Great phones make weak upgrades when last year's model was this close. 9to5Mac spent a few weeks with the iPhone 18 Pro as its daily phone and lands on both halves of that: the best iPhone Apple has made, in 9to5Mac's words, and an S year most 17 Pro owners should skip.
The design is last year's, with color-matched glass and metal, Glacier Blue and Burgundy finishes, a Dynamic Island that shrinks by about 30 percent, and a heavier 211 g. The variable aperture works as promised, but the Camera app offers only four stops from f/1.48 to f/4.0 plus auto, and the video figures 97 to 98 percent of point-and-shoot users won't notice it. New face tracking and manual white balance and shutter controls stay exclusive to the 18 Pro, though 9to5Mac thinks the 17 Pro has the hardware for most of them.
Apple claims up to 40 percent more CPU and GPU performance from the 2nm A20 Pro. In daily apps the video sees no change. The gain showed up in long recordings: where the 17 Pro heats up after a 5 to 10 minute clip, dims, and drops frames, the 18 Pro held on longer. Battery life beats the 17 Pro so far, with the caveat that every iPhone starts strong. 9to5Mac boils the review down to one line.
The biggest problem with the 18 Pro is actually that the 17 Pro exists.
The upgrade line falls at the 15 Pro and older. iPhoners on a 16 Pro or 17 Pro get 9to5Mac's suggestion to wait for the iPhone Duo, which ships October 23, or for Apple's 20th anniversary iPhone.
