The iPhone 18 Pro Phones Are Predictably Excellent

The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max come with the upgraded A20 Pro chip, which Apple says speeds up processing power by 40 percent. They also have a redesigned vapor chamber with increased surface area that dissipates heat more effectively. (I accepted the challenge and attempted to nudge the temperature up on the 18 Pro with overuse. Neither streaming nor scrolling seemed to do it, but I eventually got the phone to warm slightly while recording 10 minutes of 4K video at 120 fps. Impressive!)

These upgrades may better accommodate the growing processing demands of on-device AI features, including the more integrated Siri AI. They could boost battery life, too. The 18 Pro lasts for 36 hours of video playback, up from 33 hours, Apple says, while the larger 18 Pro Max manages 45 hours, up from 39.

In my trial run, battery life on the 18 Pro dipped only slightly after a multihour YouTube session and photoshoot around my neighborhood, though that’s not surprising, given that the phone is a brand-new device with all-day battery life. CR will measure the battery run time for both models. For context, the 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max performed impressively in our labs, delivering 34 and 43 hours of battery life, respectively.

As far as this year’s suite of colors, I’m personally happy to see last year’s burnt orange replaced by a delightful burgundy and “glacier” blue. Neutral black and silver options are also available. For a certain sort of shopper, the new colors may be one of the more compelling reasons to upgrade. 

The Dynamic Island–the oval-shaped cutout at the top of the screen that displays live updates–is now slightly smaller, because Apple moved the Face ID sensor beneath the display. It’s a welcome tweak with a practical payoff, as it frees up more screen real estate. You can now track three Live Activities instead of two–say, an alert for the arrival of a friend’s flight, a timer to leave for the airport, and the live score of a football game. 

Otherwise, the display is unchanged. You still get Pro-level basics, like Always On Display, a speedy 120 Hz max refresh rate for smoother scrolling, and 3,000-nit peak brightness, great for high dynamic range performance and viewing the screen in direct sunlight. Which is all to say, I think the display looks great–same as ever. 

The dimensions of the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max remain the same, so much so that you can use the same 17 Pro cases on the new models. But the phones have put on some weight since last year.

The 18 Pro Max, with its large 6.9-inch screen, is nearly as heavy as the dual-screen Duo. Even the iPhone 18 Pro is more than an ounce heavier than the iPhone 17, despite both having 6.3-inch displays. So if you’re looking for a feather-light device, I’d point you to the slim iPhone Air or standard iPhone 17 instead.

Now the camera. The beauty of a smartphone is that you don’t have to be trained in the art of shutter speeds and f-stops to take great photos. You can just hold the thing up and tap. And that’s still true with the new Pro models, but Apple has also given people a bit more control. 

The 18 Pro models have the same triple-rear camera system as before, which earned the 17 Pro models the highest scores for camera quality among all CR-tested smartphones. But for the first time, the main rear camera on the 18 Pro now has a variable aperture. 

For those who don’t regularly fiddle with cameras, the aperture is the lens component that mechanically opens and closes and therefore changes how much light hits the sensor. All previous iPhone cameras, and basically all smartphone cameras for that matter, have had fixed apertures. Now, that’s changed. When using the main 48-megapixel rear camera, you can set the aperture to f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8, and f/4, and tiny aperture blades will actually rotate open or closed to let in more or less light. (The lower the f-stop number, the more light gets let in.) Previously, the aperture was fixed at nearly f/1.78. 

That’s cool news for camera nerds–and, frankly, an impressive engineering feat–but should most of us care? In a nutshell, the ability to shift to a narrower aperture can keep more of the background in focus, which can be helpful when you’re close to your subject. And, conversely, a wider aperture can put more of the background out of focus and be useful in low-light settings.

I snapped some photos of a fall bouquet in my apartment, moving between the four available f-stops. Look at the house plant and entertainment center behind the bouquet to see the subtle difference in sharpness. It’s a neat addition, though you can achieve some of this with existing software-level edits.

You get a few practical updates for video, too. You can now edit a clip after the fact to be in the enhanced Cinematic Mode, which softly blurs the background, similar to Portrait Mode. I also appreciate the new Focus Tracking feature, which uses AI to keep moving subjects in clear focus while you take pictures or record video, even if they move around or briefly leave the frame.

This isn’t groundbreaking–Samsung released a similar feature with the Samsung Galaxy S26–but it’s a nice addition. The feature worked well when I asked my partner to record a video of me riding a bike, moving closer to and then away from the camera. I could see it being particularly handy for recording, say, your kid moving quickly across the field during a soccer match or your dog running across a park.

So, is an upgrade worth it? This year’s pricier Pro models offer decidedly iterative upgrades, especially when compared to the glitz and glam of Apple’s first foldable. If you’re a photography enthusiast and love the additional control and variable aperture on the camera, an early upgrade could be worth it, especially if you get a good trade-in deal on your current device. For most people, though, we only recommend upgrading if your phone is on its last legs. The people who will see the biggest payoff are those with an iPhone 14 Pro or earlier, as these models aren’t compatible with Apple Intelligence.

And if you don’t covet the latest and greatest, Apple’s iPhone release season is still a smart time to shop for older or refurbished models, which get new discounts and offer nearly the same capabilities. Both the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro sit high in CR’s smartphone ratings–and you can currently snag either for hundreds of dollars less than this new release. Gotta say, we do love the burgundy, though.