The long-awaited release of Fortnite for Android brought the world’s hottest game to every major gaming platform. It also allowed Digital Foundry to carry out a direct comparison of the mobile versions of the game running on Android, iOS and Switch and compare them with Fortnite on the Xbox One X to see how much is lost. They could have included the PS4, but really, who cares? Sony adamantly refuses to allow cross-play and where Fortnite is concerned, cross-play is where it’s at.
Fortnite on Android
Digital Foundry included an analysis of Fortnite on Android in their mobile comparison to bring the Android version up to par with their previous coverage of the game on the Switch and iOS. Here’s what they found.
Squeezing Fortnite onto a smartphone is more difficult for Android than iOS because there are so many different kinds of Android phones. If you’re playing on iOS, the game chooses the best configuration for your device. On Android, players are free to choose for themselves among four graphics and two frame rate options. The frame rate choices allow you to cap the game at 30 or 20 fps. Things get more interesting when you look at the graphics options.
Android offers Low, Medium, High and Epic graphics settings. Epic is essentially the same as Fortnite running on an iPhone X. At the other end of the scale, Fortnite defaults to Low graphics with a 20 fps cap for the Galaxy S7. If your phone is less powerful than the S7, it will probably struggle with Fortnite. Here are the major differences among the four graphics settings. (If some technical terms are unfamiliar, check out this guide.)
| Graphics option | Resolution | Foliage, shadows and LODS |
| Epic | 1480 x 720 | Maxed with frame rate kept at 30 fps |
| High | 1480 x 720 | Foliage and LODS reduced |
| Medium | 1387 x 675 | Foliage and shadows absent |
| Low | 925 x 450 | Same as Medium |
Comparing Fortnite on different platforms
Digital Foundry took advantage of cross-play to devise a clever way of comparing the One X, Android, iOS and Switch mobile versions of Fortnite using exactly the same footage. They started a match with a player on each platform who all boarded the same Battle Bus. The players jumped out of the Bus at the same time, gathered together after they landed and waited quietly. Before long, a player named gorkra123 came along and killed all four. Digital Foundry was then able to record identical gameplay footage on the four platforms by following gorkra123 in spectator mode. Gorkra123 went on to win the match.
The smartphone comparisons were carried out using a Galaxy S9+ with graphics set on Epic and frame rate capped at 30 fps for Android, and an iPhone X for iOS.
Android vs iOS
The Android and iOS versions of Fortnite are very similar. Android has slightly better resolution (1480 x 720) than iOS (1460 x 675) even though the iPhone X has a more powerful processor than the Galaxy S9+. Digital Foundry cautions that the resolution difference may be due to differences in screen aspect ratio on the two phones or to the HDMI cable used to connect the iPhone to a larger display.
The iPhone’s more powerful GPU occasionally produces an iOS advantage for LODs (Level of Detail) at far distances. At times, objects like trees that are far away are visible on iOS and absent on Android.
Both Android and iOS hew very closely to the 30 fps cap. Frame-pacing aberrations (the amount of time each frame remains on the screen) occur rarely, and they’re less frequent in Fortnite than many other Android games running at 30 fps. Frame pacing on iOS is similar to Android.
There’s very little difference between Fortnite on Android and iOS. There’s roughly an 8% advantage in pixel count for Android throughout the entire game and an occasional advantage in LODs at distance for iOS. Performance is solid for both versions. Gameplay isn’t materially affected by any of these differences.
Android and iOS vs Switch
While Android and iOS are very similar, they differ in interesting ways from the Switch. Android and iOS are running on state-of-the-art mobile systems. The Switch is running on a downclocked Nvidia Tegra X1 that first appeared in 2015 and was superseded the following year.
Resolution is noticeably reduced on the Switch even though it targets the same 720p that is seen on Android and iOS. Resolution is fixed for the smartphone versions of Fortnite while the Switch uses dynamic resolution scaling to protect frame rate. The result is that resolution often falls below the 720p target and the Switch has a blurrier image than Android or iOS. Draw distance is also cut back on the Switch.
Surprisingly, the Switch has some advantages over Android and iOS even though it’s saddled with less capable hardware. Unlike its smartphone competitors, the Switch is a dedicated gaming platform. It has a graphics API that gives developers full access to the system’s GPU, and more system memory can be devoted to the game.
Fortnite uses two sets of assets for crafted materials. The One X and Switch get assets with more visual detail than Android and iOS. Crafted materials look better on the Switch than on the other mobile platforms.
Another striking difference is that foliage on the Switch displays lighting and movement effects that are absent from Android and iOS. Again, the Switch looks like the One X in this regard. It’s eye candy, but it’s very noticeable eye candy.
Performance is solid with an almost constant lock on 30 fps for Android, iOS and Switch. Frame pacing is slightly better on the Switch but it isn’t a problem on any of the mobile systems.
Conclusion
The engineers at Epic have done themselves proud with all three mobile versions of Fortnite. Android has the best resolution, iOS provides the most detail at distance, and Switch has more detailed crafted materials and better lighting and movement effects on foliage. Performance is roughly the same on all three mobile systems. Fortnite can be played equally well on Android, iOS and Switch.
The real difference when it comes to cross-play isn’t between one mobile version and another, it’s between all the mobile versions and the One X. The One X looks a lot better but visual quality isn’t the issue. It’s frame rate. The mobile versions of Fortnite have a 30 fps cap while the One X plays at 60 fps. That’s a large and meaningful difference that gives Xbox One X players a notable competitive advantage. You can have a lot of fun with Fortnite mobile, but you’ll die more often while you’re having it.
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