Apple entered the dedicated console market in 2028 with the release of the iPlay, priced at 999 euros including a controller, Hardwareluxx reported.
The console measures 12.7 by 12.7 by 3.1 centimeters and weighs 680 grams. Its matte black anodized aluminum chassis houses an internal layout designed to manage thermal output without external perforation.
Monolithic Design Uses a Centrifugal Fan for Cooling
The iPlay continues the design language of the Mac mini in a flattened, monolithic form. Both the front and rear panels omit buttons and visible ventilation grilles, leaving only a microscopic white status LED on the front and two Thunderbolt 5 ports on the rear.
Cooling relies on a 120-watt maximum power consumption threshold under load. A circular stand draws fresh air from the front underside, routing it through a centrifugal fan across a copper vapor chamber on the processor before exhausting warm air out the bottom rear through internal ducts.
Custom Apple G1 Processor Architecture
At the center of the mainboard sits the Apple G1 gaming processor, manufactured using TSMC’s 2-nanometer process with gate-all-around nanosheets. The chip pairs a 12- to 16-core CPU with a 48-core GPU featuring hardware-accelerated ray tracing, path tracing, and mesh shading under Metal 4.
A 32-core Neural Engine handles real-time AI upscaling and frame generation via MetalFX 2. The system includes 32 gigabytes of GDDR6 unified gaming memory across a 256-bit bus delivering 512 gigabytes per second of bandwidth, alongside a fixed 1 terabyte PCIe 5.0 NVMe solid-state drive with read speeds reaching 7.5 gigabytes per second.
Thunderbolt 5 Connectivity
Apple replaced traditional HDMI ports and proprietary power plugs with two symmetrical Thunderbolt 5 USB-C ports on the rear panel. The first port handles power delivery up to 120 watts via an external GaN power adapter while simultaneously transmitting video signals through DisplayPort 2.1 supporting up to 8K resolution at 120 hertz or 4K at 240 hertz.
The second port delivers 80 gigabit-per-second bidirectional data bandwidth, or up to 120 gigabits per second asymmetrically via Bandwidth Boost. This connection accommodates external NVMe storage expansions, Vision Pro headsets, and eARC sound systems.
Controller and GameOS Software
The system ships with the iController, a gamepad featuring a symmetric PlayStation 5 layout in a matte black finish with adaptive triggers and HD haptics. It connects to the console using ultra-wideband and Wi-Fi 7.
Wireless features include Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 or 5.5, Thread, and spatial audio with dynamic head-tracking for AirPods. The console runs gameOS, a proprietary operating system designed to boot directly into a game library supporting cross-play across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS.
Worth a look