iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max Hands-On: Burgundy, Better Cameras, and More Performance

Physically, the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max feel nearly identical to the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max. There’s a new Burgundy color that replaces Cosmic Orange, but I don’t think I’m a fan of it. But maybe you are! I am elated that Apple brought back black. Not “midnight” or another “space gray” shade but genuine black black. The Glacier light blue is also okay. The Dynamic Island aka the pill-shaped cutout at the top of the screen is almost half as small as before. It means you get more pixels on the screen, but the larger one also didn’t bother me. I like that it can display three live activities at once. © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo While I wish Apple had switched back to titanium instead of the softer and more bruise-prone aluminum body, I do like that the matte glass cutout on the backside of the iPhones are color-matched to the metal. It’s most obvious on the silver model, which now has a matching silver panel instead of a white one. If you use a non-clear case, this won’t matter at all, of course. © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo Apple says image quality for the cameras has improved on the iPhone 18 Pros, but I couldn’t test that claim in the brief time I had to try the devices. What I was able to try was the variable aperture for the main lens on the iPhone 18 Pro Max. There’s now a button called “lens aperture” that lets you adjust the aperture to four f-stops. I wasn’t able to do any low-light or night shooting in the Steve Jobs Theater; testing for that will have to wait until later. © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo Another camera feature that I got to try out was the new “textures” option for the Photographic Styles. There’s now a button for smoothing out your skin or adding some grain to make images appear more film-like. They’re cool additions, I guess, if you want a built-in way to make your photos look less processed. © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo Performance from the A20 chip seemed snappy. Not that I had anything to complain about from the A19 Pro chip. Apple says the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max both have a second-generation vapor-cooling chamber that provides up to 40% better cooling compared to the iPhone 17 Pros. I wasn’t able to do anything, like playing 3D games with ray tracing, that would have overheated the phones. © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo That’s pretty much it for the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max. The screens are still the same 6.3 and 6.9 inches, respectively, and they’re still really bright and support ProMotion 120Hz refresh rates. © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo Apple says that the battery life on the iPhone 18 Pro has improved by three hours compared to the iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone 18 Pro Max’s battery has increased by six hours. Those figures are for local video playback, though. © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo If you’re not interested at all in the foldable iPhone Duo and you want the very best that an iPhone has to offer (the best camera system with a telephoto lens, the longest-lasting battery life, and the best thermal system for high-performance apps like gaming), the iPhone 18 Pros have your name written on them. This year, the Pro iPhones do cost extra, though: $100 more than last year, starting at $1,199 for the iPhone 18 Pro and $1,299 for the iPhone 18 Pro Max.