True. But iOS is catching up. The depth is starting to come in. The polish is starting. The playability might just be the most difficult thing, but I quite enjoyed this latest game.
It's amazing for a phone.
You're right, for a phone it looks good. I looked at a video review of the spiderman game being played on a iPad and it doesn't look console quality. Not even close.
Infinity blade 2, IMO, is the best looking iOS game period and is the closest to console graphics. However up close you see the lack of trilinear filtering and bumpmapping on the stones beneath the feet. The background mountains and forest are weak and have little texture.
However they (especially Spiderman) don't come too close to Crysis 2, which uses one of the best engines available today. It's also a 3 year old engine. So the best looking iOS game is getting close to a 3 year old engine? Not even close. No phone/tablet can make this:
The screenshot is static, but look at the volumetric fog that is active in the background and the fire. Phone GPUs haven't gotten that advanced yet. They can't do fast enough trilinear filtering with 4X or better FSAA or even MSAA running at the same time. There are a lot of textures at play here and that's the issue with phones/tablets. They don't have the video RAM capacity nor the pure pixel pumping output. I believe that iOS hardware uses a powerVR derivative to make the graphics. It "cheats" by only drawing what you see, compared to consoles with draw everything and then apply filters, textures and other related items. It does work well for it's purposes in the constrained space of a mobile device. But they simply don't have the raw power and memory space to do what a top console graphics engine can do.
In the end you can argue all you want about graphic prowess, but to me the biggest problem is still the controls. Touch screen controls are terrible for serious gaming, especially on a tiny 3.5" screen. Even a rumored 4" 16x9 screen in the new iPhone won't help much. In some games you have to see the entire screen without your fingers getting in the way. It's getting better, but it's not where it should be. Then imagine how cryEngine 4 or Unreal engine 4 will look and how much father back it puts iOS hardware.