While it seems like the internet is abuzz with hot takes about the all-new iPhone Duo, not everyone can slap down £2,000 on a brand-new phone. For most of us, the more pertinent question is how the iPhone 18 Pro compares to the iPhone 17 Pro, and whether it’s worth the upgrade.
The all-new iPhone 18 Pro boasts a faster A20 Pro chip, a new variable-aperture main camera, longer battery life and a smaller Dynamic Island, but overall it’s a fairly minor upgrade over its predecessor.
And with a £100 price hike over last year’s model, it’s even more expensive. So is the latest iPhone 18 Pro worth paying extra for, or are you better off sticking with last year’s flagship? I’ve compared the two phones’ design, specs, cameras, battery life and more to find out.
Read more: Best iPhone 17 deals
iPhone 18 Pro
Apple’s latest flagship is the tech giant’s first iPhone to feature a variable-aperture camera. It’s an iterative upgrade over the 17 Pro, but photographers and power users will be able to eke out more battery and more performance from their device. It comes in burgundy, glacier blue, black and silver. The iPhone 18 Pro starts at £1,199 for the 256GB model and pre-orders launch on 12 September.
Key specifications
- Display: 6.3in OLED, 120Hz, 2,622 x 1,206 pixels, 460ppi
- CPU: Apple A20 Pro
- Storage: 256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB
- Dimensions: 150mm x 71.9mm x 8.75mm
- Weight: 211g
- Main camera: 48MP variable aperture
- Ultrawide camera: 48MP
- Telephoto camera: 48MP
- Selfie camera: 18MP
- Battery life: Up to 34 hours video playback
Buy now £1199, Apple.com
iPhone 17 Pro
The iPhone 17 Pro has the same 6.3in display and near-identical design as the newer model, as well as three 48MP rear cameras and a-powerful A19 Pro chip. I love that glorious cosmic orange colourway, and it’ll run all those fancy new AI features without issue. It launched at £1,099, but with the iPhone 18 Pro now here, you can find it discounted at third-party retailers with a £100 discount.
Key specifications
- Display: 6.3in OLED, 120Hz, 2,622 x 1,206 pixels, 460ppi
- CPU: Apple A19 Pro
- Storage: 256GB / 512GB / 1TB
- Dimensions: 150mm x 71.9mm x 8.75mm
- Weight: 204g
- Main camera: 48MP
- Ultrawide camera: 48MP
- Telephoto camera: 48MP
- Selfie camera: 18MP
- Battery life: Up to 31 hours video playback
Buy now £999, Very.co.uk
iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17 Pro: Design
It was a controversial one, but I absolutely loved Apple’s decision to move to a unibody design for the iPhone 17 Pro. A beautiful design, Apple exchanged its traditional titanium chassis for a brushed aluminium one, simultaneously introducing that large hulking camera plateau across the back of the phone.
The iPhone 18 Pro looks almost exactly like the previous model, featuring that same aluminium unibody, Ceramic Shield 2 and camera plateau. In fact, the dimensions are exactly the same, though the iPhone 18 Pro is slightly heavier, weighing 211g versus the iPhone 17 Pro’s 204g.
The most noticeable design change is on the front. Apple has shrunk the Dynamic Island for the first time since the company introduced the pill-shaped cutout on the iPhone 14 Pro in 2022, though it hasn’t specified how much it’s shrunk by. It can also now display three Live Activities at once instead of two on the iPhone 17 Pro, meaning you can track the football score, flight and Uber all at once.
In terms of the display, there’s virtually no difference between the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro. Both feature a 6.3in Super Retina XDR OLED display with a 2622px × 1206px resolution, an always-on display and ProMotion with an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz.
Even the brightness is the same. Both phones reach 1,600 nits of peak HDR brightness and 3,000 nits of peak outdoor brightness, and can dim all the way down to 1 nit. Both also feature the same anti-reflective coating.
There are new colours though. Sadly, Apple got rid of the cosmic orange colourway that everyone and their nan loved. But it does come in four colours instead of three. This year’s new fancy colourway is burgundy, but it also comes in a light glacier blue, silver and (yes) the return of the black. The iPhone 17 Pro is available in deep blue, cosmic orange and silver.
So, the main difference in terms of design is that smaller Dynamic Island on the front and the pretty new colours.
iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17 Pro: Cameras
It’s the biggest change to the iPhone’s pro-grade cameras, maybe ever. While the iPhone 17 Pro features an excellent camera system, with three 48MP cameras on the rear, with the 48MP telephoto boasting 4x optical zoom and an 8x optical-quality zoom, the new iPhone 18 Pro just takes smartphone photography to a whole new level.
While the iPhone 18 Pro preserves that same three-camera system, with a 48MP main, 48MP ultrawide and 48MP telephoto, for the first time on an iPhone, the main camera also features a variable aperture.
Instead of being fixed at one single aperture, Apple says its six laser-cut blades can physically adjust the opening depending on lighting and depth of field. Apple gives you four aperture settings to choose from manually – f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8 and f/4.0, although the camera can adjust the aperture automatically too.
As all pro photographers know, a wider aperture lets more light reach the sensor and gives you a shallower depth of field. A narrower aperture keeps more of the scene in focus. Apple says f/1.48 provides 50 per cent better low-light performance and if you adjust it to f/2.8, you’ll get a greater depth. Switch it to f/4 if you want the maximum depth of field. The f/1.8 aperture is the default setting.
Apple’s developed a new sensor and computational imaging pipeline for the main camera, with new pro controls letting you manually adjust the aperture, shutter speed and white balance. You can even view a histogram directly from the Camera app.
The ultrawide and telephoto cameras are the same as the ones found on the 17 Pro, featuring a 48MP ultrawide with a 120-degree field of view, plus a 48MP 4x telephoto and 12MP 8x optical-quality telephoto. If you use the digital zoom, you get 40x. There’s also that same 18MP selfie camera on the front.
There are some new software features too. Apple’s new Photographic Styles now let you play with texture and grain, and you can apply cinematic effects after taking a video. Time-lapse can also now be recorded in 4K Dolby Vision HDR.
If you do want to upgrade, the sheer improvements in the camera might be the biggest reason to do so.
iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17 Pro: Performance
The iPhone 17 Pro is powered by Apple’s A19 Pro chip and was the first Pro iPhone to feature a vapour chamber to help dissipate heat. Both of those things have been upgraded to give performance another big boost for the iPhone 18 Pro.
The iPhone 18 Pro features the new A20 Pro chip, which Apple says is built using a more efficient 2nm manufacturing process, compared with the 3nm A19 Pro in the iPhone 17 Pro. That basically means it can squeeze more transistors onto the chip, improving performance while using less power.
Both have a six-core CPU, but the A20 Pro now has a seven-core GPU for graphics, up from the six-core GPU on the iPhone 17 Pro. The Neural Engine has also doubled from 16 cores to 32, giving the iPhone 18 Pro more processing power for on-device AI.
Apple says that graphics performance is up to 40 per cent faster than the A19 Pro on the iPhone 17 Pro.
The company’s made some huge improvements to the cooling system as well. Apple says its new vapour chamber has three times the surface area of the one inside the iPhone 17 Pro, so the iPhone 18 Pro can deliver up to 40 per cent better sustained performance than the previous generation. That basically means it should be able to work at a higher performance for longer before heat starts forcing the phone to slow down.
It’s also the first time Apple has used one of its own cellular modems in a Pro iPhone. The iPhone 18 Pro uses the new C2 modem, which replaces the Qualcomm modem used in the iPhone 17 Pro. Apple claims the new C2 delivers faster uploads compared to the C1X modem, which debuted on the iPhone Air. It also uses 15 per cent less energy than the C1X.
iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17 Pro: Battery life
There have also been some big leaps in battery life. While you can get up to 31 hours of video playback and 28 hours of streamed video playback on the iPhone 17 Pro, you can eke out even more life on the 18 Pro.
You get 34 hours of video playback and 31 hours when streaming video on the iPhone 18 Pro. Apple has kindly also given a typical-use figure for its latest flagship (something much more transparent than video playback), rating it for up to 23 hours of battery life on a single charge.
Apple says esim-only versions of the iPhone 18 Pro will last for up to 36 hours of video playback, but annoyingly the UK model with a physical sim slot is rated at up to 34 hours, so we shouldn’t all expect that higher figure.
Apple has even improved its wired charging speeds. The iPhone 17 Pro can reach 50 per cent in roughly 20 minutes with a 40W adapter or higher, but the iPhone 18 Pro can hit 50 per cent in just 15 minutes with a 60W adapter or higher. It still takes 30 minutes to reach 50 per cent if you use MagSafe charging.
iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17 Pro: Price
It was expected. The iPhone 18 Pro is the most expensive standard-sized Pro iPhone Apple has ever made.
The iPhone 17 Pro launched at £1,099 for the 256GB model. The iPhone 18 Pro, however, starts at £1,199 with the same 256GB of storage. That means you’re paying an extra £100 for the latest model without getting any additional storage at the entry level.
The iPhone 18 Pro costs:
- £1,199 for 256GB
- £1,399 for 512GB
- £1,799 for 1TB
- £2,399 for the new 2TB model
If you want the larger iPhone 18 Pro Max, prices start at:
- £1,299 for 256GB
- £1,499 for 512GB
- £1,899 for 1TB
- £2,499 for 2TB.
Apple has also added that 2TB option to the regular Pro for the first time this year. Last year, 2TB of storage was reserved for the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
While it felt like Apple increased the prices last year, it also increased the base storage to 256GB, so it didn’t really feel like a price hike.
iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17 Pro: Is it worth the upgrade?
It’s a very iterative update for the iPhone 18 Pro – it seems like most of the innovation has been reserved for the iPhone Duo, but there’s nothing wrong with that. The design and display are basically the same, but you get a smaller Dynamic Island, a faster A20 Pro chip, an upgraded cooling system, longer battery life and faster wired charging.
The biggest reason to upgrade is the camera. The new variable-aperture main camera gives you greater control over your photography than ever before, with four manual aperture settings, a new sensor and loads of pro controls.
But if you already own an iPhone 17 Pro, it’s hard to justify spending £1,199 for something slightly better and faster. If you’re deciding between the two, however, it’s a close call. The iPhone 18 Pro is very technically impressive, but with retailers now discounting last year’s model, the iPhone 17 Pro is all that more appealing.
If you want the new variable-aperture camera, longer battery life and the extra performance offered by the A20 Pro, however, then the iPhone 18 Pro might be worth paying the premium. We’ll have a full review of the latest flagship soon.