iPhone 18 Pro vs. iPhone 18 Pro Max: Here's What the Latest Leak Says

[MacRumors]

Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max in September. The devices will have a lot in common, but the latest leak suggests that the Pro Max model will take an even bigger step forward in regards to battery life.

According to new filings in a Chinese regulatory database, it appears that the iPhone 18 Pro Max will be equipped with a 5,567mAh battery in the U.S., while the iPhone 18 Pro will seemingly have a 4,288mAh battery. It is no surprise the Pro Max has a larger battery, but its year-over-year gains in battery life look to be particularly significant this year.

If the leaked capacities are accurate, the iPhone 18 Pro Max would have nearly a 10% larger battery compared to the iPhone 17 Pro Max, while the size of the iPhone 18 Pro's battery would only increase by less than 1% over the iPhone 17 Pro.

It was previously rumored that the iPhone 18 Pro Max will be thicker than the iPhone 18 Pro. If so, that might be to accommodate the larger battery.

In some years, the Pro Max gets some camera features before the Pro, but that is not expected to be the case this year. The main 48-megapixel Fusion camera is rumored to get variable aperture on both the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.

Of course, the Pro Max will remain larger and heavier than the Pro, but the devices should be identical beyond that and the bigger gap in battery life.

Article Link: iPhone 18 Pro vs. iPhone 18 Pro Max: Here's What the Latest Leak Says

 

[lazyrighteye]

This is what jumped out to me when reviewing that rumored battery size chart of the previous story. Kind of staggering. Wonder why the Pro would see more than a 36mAh bump?

 

[richpjr]

It will be interesting to see how much of a real world battery life improvement there is on the new models.

 

[Moukee]

Just give us the eSIM only version in the EU as well please. Haven't used the SIM slot for years.

 

[Apple Mac Daz]

Still see no reason to upgrade my 16PM

 

[sw1tcher]

Still see no reason to upgrade my 16PM

To use the awesome new Apple Intelligence features that require 12GB of RAM

Apple's Most Powerful On-Device AI Now Requires iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone Air

Apple's most advanced on-device AI model in iOS 27 requires a minimum of 12GB of unified memory, meaning the standard iPhone 17 is excluded. The next generation of Apple Intelligence introduces a new on-device model more powerful than anything Apple has shipped before. While most iOS 27 AI...

www.macrumors.com

 

[Spongmincer]

Of course, the Pro Max will remain larger and heavier than the Pro, but the devices should be identical beyond that and the bigger gap in battery life.

Does that mean we can expect 2tb in the Pro then?

 

[Apple Mac Daz]

To use the awesome new Apple Intelligence features that require 12GB of RAM

Apple's Most Powerful On-Device AI Now Requires iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone Air

Apple's most advanced on-device AI model in iOS 27 requires a minimum of 12GB of unified memory, meaning the standard iPhone 17 is excluded. The next generation of Apple Intelligence introduces a new on-device model more powerful than anything Apple has shipped before. While most iOS 27 AI...

www.macrumors.com

Still no reason might as wait for the 20th Anniversary model next year

 

[Neo11111]

Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max in September. The devices will have a lot in common, but the latest leak suggests that the Pro Max model will take an even bigger step forward in regards to battery life.

According to new filings in a Chinese regulatory database, it appears that the iPhone 18 Pro Max will be equipped with a 5,567mAh battery in the U.S., while the iPhone 18 Pro will seemingly have a 4,288mAh battery. It is no surprise the Pro Max has a larger battery, but its year-over-year gains in battery life look to be particularly significant this year.

If the leaked capacities are accurate, the iPhone 18 Pro Max would have nearly a 10% larger battery compared to the iPhone 17 Pro Max, while the size of the iPhone 18 Pro's battery would only increase by less than 1% over the iPhone 17 Pro.

It was previously rumored that the iPhone 18 Pro Max will be thicker than the iPhone 18 Pro. If so, that might be to accommodate the larger battery.

In some years, the Pro Max gets some camera features before the Pro, but that is not expected to be the case this year. The main 48-megapixel Fusion camera is rumored to get variable aperture on both the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.

Of course, the Pro Max will remain larger and heavier than the Pro, but the devices should be identical beyond that and the bigger gap in battery life.

Article Link: Here's How the iPhone 18 Pro Max Will Compare to the iPhone 18 Pro

10% bigger batttery in 18 Pro Max for almost 17% price hike compared to 17 Pro Max if hike will be 200$ ... Variable Aperture wont be big deal... For movie makers it will be useful. To see significant difference bigger camera sensor is needed (1-inch sensor). Variable Aperture will be gimmick.. Look at Xiaomi 14 Ultra has variable aperture and one year later Xiaomi 15 Ultra got rid of variable aperture which become realised by software not hardware.

 

[segfaultdotorg]

When will they finally bring back the Lightning connector?

 

[svish]

Bigger battery in Pro Max is good but I think the deciding factor between Pro and Pro Max should only be the screen size. With a smaller screen to power, energy requirement for the Pro should be less.

 

[vegetassj4]

When will they finally bring back the Lightning connector?

They already did

 

[HouseLannister]

If the Pro Max is indeed going this big for battery, it will just be for faster charging most likely. It will be a two-cell Li-ion (US limits import to 20Wh per cell and this is over 21 Wh), so it will actually be less efficient than a single cell. Of course, Apple will cite an extra hour or two of video playback for all that useless metric tells us.

 

[vegetassj4]

delete

 

[MKSoft]

This may be the time for me to upgrade from the 11Pro to the 18Pro. (Seems like a big jump - unfortunately also a big change in how much the phone size and 3D shape changes)

 

[CarAnalogy]

When will they finally bring back the Lightning connector?

Considering your signature, I'm assuming this is a joke.

Unless you really are nostalgic for Siri as well. Siri and Lightning really do go together.

They both seemed great for about a year or two. Then their limitations quickly became apparent.

And Apple ignored them both for a decade until market forces forced them to pay attention again.

 

[lewchenko]

Wonder how much this pro max will a) weigh and b) cost.

The answer to both is probably too much!

 

[wasabah]

Wonder how much this pro max will a) weigh and b) cost.

The answer to both is probably too much!

Yes.. weight is already borderline for me.

 

[snipr125]

It will be interesting to see how much of a real world battery life improvement there is on the new models.

Well going by the 17 Pro, battery life is exceptional often spanning 3-4 days. The 18 Pros will be slightly better.

 

[JulianL]

This could be a real standout year for battery life improvements on the Pro and Pro Max...

1 - Bigger batteries.

2 - A20 making a geometry shift for better power efficiency and probably architecture improvements also increasing the IPW (instructions per Watt).

3 - At least outside the USA a pretty good chance that the C2 modem will carry on the C1 & C1X story in terms of being more power efficient than the Qualcomm equivalents.

4 - Better/bigger vapour chamber cooling meaning lower temperatures which can reduce leakage current.

5 - With iOS 27's focus on performance and stability I think there's a good chance that there will be some code path optimisations in places and that should also help efficiency.

6 - I haven't seen this one mentioned for a while so maybe it's a long shot but there were rumours that the 18s are moving from LPTO displays to LTPO+ which again is supposed to reduce power consumption.

Add all of that together and I'd be surprised if we don't see at least a 15% increase in battery life with the iPhone 18 Pro Max vs the 17 Pro Max and maybe even closer to a 30% increase.

The 17 Pro Max is already well up the phone rankings in terms of battery life and if Apple can execute well and get towards the top end of my expectations its really going to be in a good position to crush its competitors when it comes to battery life.

I'm quite excited to see what Apple is going to deliver this September.

 

[CEmajr]

Last year the Pro didn’t get the 2TB option. Hopefully it does this year as I don’t care for the larger phone.

 

[The Game 161]

UK getting screwed over again with a smaller battery

 

[JulianL]

UK getting screwed over again with a smaller battery

Do we know that for sure, e.g. because there was a document somewhere in the Tata leaks that explicitly listed which countries get eSIM-only and which will still have physical SIM? I thought that all we know for sure at this time is that there will still be two versions of the iPhone - one with and one without the physical SIM card slot - but no confirmation that what countries get what will stay the same as last year or if eSIM-only roll-out might be slightly wider this year.

I'm with you on this one though. I'm quite surprised that Apple isn't more aggressively pushing eSIM-only out to as much of the world as it can now, especially after to some extent laying the groundwork with iPhone Air last year. The cost savings and logistical efficiencies would surely be quite significant if/when Apple can get to the end-case of all iPhones being eSIM-only so I would have thought it would be trying to get there as quickly as possible.

I was worried about eSIM-only coming to the UK a few years ago because almost none of the local MVNOs offered eSIM but that situation has changed now. The last time I checked my MVNO (Lebara) now offers eSIM on all plans but only for iPhone Air - an example I think of how Apple has been able to prepare the ground for eSIM-only with last year's release of the iPhone Air - because now that Lebara has the infrastructure in place to support eSIM on iPhone Air I'm pretty confident that Lebara could and would extend its eSIM roll-out to all iPhones in time for this years iPhone refresh if Apple did go eSIM-only in the UK this year and so I would not have to go searching for a new provider.

 

[The Game 161]

Do we know that for sure, e.g. because there was a document somewhere in the Tata leaks that explicitly listed which countries get eSIM-only and which will still have physical SIM? I thought that all we know for sure at this time is that there will still be two versions of the iPhone - one with and one without the physical SIM card slot - but no confirmation that what countries get what will stay the same as last year or if eSIM-only roll-out might be slightly wider this year.

I'm with you on this one though. I'm quite surprised that Apple isn't more aggressively pushing eSIM-only out to as much of the world as it can now, especially after to some extent laying the groundwork with iPhone Air last year. The cost savings and logistical efficiencies would surely be quite significant if/when Apple can get to the end-case of all iPhones being eSIM-only so I would have thought it would be trying to get there as quickly as possible.

I was worried about eSIM-only coming to the UK a few years ago because almost none of the local MVNOs offered eSIM but that situation has changed now. The last time I checked my MVNO (Lebara) now offers eSIM on all plans but only for iPhone Air - an example I think of how Apple has been able to prepare the ground for eSIM-only with last year's release of the iPhone Air - because now that Lebara has the infrastructure in place to support eSIM on iPhone Air I'm pretty confident that Lebara could and would extend its eSIM roll-out to all iPhones in time for this years iPhone refresh if Apple did go eSIM-only in the UK this year and so I would not have to go searching for a new provider.

think it’s a carrier issue here than Apple to be fair. We have eSIM for air so why not for pros too

 

[Geekett]

e-Sim only is a trap. You become totally dependent of your carrier.

With physical SIM you can swap it between phones, easily buy a SIM in a local shop when abroad, you can use your sim in multiple devices (phones, routers etc.)