The iPhone 17 Pro is barely a year old, but its successor could bring some meaningful upgrades. Rumors point to camera, display and performance improvements for the iPhone 18 Pro, along with a potentially unwelcome price hike.
Here’s how Apple’s next flagship could compare with the iPhone 17 Pro.
iPhone 18 Pro vs. iPhone 17 Pro: What’s changing?
Based on current rumors, the iPhone 18 Pro won’t completely reinvent Apple’s flagship. Instead, it will refine the iPhone 17 Pro formula with the usual annual improvements to performance, connectivity and battery life. However, the headline change could be a major camera overhaul.
Fresh colors, familiar design
Image: Apple/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Apple introduced big design changes with the iPhone 17 Pro family in 2025. Unsurprisingly, current reports do not point to another major redesign for the iPhone 18 Pro. The display sizes and the phone’s overall dimensions should remain the same.
Leaks point to the iPhone 18 Pro Max packing a battery that’s 500mAh battery than the iPhone 17 Pro Max. That will make the upcoming iPhone thicker and heavier.
Apple will reportedly differentiate the iPhone 18 Pro from the iPhone 17 Pro by doubling down on bold colors. Rumors indicate this year’s model will come in a new dark cherry color intended to replace last year’s cosmic orange. Alongside the usual black and silver, the iPhone 18 Pro will reportedly also come in a light blue shade.
Unlike the iPhone 17 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro may feature a more uniform rear design, dropping the two-tone look.
While some rumors indicate the iPhone 18 Pro will introduce a stealthy Face ID redesign, that’s unlikely to happen.
A ‘variable’ upgrade for the main camera
Photo: Pixabay at Pexels.com
Apple has not made any significant improvements to the iPhone’s main camera for a few years now. With the iPhone 17 Pro, it switched to a 56% larger 4x telephoto lens with a wider aperture for better performance.
This year, rumors indicate the iPhone 18 Pro Max will introduce a long-awaited upgrade to the main camera. Apple will apparently use a newer sensor for the primary camera and pair it with a variable-aperture lens.
That last part could be an interesting upgrade. Variable aperture lenses commonly appear in DSLRs and other consumer cameras. They allow you to control the amount of light entering the lens and the depth of field by adjusting the aperture.
What does a variable aperture mean?
A wider aperture lets in more light with a shallower depth of field (aka blur), while a smaller aperture lets in less light with a deeper depth of field.
Apple won’t be the first company to launch a phone with a variable aperture lens. However, previous attempts from Samsung, Xiaomi and others failed to impress.
The problem is that a variable aperture only makes sense when paired with a large camera sensor. Knowing Apple, though, it could come up with something better, just like the square selfie camera sensor on the iPhone 17 family.
Some rumors indicate the variable aperture lens will only come to the iPhone 18 Pro Max, not the standard iPhone 18 Pro. Will it translate into notably better photos? That’s hard to say right now. But unless Apple uses a larger camera sensor, I don’t expect the iPhone 18 Pro Max to capture significantly better photos than the iPhone 17 Pro.
More speed … but will you notice?
Photo: Cult of Mac
With every year’s new iPhones, Apple unveils a new A-series chip delivering even better performance and efficiency than its predecessor.
The iPhone 18 Pro’s A20 Pro chip should be no different. If anything, it will stand out for being the first mobile chip to use Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s 2nm node. Plus, it will use a new packaging technology that should help reduce power consumption and improve efficiency. All these improvements should allow Apple to push performance further.
A Chinese leaker recently said the iPhone 18 Pro’s A20 Pro chip will bring an 18% performance boost over the iPhone 17 Pro’s A19 Pro while reducing power consumption by up to 30%. That’s impressive, but Apple’s chip team has consistently delivered similar performance gains every generation.
Given the focus on AI these days, the A20 Pro should bring a major leap in on-device AI processing.
None of this means the iPhone 17 Pro’s A19 Pro chip is obsolete or slow. Almost a year later, it remains one of the fastest mobile chips on the market. Most users won’t even notice the difference between the A19 Pro and the A20 Pro.
Another step away from Qualcomm
Photo: Apple
Apple debuted its in-house C1 modem with the iPhone 16e in March 2025. Six months later, it unveiled the C1X inside the iPhone Air, boasting 2x higher speeds and superior power efficiency. However, Apple stuck with Qualcomm’s modem inside the iPhone 17 series, limiting its C1X baseband to the iPhone Air and “e” iPhones.
This will supposedly change with the iPhone 18 Pro. In the United States, the company will continue using a Qualcomm modem. But everywhere else, the iPhone 18 Pro could feature the C2 modem.
It’s unclear what improvements the new modem will bring, but it should be as power-efficient as its previous iterations. That should help improve battery life and performance in certain conditions.
For comparison, the iPhone 17 Pro uses Qualcomm’s X80 5G modem worldwide. Back then, it was Qualcomm’s flagship mobile baseband, supporting the latest 5G standards on both mmWave and sub-6GHz bands.
For all intents and purposes, the iPhone 18 Pro’s new C2 modem won’t be a big deal compared to the iPhone 17 Pro’s Qualcomm modem. The latter already delivers excellent 5G speeds, reliable connectivity and solid power efficiency. So, there’s little room for Apple’s modem to make a noticeable difference in everyday use.
But for Apple, this will be a huge step forward in reducing its reliance on Qualcomm.
The biggest upgrade might be the price
Unfortunately, it’s almost certain that the iPhone 18 Pro lineup will carry a higher price tag than its predecessors. That’s thanks to the ongoing DRAM and NAND shortage, fueled by the AI boom.
The iPhone 17 Pro starts at $1,099 in the United States with 256GB base storage. Rumors suggest iPhone 18 Pro prices could rise by $200 to $300, potentially pushing the entry-level model to $1,299 or more. The iPhone 18 Pro Max could get an even bigger price hike and cost $1,399 before taxes and fees.
Apple already hiked Mac and iPad prices in June. Despite intense DRAM and NAND shortages, the company is likely holding off on raising iPhone prices until its iPhone event rolls around on September 9.
The new Apple Upgrade Program should take the sting off the higher prices for users willing to lease their next iPhone. But that’s only available in the United States.
In other countries, the price increase will likely seem even steeper due to the weakening U.S. dollar. Buyers in those markets will certainly feel the iPhone 18 Pro’s higher MSRP compared to the iPhone 17 Pro.
iPhone 18 Pro vs. iPhone 17 Pro: More incremental change
Based on current rumors, it seems that the iPhone 18 Pro will bring mostly incremental refinements over the iPhone 17 Pro. The biggest hardware upgrade will likely come down to the camera, with a variable aperture lens (at least on the iPhone 18 Pro Max).
More importantly, the new iPhone is all but certain to carry a significantly higher price tag. That could make it difficult to recommend over the iPhone 17 Pro, especially if the performance, connectivity and battery-life improvements prove modest.
With all that in mind, the rumored folding iPhone — possibly called the iPhone Ultra — will likely steal the show at this year’s iPhone event.
Rajesh has been writing about consumer technology for over a decade, with a strong focus on iPhones, Macs and Apple’s ecosystem. He enjoys digging into Apple software updates, hardware changes, and discovering new Mac apps that make work faster and more enjoyable.
You can reach out to him at mail[at]rajeshpandey.me.
