With every “budget-friendly” version of flagship products, a question is always raised regarding which aspects have been cut down to suit the lower price. For Apple’s iPhone 17e, these cutbacks seem to mostly centre on its camera setup in theory, as the device is still powered by its latest A19 processors, but in practice, how does the device stack up to the base 17 model in terms of gaming performance?

In terms of hardware, the iPhone 17e is outfitted with a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED HDR10 screen, sporting a 2532 x 1170 resolution, which clocks in slighty smaller than the base 17 model’s 6.3-inch, 2,622 x 1,206 resolution screen.

Graphics-wise, the device features the same new A19 chip, bringing all the same improvements over the preceding A18, including added Neural Accelerators to its GPU, more GPU cores, a larger cache and higher memory bandwidth. Our review unit also features 512GB of memory, alongside 8GB of RAM.

With this in mind, the iPhone 17e performs much like the base model, offering respectable performance when pitted against our gaming gauntlet of Zenless Zone Zero, Genshin Impact, and Wuthering Waves. The standout here lies in its impressive heat management, with titles like Wuthering Waves barely raising the device’s temperatures to above 36 degrees even after around 20 minutes of gameplay time.

Check out the iPhone 17e’s gaming performance in the video above, which covers gaming benchmarks, device temperatures, and more. The iPhone 17e is now available in Soft Pink, White, or Black, with prices starting from S$949.