Apple iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max
4.5
Pros & Cons
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The A20 Pro and improved cooling chamber are very reliable. -
Long battery life, even on the smaller iPhone 18 Pro. -
Variable aperture and pro controls allow for more creative shots.
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Both models are heavier and bulkier, especially the Pro Max. -
$100 price increases from last year. -
Darker colors make fingerprints and scratches very apparent.
My past week of testing the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max has been exhilarating, not because of the new variable aperture camera that transforms glaring lights into star bursts, or the Burgundy color that’s a mature shift in tonality compared to last year’s Cosmic Orange, but because of all the benefits that now four-year-old (or older) iPhone users are about to reap if they’re planning to upgrade.
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Battery life across both models is at an all-time high, the thermal management that keeps frame rates steady during intense gaming and video edits has noticeably improved, and the overall content-capturing experience is still a step above Android counterparts.
While the iPhone 18 Pro series isn’t a major leap from the iPhone 17 Pro series — not enough to warrant a year-over-year upgrade, at least — it sets new benchmarks for what people can expect from Apple’s flagship handsets.
And folks like my dad, who swears that his iPhone 14 Pro with a half-blacked-out screen is still usable, are in for a treat.
My big (small) change with iPhone this year
As I commented ahead of iPhone release day, this year, I’ve committed to spending more time with the smaller iPhone 18 Pro model. The Pro Max is undeniably the most powerful iPhone you can buy, and it’s got a vividly large display that makes me look forward to when the Duo finally launches next month.
But the added heft this year (roughly 16 grams heavier, due to a larger battery and cooling system, among other things) makes the device more unwieldy than previous generations.
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It’s so much so that during my initial days of testing the Pro Max, it became a habit to occasionally remove it from its case to ease the tension that would build up in my wrist. Halfway through the week, I switched to the iPhone 18 Pro, and it’s been smooth sailing ever since.
Kerry Wan/ZDNETThis year feels like the best time to commit to the smaller iPhone because it has similar performance and battery improvements as the Pro Max, but in a smaller, more comfortable form factor. My review unit is in the new Burgundy color, which shimmers in maroon and wine-like tones. It’s classy and fashionable, but it is very prone to fingerprint smudges.
This seems to be the case with all of Apple’s darker iPhone Pro colors this year, especially the Black that I kept needing to wipe down as I took photos of it in Cupertino a few weeks ago. For that reason, I’d highly recommend either the Glacier or the Silver if you want to preserve the device’s clean look and finish.
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Besides colors, the other discerning factor of the iPhone 18 Pro series is the smaller Dynamic Island. By moving and hiding the IR scanner to the left corner of the screen, the front camera pill now takes up less space and allows the iPhone software to split into three Live Activities (from two).
Kerry Wan/ZDNETWhile most people likely won’t often have three things to track simultaneously, the added functionality came in handy just a few days ago, when I had Spotify, a flight tracker, and my Uber running at the same time. More realistically, the extra screen real estate allows even two Live Activities to show more information and details at a glance.
The internals are the stars of the show for me
Apple’s in-house silicon continues to be one of its strongest assets, and the new A20 Pro may well be one of the company’s best works yet. It’s based on a two-nanometer architecture that yields faster CPU and GPU performance and 50% higher memory bandwidth than last year’s A19.
It’s hard to see the difference in speed when comparing the iPhone 18 Pro to the iPhone 17 Pro, but when I put it side by side with my older iPhone 15 Pro and 14 Pro, the gap was most noticeable during image processing, running on-device Apple Intelligence features, and loading games. Here’s a snapshot of Geekbench 6 results for the most recent iPhone models.
The improved performance can be attributed to three factors: the A20 Pro, a larger battery, and a larger vapor-cooling chamber that distributes heat more evenly. That last aspect has sneakily become my favorite feature of this year’s iPhone Pro models, with the heat dissipation keeping systems running longer before they throttle and slow things down.
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I recently attempted to export several 4K, 360° videos that I recorded during a trip to California. On the iPhone 17 Pro, the export process would quickly overheat the phone, causing the video editing app to force-close. The iPhone 18 Pro handled the export much better, with heat distributed across the back cover rather than just near the camera plateau, as on the iPhone 17 Pro.
Kerry Wan/ZDNETSuch changes, and the physically larger batteries, make the iPhone 18 Pro series some of longest lasting phones I’ve tested, period. With the smaller iPhone 18 Pro, I’m seeing endurance numbers that match those we saw on the iPhone 17 Pro Max last year. I’m very impressed.
The most ‘Pro’ iPhone camera yet
Kerry Wan/ZDNETThe headlining feature, at least from what Apple’s marketing budget suggests, is the new variable aperture on the main camera. It’s not the first time that I’ve seen and used a phone that can mechanically adjust f-stops, but it’s a welcome upgrade to a camera system that’s seen more subtle changes over the past few years.
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Having a variable aperture allows the iPhone to better control how much light is gathered for photos, meaning you can lower the aperture to produce greater detail throughout the frame or increase it for better low-light shots with a shallower, blurrier depth of field.
Kerry Wan/ZDNETCompared to the iPhone 17 Pro, image quality in dimly lit environments is about the same, with natural-looking exposure and shadow contrast, and minimal artifacting. Last year’s cameras were just that good.
It’s a similar story with daytime photography; the iPhone 18 Pro does a reliable job keeping objects in focus, while maintaining a familiar color science that’s not overly saturated. However, there’s still a noticeable light flare when the iPhone is shooting directly facing the sun or reflective objects, sometimes washing out subjects. It’s all about finding “the angle” in those few cases.
Kerry Wan/ZDNETWhile most people will benefit from the variable aperture working adaptively in auto mode, you can also manually adjust the f-stop (ranging from ƒ/1.48, ƒ/1.8, ƒ/2.8, ƒ/4.0), as well as shutter speed, manual and peak focus, and white balance, allowing for some creative shots. The most notable one is the starburst effect, which turns previously glaring light reflections into multi-pointed stars. See below.
Kerry Wan/ZDNETI find myself using the iPhone for video more than photos, so features like focus tracking, which uses AI to lock focus on your desired subject (when you double-tap it in the viewfinder), are the kind of artificial intelligence that I can get behind.
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If the goal is to make the iPhone camera feel more like a traditional DSLR or mirrorless, Apple is getting very close. I just wish it were more committed to Camera Control. The ability to slide the side key and manually adjust focus would make the photo- and video-capturing experience even more rewarding.
ZDNET’s buying advice
It’s sort of been the golden rule of buying iPhones for a decade now: Wait three to four years and then switch to the newest model. Otherwise, you’re more likely to be left with disappointment, with a new iPhone that feels a little too much like last year’s model, and somehow costs more than you remember.
That couldn’t be truer for the iPhone 18 Pro series, which consists of two very capable devices clouded by an ongoing memory crisis. The $100 price increases across Apple’s flagship lineup this year are not ideal for anyone, but they may be the most appropriate signal for more recent iPhone upgraders to hold still, and older users to potentially embrace the new era of consumer electronics.
Even if you’re not enthusiastic about the variable-aperture camera or the smaller Dynamic Island, the improved performance and battery life, along with all the quality-of-life changes that come with iOS 27, make the newest iPhones feel like a remarkably complete and refined upgrade.
Why the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max get an Editors’ Choice Award
The grounded nature of this year’s flagship iPhones may not make them the most memorable, but they bring meaningful improvements that will shape the performance of future iPhones and Apple products. Expect longer-lasting iPhones, whether you opt for the smaller or larger size (or even the non-Pro model that eventually releases), expect MacBooks like the Neo to take advantage of the A20 Pro chip and continue to offer great value, and expect mobile photography to become more and more flexible with how and what you can modify.
