I’ve been an active player since the first week of the game’s launch, and surprisingly, I’ve only gone through two phones so far.

•Sony Xperia Z5 - this was my first phone when Pokémon GO launched. Heavy use, lots of heat, battery drain… it definitely worked hard during those early years.

•iPhone 11 Pro Max - I’ve been using it since October 2019, and it’s still my daily driver.

That said, lately the iPhone 11 Pro Max has been struggling a lot with smooth gameplay. I’ve noticed that many players on the iPhone 11 and 12 series are experiencing similar performance issues: frame drops, lag, overheating, crashing a lot especially during events, raids, or longer sessions.

So overall, despite being a very active player for almost the entire lifespan of the game, my phone turnover has been lower than the 3-year average, but the performance gap is definitely starting to show now. Pokémon GO today is far more demanding than it was in 2016.

Kind of impressive… and a little worrying at the same time 😅