11:57
Hey, what's up, guys? Today we've got two Apple flagships which might be on your wish list. The new iPhone 18 Pro and last year's iPhone 17 Pro. These iPhones might not seem so different, but in our testing, we found some nuances you might be curious about before you buy. So, let's get into it. These two iPhones look incredibly similar. In fact, besides the different colors, they're hard to tell apart. That's because the iPhone 18 Pro continues the design language introduced with last year's model. They're both made of the same materials, and the weight is about the same, too. The difference is just 5 g. Even the dimensions are identical
to the point where you can use a case from the old model on the new one. The ingress protection is solid on both devices. They're IP68-rated against dust and water submersion to a depth of 6 m. It's been like that for ages with the iPhone, so that's no surprise. And the physical controls on the phones haven't changed. The new model has both the Action key for shortcuts and the Camera Control key. Just as before, Apple has also brought over the same display to the new model. For the most part, both the iPhone 18 Pro and 17 Pro have 6.3-inch OLED panels with a high resolution and a 120 Hz refresh rate.
But the iPhone 18 Pro does bring a bit of an upgrade. The new model has a smaller cutout for the front-facing cameras, so it effectively has a larger usable screen. Apple achieved this smaller cutout by moving the front-facing IR camera to under the display. This didn't affect Face ID, though. It's just as responsive as ever on the new model. And other than that cutout, the performance of these displays is the same. In our testing, we measured the same great maximum brightness on both models, and both of them have an anti-reflective coating on top to help reduce reflections and glare. So, the bottom line is the sunlight legibility is just as great either way.
Now, to audio. The iPhone 18 Pro is louder with a score of Good on our charts versus Average with last year's model. The overall quality is great either way, though, with similar tuning. You can listen for yourself with our comparison tool linked below. Now, the chipset, and it's one of the major differences between these two phones. When it comes to performance, the new iPhone has the advantage with this new chipset, the Apple A20 Pro. It's of course meant to pack more punch than the Apple A19 Pro that's inside the iPhone 17 Pro. Not that people had much to complain about there. In benchmarks, we do see a difference. The new model outperforms the old one by a significant amount, both in terms of CPU scores and graphics-based ones.
But even though these gains are far from trivial, most people probably wouldn't notice a difference in their day-to-day use cases. Both phones are quick and snappy and handle heavy games just fine. But when we measured the thermals and sustained performance, the new model was slightly worse than the previous generation, throttling lower during our stress tests. We wouldn't call it terrible, but a bit of a step back compared to the 17 Pro. These two phones have about the same battery capacity. In the SIM-enabled versions, the difference amounts to about 50 mAh out of 4,000. But despite that negligible difference in capacity, there was a measurable difference in battery life.
The iPhone 18 Pro showed a bit of an improvement in our battery life scores, doing better in screen-on tests and earning a higher active use score, but the difference wasn't that huge. So then, how about the charging? Apple has increased the wired charging rating on the new model. It's gone from 35 watts to 45 W. When we measured the charging speed, the 18 Pro is a little faster, to the tune of charging a handful of percentage points more in a half hour and shaving about 15 minutes off of the time to a full charge. Not a crazy difference, but big enough that you might notice it.
The Qi2 wireless charging hasn't changed, though. On both iPhones, it's rated at 25 W. The iPhone 18 Pro can come with onboard storage at up to 2 TB. The 17 Pro is at 1 TB instead. However, the 18 Pro's 1 and 2 TB versions use QLC storage, which has been found to suffer a drop in write speeds once the storage is more than 60% full. As far as software goes, there's no surprise here. Both iPhones run Apple's new iOS 27 with the latest aesthetics and features. There is a difference in the camera interface, though. On the 18 Pro, you get the option to manually set shutter speed and white balance. You don't get that on the old model.
Speaking of the cameras, let's get into those. The 18 Pro's main cam has a new brighter lens with a variable aperture that you can control. A benefit of this is that you can manipulate the depth of field behind a close-up subject. Background blur aside, on the 18 Pro, we didn't really see much benefit in photo sharpness or quality when the aperture was further opened or closed. So, it's not really something you'd need to play with very often. You'd be good just leaving the aperture alone and shooting as before. The iPhone 18 Pro's rear setup overall includes that main camera, a 4x telephoto zoom and an ultrawide, all at 48 megapixels. And the iPhone 17 Pro has
the same setup, actually identical except for its main camera's lens. Now, let's compare the quality. During the day, the main camera's photos are very similar. That said, the new iPhone has a tendency for warmer colors. It also seems to have slightly better-defined detail. At 2x digital zoom, the new model's shots can come out a bit sharper in some scenes. At 4x zoom, the 18 Pro continues with the warmer colors. We wouldn't say there's much of a difference in sharpness or detail. And at 8x zoom, it's a bit more of the same. Comparing photos from the ultrawides, there's not much difference we can spot besides the warmth of the colors on the 18 Pro.
In the dark, the iPhone 18 Pro's main camera should have the advantage with this brighter lens, but we didn't see much of any improvement over the previous model. The 4x zoomed images at night are quite similar between these two phones, and neither is that sharp. The two ultrawides capture more or less the same photos at night as well. Since last year, there have been no changes to the selfie camera hardware, and the selfies you'd be getting from both phones are the same.
Great either way. And here's a look at 4K selfie videos taken with either phone. Both of these iPhones have the same video recording capabilities, too. When shooting during the day, quality-wise, we struggled to spot a meaningful difference between the footage of these two phones. The clips are consistent and as good as identical. In a similar fashion, the nighttime videos are a toss-up. You can hardly tell the videos have been captured by different phones. So, there you have it. The iPhone 18 Pro versus last year's iPhone 17 Pro. Aside from the difference in colors, you get the same design with premium materials. The displays are sharp and bright with an anti-reflective coating
and adaptive refresh rate. The Apple software experience is just the same, and the results from the cameras are basically the same, too. But the iPhone 18 Pro packs a few upgrades like the more powerful chipset, smaller display cutout, and the louder speakers. Battery life is a bit better, and the charging is a little faster. And there are additional controls when shooting with the cameras, including the variable aperture. The iPhone 17 Pro provides a very similar user experience, nearly identical. It even demonstrated better thermals, and since it's from last year, the price is lower. In all, the upgrades that the iPhone 18 Pro brings compared to last year
are measurable, but not necessarily that noticeable to the average user. And this means that in Europe, where the €1,500 18 Pro costs €300 more than the 17 Pro, the latter is the better deal since it will get you 95% of the way there. But in the US, the 17 Pro seems to be discontinued already, and the price of going with a refurbished one is not particularly attractive. So, if you reside there, it makes sense to go for the 18 Pro. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you on the next one.
