Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro brings a variable-aperture camera and faster charging to the flagship tier starting at a higher price, but independent testing reveals a sharp drop in continuous battery endurance compared to its predecessor.
The latest flagship handset released September 18, arriving alongside a familiar unibody design and a smaller Dynamic Island.
Even though the internet is currently filled with opinions regarding the brand-new iPhone Duo, spending £2,000 on a fresh smartphone is simply not feasible for everyone. The Dynamic Island stands out as one of the best aspects of recent iPhones, and the newly arrived iPhone 18 Pro offers plenty of features to explore right out of the box, even if it feels less thrilling than the alternative iPhone Duo.
Battery Endurance Testing Shows Divergent Results for the A20 Pro Flagship
In a controlled battery endurance test published by a Japanese technology publication, the iPhone 18 Pro lasted just under 10 hours during continuous video playback at maximum brightness. Two separate runs yielded nearly identical figures: 9 hours and 58 minutes in the first test and 9 hours and 53 minutes in the second.
That output represents a roughly 37 percent decline from the iPhone 17 Pro, which endured 15 hours and 41 minutes under identical conditions the prior year. Reviewers confirmed that the device ran with screen brightness at maximum, volume at 50 percent, Wi-Fi connected, and a room temperature of 26 degrees Celsius, with YouTube serving as the sole active application and no background processes consuming power.
By contrast, other independent testing painted a brighter picture. GSMArena recorded an active use score that improved across screen-on tests, and Tom’s Guide logged a longer overall runtime than the model it replaces. Hardware capacity offers little explanation for the variance: the eSIM-only variant carries a 4,288 mAh cell, representing just 36 mAh more than its predecessor, while the physical-SIM version sits about 1.5 percent higher.
Charging Speeds and Thermal Control on the Apple A20 Pro
What the device surrenders in continuous endurance it appears to recover in charging velocity. Using a 70W Anker Nano Charger and an included USB Type-C cable, testing reached 35 percent after 10 minutes, hit 80 percent after 30 minutes, and achieved a full charge in 60 minutes. A separate field test in Maui using a 65W PD charger recorded 53 percent in 15 minutes and surpassed 80 percent by the 30-minute mark. Apple’s own testing used a 40W Dynamic Power Adapter that peaks at 60W, and using Apple’s official specification as a benchmark, testing with a 70W Anker Nano Charger and the included USB Type-C cable produced even stronger results, reaching roughly 50 percent charge in about 15 minutes with a 60W or higher adapter.
Analysts attributed this sustained high-power charging window to a newly integrated vapor chamber cooling system designed to dissipate heat from the charging controller area.
Variable Aperture Optics and Camera Controls
Photography represents the most significant physical hardware update on the rear of the chassis. The primary 48-megapixel camera is the first on an iPhone to feature variable aperture, making use of six mechanical blades that function similarly to a DSLR lens to regulate light and depth of field, giving users enhanced command over scene illumination and depth across four distinct settings found in the Camera app: f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8 and f/4.
| Aperture Setting | Suggested Photographic Use |
|---|---|
| f/1.48 | Dimly lit environments with shallow depth of field |
| f/4.0 | Group shots, landscapes, and bright light starburst effects |
Users can adjust shutter speed, focus, and white balance directly inside the Camera app. Apple also updated its Photographic Styles feature to include dedicated grain and texture controls, allowing photographers to soften skin tones, apply film effects, or add highlights without altering the entire image.
Pricing and Design Across the iPhone 18 Pro Lineup
The phone retains the brushed aluminum unibody design introduced with its predecessor, though it carries a slight weight increase to 211g compared to the earlier 204g build. Apple has reduced the size of the pill-shaped Dynamic Island cut-out at the front for the first time since its introduction in 2022, allowing the display interface to simultaneously accommodate three Live Activities simultaneously instead of the previous limit of two seen on the iPhone 17 Pro, which means you can monitor an Uber ride, flight details, and a football match all at the same time.
Pricing for the flagship starts at £1,199 for the base 256GB storage configuration, marking a price increase over the previous generation. Storage tiers extend up to 2TB, and the handset is available in burgundy, glacier blue, black, and silver colorways.
