how even if you only play mobile games, you can be one. I never had a PlayStation console or Xbox either.

The phone I have only has sudoku, and only 100 levels of it, so I ran out a while back, but I prefer reading to gaming on a phone, I have one of those Kindle books for train rides or planes, but I feel motion sickness if I try to read on the bus. And I do not really listen to music on the go. When I get a proper smartphone, maybe I'll try gaming on a bus to see how I feel, it's not that I dislike smartphones all that much, I just can't really operate touchscreens.

How does it help the accessibility though?

[Saka]

@DoctorEldritch I have transcribing apps ln it. Unfortunately just for English, but it's better than nothing.

It also allows me to communicate with people in adverse listening environments. I just swap to written chat. @Aaricia has done that with me at IEM and it was great. Sometimes even she couldn't hear her own thoughts in that noise.

I also need my phone to control my ear. The physical remote is bulky and inconvenient. It's much easier ti use the phone app to change the programs (I have no physical buttons on the device).

Connecting to the phone lets me stream sound directly to the ear. I must say that streaming at max volume helps me survive some noisy places (the mixing ratio is 50:50, I can't change it, but at least I can drown out some stuff. For example a bunch of savages eating chips from a bag on a long train ride. That is a bloody annoying sound).

I use the phone as a workaround to get discreet access to sound on my desktop. After my last surgery I still don't feel comfortable wearing anything over my right side, so otherwise I was stuck with the soundbar.

[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka it is amazing how technology is advancing. You may remember me mentioning the "El Deafo" mini cartoon series, and the creator showed the Phonic Ear she wore as a child which was this bulky machine you had to strap onto your chest like a reverse rucksack. And now air pieces can even be connected to smartphones.

You mentioned the eating chips sound, and in that cartoon, a girl with a hearing aid hears everything her teacher does because of a microphone, including her visiting a ladies' room, so your comment made me remember the cartoon.

[Saka]

@DoctorEldritch Technically you can still have that effect with modern devices too. FM systems are still used nowadays, as hearing over distance is still problematic even with well fitted hearing aids/cochlear implants. Some of them can have a great range. If the toilet is not too far, then maybe...

[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka It was not about range in the cartoon, the way it worked was that a girl had this microphone that she was giving to her teacher every day, and the teacher wore it around her neck. That way, it was possible to hear what she was saying or doing more clearly at any distance. Even in the toilet.

But it is good to know that the range of devices can be great even without additional devices like portable microphones.