Apple last week announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, arriving two years after the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. Skipping a generation means makes for a bigger upgrade, with more than 50 differences between the 2024 and 2026 models.
Most of the visible change arrived in between, with the iPhone 17 Pro replacing the titanium frame and glass back with an aluminum unibody and Ceramic Shield 2, adding vapor chamber cooling, and upgrading both the telephoto and front cameras. This year's update is largely focused on internal changes, centering on the A20 Pro chip, a variable-aperture Main camera, a smaller Dynamic Island, and a battery capacity increase that delivers the largest jump in battery life in the iPhone's history. For iPhone 16 Pro owners, the two sets of changes stack on top of each other.
The iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 for 256GB, $200 more than the iPhone 16 Pro's $999 launch price, although the entry storage tier has doubled from 128GB. Apple no longer sells the iPhone 16 Pro directly, so any comparison now involves either a device you already own or a third-party listing. Here's everything that differs between the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro:
Design and Display
Rear Camera
Front Camera
Battery and Charging
Storage and Pricing
Which to Choose?
For iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max owners, the iPhone 18 Pro is a worthwhile upgrade, and a far easier recommendation than it is for anyone coming from last year's model. Two generations of changes accumulate, touching almost every part of the device: an all-new aluminum unibody with Ceramic Shield 2 and three times better scratch resistance, a display that is 50% brighter outdoors at 3,000 nits and features an anti-reflective coating the iPhone 16 Pro lacks entirely, and a battery that runs for 36 hours rather than 27, rising from 33 hours to 45 hours on the Pro Max. Charging has changed most dramatically of all, dropping from 50% in 30 minutes to 50% in around 15 minutes.
The camera differences are also major. The telephoto camera moves from 12 megapixels at 5x to 48 megapixels with 4x and 8x optical options, the front camera jumps from 12 megapixels to 18 megapixels and gains Center Stage and ultra-stabilized video, and the Main camera trades its fixed ƒ/1.78 aperture for a four-stop variable aperture ranging from ƒ/1.48 to ƒ/4.0. Add ProRes RAW, Genlock, Dual Capture, Cinematic mode at 60 fps, and manual Pro controls, and the iPhone 18 Pro is a substantially different camera system.
Performance is the other argument for upgrading, particularly if you have noticed your iPhone 16 Pro throttling. The A20 Pro moves to a 2nm process, gains a seventh GPU core with Neural Accelerators, and doubles the Neural Engine to 32 cores, while the vapor chamber that the iPhone 16 Pro lacks entirely is now in its second generation. If you play demanding games, shoot long video clips, or expect to lean on on-device Apple Intelligence features for several more years, the extra 4GB of RAM and the doubled Neural Engine make the iPhone 18 Pro the more future-proof purchase.
That being said, the price has moved against you. The iPhone 18 Pro costs $200 more than the iPhone 16 Pro did at launch, even accounting for the doubled 256GB entry tier, and the iPhone 18 Pro Max is $100 more than its equivalent. The iPhone 18 Pro Max is also 22 grams heavier than the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which is noticeable in the hand, although it buys you the largest battery gain Apple has ever delivered on an iPhone and the option of a 2TB device.
A notable exception arises if you are upgrading primarily for the design, the telephoto camera, or the battery. Almost all of those enhancements arrived with the iPhone 17 Pro rather than this year's model, so an iPhone 17 Pro bought from a third-party retailer at a heavy discount will get you most of the way there for meaningfully less money. The iPhone 18 Pro's genuine exclusives over that model are the variable aperture and Pro controls, the C2 modem, the smaller Dynamic Island, and roughly three extra hours of battery life. If none of those matter to you, last year's model is the better value.
Pre-orders for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max opened on Saturday, September 12, with availability beginning Friday, September 18.