What Upgrading to iPhone 18 Pro From iPhone 17 Pro Gets You

[daneoni]

Tempted by the Duo but i don't think i can justify it so i'm sticking to my 17P

The 18Pro doesn't interest me in the slightest as a 17P owner

Its either Duo or bust.

 

[magbarn]

I was pretty excited about the variable aperture feature until I decided to plug in some numbers: If you ever get a chance to mess around with a DSLR/ML camera with a consumer "kit" zoom lens with 24mm focal length, you can kind of get a feel on how the aperture settings on the 18Pro isn't that big of a deal. Despite the large f stops on the spec sheet, the sensor is so small compared to full frame, you're not going to get that shallow depth of field (DOF) that a f1.4 prime lens would give on a DSLR. It's not even close to a f2.8 zoom in isolation, let alone a mid range f/4 zoom like a Nikon 24-120/ Sony 24-105. It's basically a 24mm f/5.3 or so lens wide open and then around f/14 stopped down. 24mm f/5.3 still has a very wide DOF so you're not going to get what a full frame 24mm prime at f/1.4 would get you in subject isolation. If anything, it's more of a "kit lens" on a full frame camera. If Apple finally copied the Chinese with a 1" sensor then these apertures would really start to make a noticeable difference.

 

[JM]

Actually this is a far bigger jump than 16 pro, 15 pro, and 14 pro vs their last year's pros.

the similar jump scale would be 17 pro from 16 pro.

Only 13 Pro from 12 pro, and X from iPhone 7 jumped higher.

Meh.

Banned 'Throw Your Phone' Game Knows if You're Cheating

A new app encourages players to throw their phones as high as possible, then records the peak height reached. Here's how it works.

www.wired.com

 

[NetMage]

I’m not even convinced I should upgrade from my 15 pro. Any thoughts?

Really depends on how much you use the cameras especially telephoto and low light, and your battery life. At 500 cycles my 15 Pro is needing to be charged in the afternoon on days when I use it a lot (for web browsing) and I use cameras pretty often, mostly telephoto. I didn’t intend to buy this year (my and wife’s iPad USB ports failed same week and I already replaced one) but better cameras, better battery life that should be good for me three years from now and better performance sold me. Plus my 128GB is getting a little tight - I had to offload apps to get enough storage an update ago and have 28Gb free now.

 

[code-m]

Is it me or the newer style carrier upgrade offers (e.g. Xfinity Mobile Plus) make serial upgrading a thing again? For the past few generations I've done upgrades every 2 or 3 gen but now I think I'm going to trade in my 17 PM for an 18 PM. Also I've found I don't need 1TB. 512GB is plenty and most of my old photos are offloaded to iCloud now. Large capacity phones seem important mostly for recording long videos and content creators.

20th Anniversary iPhone may come with 512GB base storage with a higher price to justify the impulse buy.

Yes, this price bump seems small but it’s also starting at 256GB. I use half of that as most of my stuff is backed up Mac and cloud.

 

[gsmornot]

Upgrading from 15 Pro Max I could have waited another year, my phone was still working fine. Is working fine. I plan to place an order though and get caught up. I was a new phone every year person from 5 to 15 but backed off the update cycle to cut expenses and it has been fine but this year we move forward. The camera changes are welcome but I am the type that carries a compact or mirrorless camera all the time so my phone is for in-between or quick shots to share what I'm seeing. Rarely is it for something artistic but it could do it. I just don't enjoy the interface like I enjoy a view finder. I was not aware of the specific weight, if the Pro Max is 249g that is the same as my DJI mini drone.

 

[cjsuk]

Gets me a fat hole in my bank balance.

 

[code-m]

I was pretty excited about the variable aperture feature until I decided to plug in some numbers: If you ever get a chance to mess around with a DSLR/ML camera with a consumer "kit" zoom lens with 24mm focal length, you can kind of get a feel on how the aperture settings on the 18Pro isn't that big of a deal. Despite the large f stops on the spec sheet, the sensor is so small compared to full frame, you're not going to get that shallow depth of field (DOF) that a f1.4 prime lens would give on a DSLR. It's not even close to a f2.8 zoom in isolation, let alone a mid range f/4 zoom like a Nikon 24-120/ Sony 24-105. It's basically a 24mm f/5.3 or so lens wide open and then around f/14 stopped down. 24mm f/5.3 still has a very wide DOF so you're not going to get what a full frame 24mm prime at f/1.4 would get you in subject isolation. If anything, it's more of a "kit lens" on a full frame camera. If Apple finally copied the Chinese with a 1" sensor then these apertures would really start to make a noticeable difference.

Probably happen with the anniversary phone next year. Add manual aperture this year, next year larger sensor to take full meaningful advantage from it.

 

[d2d]

Wasn’t that surprised but still found myself disappointed. Sure the iPhone rebrand next year for the 20th will probably be the worthwhile upgrade but still I was hoping for a bit more. While I was there Wednesday the event itself even felt lackluster. There was not a ton of feeling that I’ve experienced many times before. The Duo is cool and true to their word with our shareholders it’s going to be a toy device over a main item. Sad to say it but I can’t bite on the new Pro line this year. I usually get at least two of the new drops every year, I don’t think I’ll be able to do it this time. I’ll be getting just the Duo

 

[Dj64Mk7]

This feels more like S update from the past (eg. iPhone 6 to iPhone 6S). Also lot of the updates for past few years have felt like incremental upgrades. We are still living in iPhone X shadow. iPhone Duo seems to be outside that shadow but will see.

To that point, the advice of waiting for S years has never failed me, especially since I got burned pretty badly by how buggy the 6 Plus was at launch. Now, since the XS, minus the 12 mini, I’ve been on the S upgrade cycle and it’s been great. (Also for what it’s worth, my first-ever iPhone was a 4S, lol)

 

[NetMage]

"Around 50% better low-light performance from the Main camera" How this is measured?

The 17 Pros wide open were at f/1.78, the 18 Pros are at f/1.48 which is roughly 50% more light.

 

[EugW]

I was pretty excited about the variable aperture feature until I decided to plug in some numbers: If you ever get a chance to mess around with a DSLR/ML camera with a consumer "kit" zoom lens with 24mm focal length, you can kind of get a feel on how the aperture settings on the 18Pro isn't that big of a deal. Despite the large f stops on the spec sheet, the sensor is so small compared to full frame, you're not going to get that shallow depth of field (DOF) that a f1.4 prime lens would give on a DSLR. It's not even close to a f2.8 zoom in isolation, let alone a mid range f/4 zoom like a Nikon 24-120/ Sony 24-105. It's basically a 24mm f/5.3 or so lens wide open and then around f/14 stopped down. 24mm f/5.3 still has a very wide DOF so you're not going to get what a full frame 24mm prime at f/1.4 would get you in subject isolation. If anything, it's more of a "kit lens" on a full frame camera. If Apple finally copied the Chinese with a 1" sensor then these apertures would really start to make a noticeable difference.

I'm guessing the bokeh quality on this lens probably wouldn't be great anyway even if the DoF were shallower. Maybe the fake portrait mode might work a bit better, I dunno. (I've never been too impressed by the fake portrait mode on these iPhones, and I don't expect the 18 Pro to be much better in this regard, although it has improved somewhat over the years.)

However, as I suggested earlier elsewhere, ignoring the wider max aperture for the moment, it seems to me that the variable aperture may be targeted more at videographers. Remember, it's not just a still camera, but a video camera as well. One of the ongoing complaints about previous iPhones was that there was no way to limit the light input on the phone itself. So regardless if you were doing outdoor shots or indoor shots, you always had to have external neutral density filters ready if you wanted to lock the shutter speed to 1/50 or 1/60 for video. The availability of smaller apertures will now allow people at least in some situations indoors to use just the internal camera features now without the need for neutral density filters.

However, while a CineD article I came across acknowledges this, it states a more important aspect here is that even if the aperture range isn't sufficient for some situations, the ability to stop down 2-3 stops will still provide significant advantages for exposure control especially with regard to highlights.

 

[Khojmdn]

For 17 users - nothing. I am going for it from 12pm.

 

[nepalisherpa]

Here's what you can expect if you're planning to upgrade from an iPhone 17 Pro or Pro Max.

• A20 Pro chip replaces the A19 Pro, with up to 20% faster CPU and 40% faster GPU performance.
• 7-core GPU that's up from the 6-core GPU in the A19 Pro.
• Twice the AI processing performance, with a new Dual 16-core Neural Engine.
• Redesigned vapor chamber with three times the surface area, enabling up to 40% better sustained performance.
• Smaller Dynamic Island that can display up to three Live Activities at once.
• Variable-aperture 48MP Main camera with ƒ/1.48, ƒ/1.8, ƒ/2.8, and ƒ/4 settings, replacing the fixed ƒ/1.78 aperture on the iPhone 17 Pro models.
• Around 50% better low-light performance from the Main camera.
• New manual camera controls for aperture, shutter speed, white balance, and histogram.
• New Apple Reference Image feature for creating authenticated, unalterable reference photos.
• Photographic Styles 3, with new texture and grain controls.
• Cinematic effects that can now be applied after capture to video shot at up to 60 fps.
• Cinematic mode at up to 4K Dolby Vision at 60 fps, up from 30 fps on the previous models.
• Time-lapse recording upgraded to 4K Dolby Vision.
• Improved Audio Mix with higher-quality voice processing and music isolation.
• New smart focus tracking for photos and video.
• Improved low-light video recording at 1080p.
• Up to 36 hours of video playback on iPhone 18 Pro, up from 33 hours on the 17 Pro.
• Up to 45 hours of video playback on iPhone 18 Pro Max, up from 39 hours on the 17 Pro Max.
• Faster wired charging: Apple says 50% in around 15 minutes, down from around 20 minutes.
• 2TB storage option on the 6.3-inch iPhone 18 Pro, up from a 1TB maximum.
• New Black, Silver, Glacier, and Burgundy finishes, replacing Silver, Cosmic Orange, and Deep Blue.
• Heavier design: The iPhone 18 Pro is 5g heavier than its predecessor, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max is 16g heavier.
• $100 higher starting price: $1,199 for iPhone 18 Pro and $1,299 for iPhone 18 Pro Max.

I bet 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max are definitely capable of processing these software features.

 

[CloneBB]

It gets people asking you "why"?

Going from a 17 pro to an 18 pro is consumerism run amok, and a massive waste of resources.

"how about find something charitable to do with the money instead?"

How about not telling people how to spend their money? I will be upgrading my 17 pro max to the 18 pro max and get the Duo just to spite you.

 

[braddick]

I get it that on these forums quite a lot of people seem to hate all things AI but for those of us who don't the A20 could be a game changer.

I watched quite a few YouTube videos of people demoing Siri AI in the iOS 27 betas and some of the context aware personal assistant stuff looked quite useful (e.g. "What time did I agree to meet Jane tomorrow?", "How long will it take me to get there and what time do I need to leave?" (hopefully personal context would tell Siri that I don't have a car so that is walking or by public transport), "What was the booking reference for my next flight to New York?" etc.). While the responses looked good the time taken to start generating a response (in the videos where the content creator hadn't edited out the delays) was more often than not slow enough to be quite frustrating for me in real use.

Perhaps a memory course would be a bit cheaper?

 

[poematik13]

I’m not even convinced I should upgrade from my 15 pro. Any thoughts?

I went from 15 pro to 17 pro and regret it. Its way too heavy and there isnt a noticeable performance difference on trash iOS 26

 

[fj_doebz]

So basically nothing

I’m coming from a 16PM which overheats constantly when I use it with CarPlay. If I run Music and Waze while the phone is charging and the ambient temperature is over 80. It stops charging.

Newsflash… it still will overheat.

 

[257Loner]

A lower beltline with your pants weighed down by the weight of a heavier iPhone.

 

[platinumaqua]

Kind of funny how some Apple fans will say how Apple makes quality devices that last, yet can't wait to get rid of them for a new one like a hot potato the moment a new revision comes out.

 

[denhol]

Why doesn't Apple release a single iPhone every two or three years? Think of the earth's resources and human labor that go into a phone that is barely different from the previous year's model, featuring only minimal improvements.

 

[TroyBoy30]

i just cant.........

 

[denhol]

I was pretty excited about the variable aperture feature until I decided to plug in some numbers: If you ever get a chance to mess around with a DSLR/ML camera with a consumer "kit" zoom lens with 24mm focal length, you can kind of get a feel on how the aperture settings on the 18Pro isn't that big of a deal. Despite the large f stops on the spec sheet, the sensor is so small compared to full frame, you're not going to get that shallow depth of field (DOF) that a f1.4 prime lens would give on a DSLR. It's not even close to a f2.8 zoom in isolation, let alone a mid range f/4 zoom like a Nikon 24-120/ Sony 24-105. It's basically a 24mm f/5.3 or so lens wide open and then around f/14 stopped down. 24mm f/5.3 still has a very wide DOF so you're not going to get what a full frame 24mm prime at f/1.4 would get you in subject isolation. If anything, it's more of a "kit lens" on a full frame camera. If Apple finally copied the Chinese with a 1" sensor then these apertures would really start to make a noticeable difference.

I would also take into account that the aperture on the new iPhone will be larger—meaning less light will reach the sensor compared to the iPhone 17 Pro. Essentially, every shot you take will be noisier. It will be very interesting to see comparisons and tests of the new camera. So, where is the improvement?

 

[Populus]

2014: iPhone 6 introduces TimeLapse
2015: iPhone 6S introduces 4K recording
2017: iPhone 8 introduces 4K60
2020: iPhone 12 Pro introduces HDR recording
2026: Timelapse in 4K-HDR 🤦‍♂️ that’s a joke, apple… that feature is backwards compatible

Wasn’t the 5S the one that introduced time-lapse?

 

[EugW]

Why doesn't Apple release a single iPhone every two or three years? Think of the earth's resources and human labor that go into a phone that is barely different from the previous year's model, featuring only minimal improvements.

Uh wut? Apple sells 250 million iPhones a year. That's a quarter BILLION per year. Individual people don't usually buy every year, but every year there always people from a few years back or else new people buying. People often don't like buying 2 or 3 year-old hardware for full price for obvious reasons.