iPhone 18 Pro review: I test Apple’s latest mobile with stunning new camera trick & posh colours BEFORE it’s released

RED alert: there’s a new iPhone out in a spiffing Burgundy paintjob and I’ve been testing it. Last week’s big Apple event was dominated by the foldable iPhone Duo – due out in late October – but the iPhone 18 Pro is already here, and it’s absolutely phenomenal. The Sun’s tech editor Sean Keach has been testing out the new iPhone 18 Pro Credit: Sean Keach The iPhone 18 Pro is available in a stunning new Burgundy colour option Credit: Sean Keach I’ve been trying it out in secret, and there’s plenty to get excited about. For the uninitiated, the iPhone 18 Pro is Apple’s higher-end mobile. Sign up for the Tech newsletter Thank you! Normally we’d have a regular entry-level model – the iPhone 18 – but that was mysteriously missing this year. Apple only gave me a hint as to where it might be. iPhone 18 Pro, £1,199 What is the iPhone 18 Pro? Anyway, the iPhone 18 Pro (and its bigger twin, the Pro Max) give Apple fans some respectable upgrades. For screens, you’ve got the same set-up as last time around. The regular iPhone 18 Pro uses a 6.3-inch display, while the Pro Max has a larger 6.9-inch panel. I quite like the size of the Pro Max, but if you have smaller hands then you may struggle to reach the corners. Most read in Tech In any case, both sizes use the same Super Retina XDR OLED panel. Unlike traditional LED-backlit LCD screens, OLED displays have pixels that effectively illuminate themselves. You can bag the iPhone 18 Pro in four paintjobs, including a new Glacier hue Credit: Apple The iPhone 18 Pro Max has a large 6.9-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display Credit: Sean Keach That means you don’t need a giant backlight behind the screen, which has several benefits. For a start, they’re more battery-efficient. And because individual pixels can be turned on or off, the screen can show true blacks in dark areas of videos. So you end up with better contrast, colour, and battery efficiency overall. Anyway, although the screens are wonderful, they aren’t new. They’re just very good, which is why I’m pointing them out. iPhone 18 Pro & Pro Max specs and features – what’s new? So let’s talk about what is new. One of the big hardware improvements this time around is the new A20 Pro processor. It’s built on a new manufacturing process that means it packs in a tremendous amount of computing power in a very battery-efficient chip. The mobile comes in two sizes: a 6.3-inch Pro and 6.9-inch Pro Max Credit: Apple Apple sells a colour-matched MagSafe Wallet to go with the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max Credit: Sean Keach It’s roughly 40% faster than last year’s A19 Pro, and is more akin to a laptop than a tablet in terms of computing heft. The upside of this is that the iPhone 18 Pro runs buttery smooth, and is a capable machine for on-the-fly video edits, mobile gaming (shout out to Wild Rift and Polytopia as personal favourites) and, of course, AI. That’s important, as this year’s iPhone 18 Pro lands alongside iOS 27, which finally introduces Siri AI. That’s the supercharged version of Siri that makes her a proper device-wide helper that can genuinely understand requests and deliver at relative speed. The new A20 Pro chip was built with AI performance in mind, so that’s excellent to hear. This is undoubtedly one of the most powerful smartphones ever to exist. Now you might be thinking: all that power is going to turn my iPhone into an absolute furnace. Well, not exactly. The device runs on Apple’s latest iOS 27 software Credit: Sean Keach There’s a redesigned vapour chamber in the phone that keeps it cool Credit: Apple Apple has introduced a redesigned vapour chamber into the iPhone 18 Pro that effectively pulls heat away from the processor, and spreads it out across the rest of the phone’s chassis. That helps to keep the processor relatively cool, allowing it to serve up excellent sustained performance. This system keeps the iPhone 18 Pro much cooler than models from previous years, which is great news if you’re doing something intensive for a while – like mobile gaming. Battery life is enormous too. For context, the iPhone 17 Pro served up 33 hours of video playback, while the Pro Max was rated for 39 hours. This year, the iPhone 18 Pro manages 36 hours, and the iPhone 18 Pro Max dishes out a frankly ludicrous 45 hours. I’ve mostly been using the Pro Max, and it doesn’t disappoint. I won’t say I watched videos for 45 hours straight, but I’m getting through a full day of phone usage with plenty of room to spare. iPhone 18 Pro & Pro Max camera – variable aperture explained The camera has also received a very impressive upgrade this time around. Once again, you get three rear-facing cameras, all of which are 48-megapixel shooters. There’s an ultra-wide lens for broad capture and a telephoto snapper for zooming and great Portrait shots. But it’s the main wide-angle camera that has received the juicy new feature: variable aperture. The aperture is the hole that your camera sees through. Normally the aperture is set on a phone camera. For instance, the iPhone 17 Pro’s main camera used a ƒ/1.78 aperture. There are three cameras on the back of the phone Credit: Sean Keach The main lens offers variable aperture, which lets you adjust the size of the hole that the camera sees through Credit: Apple But in some situations, you might want different apertures. For instance, a wide aperture (like ƒ/1.48 – smaller is wider) means you’ll let a lot more light in, which is great in the dark. And it means you get those beautiful background blurs with subjects in sharp focus. Meanwhile, a narrow aperture (like ƒ/2.8 or ƒ/4.0) limits the light and extends the focal plane. So if you’re snapping a group photo where some people are further back, they can also be in focus too. Apple’s new camera uses variable aperture, which means that you can adjust it (or have it adjust automatically) depending on what you’re snapping. There are six mechanical blades that open up or close at four different stops: ƒ/1.48, ƒ/1.8 (the default everyday aperture), ƒ/2.8 and ƒ/4.0. You can manually change this in a Pro controls pull-out inside the camera app, which is handy. Otherwise, you’re still getting an absolute beast of a camera, which is what we’ve come to expect from Pro phones. It’s shocking how performant this snapper is, given the constraints of needing to physically fit on a smartphone. Now I should mention that a couple of things have changed about the outside of the phone too. The Dynamic Island, which is that little cut-out at the top of the screen, has shrunk. It means that instead of showing two mini-widgets – known as Live Activities – there’s now room for three. And as I alluded to at the very start of this piece, one of the big changes is to colour. Last year, just three options were available: Silver, Deep Blue and, my favourite, Cosmic Orange. Now we’ve got four: classic Black and Silver options, plus new Burgundy and Glacier paintjobs. You get wide-angle, ultra wide-angle, and telephoto cameras on the back Credit: Sean Keach The Pro starts at £1,199, while the Pro Max will cost you £1,299 Credit: Sean Keach The first two are very safe and perfectly good-looking. And the latter two are really very pretty. I tested the Burgundy model, and it’s genuinely beautiful – although it does make me want a large glass of wine…and a holiday to France. Anyway, Glacier is nice too, so there’s great choice on offer this year. The other thing that has changed this time around is the price. It’s crept up from £1,099/$1,099 to £1,199/$1,199 for the Pro versus last year. And the Pro Max is up from £1,199/$1,199 to £1,299/$1,299. What’s interesting is that this is actually cheaper than many experts were expecting. The consumer tech industry is currently undergoing an inescapable cost crisis. Memory – which is an essential component in phones, tablets, laptops and games consoles – is exorbitantly expensive, and quite suddenly so.That’s because the AI giants are scooping it all up as if money is no object, sending prices soaring. We’ve already seen every major games console go up in price this year, and Apple increased the R.R.P on its iPad and Mac models recently too. So the fact that the price only went up by £100/$100 is, surprisingly, very welcome news. SHOULD I BUY THE IPHONE 18 PRO? There are a few things to consider when thinking about Apple’s new Pro mobile. For a start, if you’ve got the iPhone 17 Pro, the upgrade probably isn’t worth it unless you absolutely need the improved camera. The handset is available from Friday, september 18 Credit: Sean Keach The Dynamic Island at the top of the screen is smaller this year Credit: Sean Keach If you’re a pro snapper, it’s hard to argue with having the aperture control, as it gives you much more flexibility. The battery life is probably the next biggest improvement, and then the new colours after that. If you’re coming from a 14, 15, or 16 Pro the argument becomes clearer, as you get so many more upgrades. That’s especially true for iPhone 14 Pro owners, as you’re missing out on Apple Intelligence – which is now much more valuable after the Siri AI upgrade in iOS 27. If you want a cheaper model, you have a few options. One is to buy the iPhone 17 or iPhone 17e, both of which are still available and much cheaper. They’re brilliant phones, and you won’t be disappointed. The iPhone 17, in particular, was very strong last year. Of course, you could wait around for an iPhone 18, which is rumoured to land in Spring. But there’s no guarantee that’ll arrive then, so it’s a bit of a gamble. And then there’s the surprise contender: the iPhone Duo. It’s a lot costlier than the iPhone 18 Pro at £1,999/$1,999 (up to £3,199/$3,199 for the 2TB version). But it folds, and is genuinely an extremely impressive device. That’s not out until Friday, October 23, so you’ve got a wait. It’s not for everyone (if nothing else, due to the price), but it marks a major milestone for Apple, and will make you very interesting to people for at least a few months. As an aside, the Duo is missing a telephoto camera, so keen snappers might still prefer the iPhone 18 Pro anyway. The other point to note is that you could always buy an Android phone. Google’s Pixel 11 series and Samsung’s Galaxy S26 line-up are both very strong this year, so there’s plenty of choice. It’s hard to buy a bad phone these days. But if you’re keen for a top-spec Apple mobile, you can’t go wrong with an iPhone 18 Pro. The Sun says: Apple fine-tunes its most powerful iPhone to create a stunning and seemingly unstoppable mobile powerhouse. This is about as good as it gets for non-folding phones. 5/5 iPhone 18 Pro, £1,199 The iPhone 18 Pro is available in stores from September 16, 2026. All prices in this article were correct at the time of writing, but may have since changed. Always do your own research before making any purchase. Comment now