iPhone 18 Pro: Hands-On and Initial Impressions

So happy for all of you. This is so awesome. I’m glad that I’m glad that Apple made a big improvement in the speaker design this year. Remember that being a disappointment for a lot of people last year. I can’t wait till I was 27 and see what kind of cool features I get to play with you. It’s going to be fun. :-) I’m just happy both of my devices are still being supported.

It's interesting but I don't think I'd want to go for first gen. It is Apple so I don't doubt they've done a good job with the design, I just worry about resale for something that can have mechanical fatigue.

Surely agree with you on this one, Oliver. I really do kind of wonder how these foldable phones are gonna hold up overtime. But you’re right I’m not saying that Apple didn’t do a good job either. It’s just any thing that has constant moving parts is going to eventually have mechanical issues for sure. I mean back in the freaking flip phone days we had one of my friends lost the door on her phone and she lost half of her contacts when that happened. I’m not saying anything that drastic would happen with something like this, but it just don’t exactly know how they wanna keep the durability of something like this. It’ll be definitely interesting to see what the VoiceOver interface on this thing looks like. You’ve got the double screens so I’m trying to picture. This is more like you know I always interface it is gonna have the split apps and things like what an iPad has? I guess we really won’t know until like a Voice user gets your hands on one of these things and you know maybe comes on here and write their impressions or something. But yeah, I definitely want one of those cause. I just feel like looking at it would be very interesting to me.

I'm glad that the speaker quality is apparently really good for those who use the new 18 series phones. As for the duo, that might be something I might end up getting in the future to be honest, especially as I like smaller phones and would only be using the outer display which I'm pretty sure is a 5.4 inch display and not the big one as I really don't need it but by the time I actually would want to get a new phone which would be 2028 to 2033 both the mini iPhone 12 and 13 mini and SE phones would most likely either be discontinued or would have limited or no software support left

I thought I'd be excited about the camera. Sounds like a good thing, but I'm not that interested. That's life.
Maybe later on I'll be back in photography mode. Wood working all that stuff.

OK, holy cow, this speaker is amazing. I have an 18 Pro and I genuinely wish I had gotten the 18 Pro Max, because the speaker is so good. Imagine how good it could be on a bigger phone! I am just so impressed right now, although to be fair, I don’t think I would’ve liked the 18 Pro Max because I don’t like big phones. But for personal listening around the house, I don’t need a Bluetooth speaker anymore. I mean, this is not gonna rock a party or anything, but

When I would love to see if anybody has it is a demo comparing an older iPhone to this 18 pro Pro Max speakers. I think it would be especially interesting going from a SE 2022 speakers to 18 Pro if somebody did on here your devices. I just wanna see how different it really is. I use internal speakers on my devices all the time so I’m just genuinely curious. I mean, I know that really a recording of speakers is totally different than somebody being in the room hearing the speakers, but you know people that don’t have the option to be in the same room with it. I feel like it would just be really interesting.

My 18 Pro is apparently arriving tomorrow which is nice. If I do the phone to phone transfer from my 13 Pro Max, is it worth me upgrading to iOS 27 first or does it not make any difference?

I have been looking for a review that matched my personal use and this article matches it 100 percent. The very first thing I realised was possibly better bottom speaker hardware and better earpiece speaker tuning perhaps also an upgraded module compared to the 17 Pro Max. Thanks!

Michael, thank you very much for this review. It's also fantastic to read the comments, particularly about the audio.

From my own point of view, upgrade season is around december time, and this year that will remain the case. I love the sound of what I have read here (quite literally, it would seem) but I also want to read about the Duo. The idea of the Duo is something that really grabs me - the iPad in your pocket and all that - and yes, I am a Touch ID fan. That does not mean I can't do Face ID, so don't start all that chaqt again; I'd just rather successfully unlock my phone 999 times out of 1000 rather than 85 times out of 100. Unlocking it in my pocket is also something I have sorely missed. So, in short, I'll be waiting till christmas to see whether the Duo is a marvel or a mare. If the latter, it's good to know the iPhone 18 Pro Max would serve me well.

On mechanical parts, incidentally, most countries have statutory terms implied into contracts of sale, quite independent of the warranties. Next time a manufacturer tells you they can't help because your phone's out of warranty, just try telling them that you're not relying on the warranty, but on the statutory implied contractual terms. That always has yielded results for me.

I'd get the duo for that reason alone. But I would also get the promax for the sound. If only there was a phone that had a little bit of everything in it that didn't cost $8 million.

They will eventually figure a way to get face ID in the new foldable. Touch ID is not around to stay. People need to just get used to it. Face id works 99% of the time for me. It takes practice.

Saying people need to get used to it is in my opinion really dismissive. You have no idea about other people's experiences with Face ID. You shouldn't tell them what they can or cannot get used to. If they want to touch ID, so be it. If they don't, so be it no one's forcing them. Also same Face ID works 99% of the time for you isn't taking into account other people's experiences. I tried to use Face ID a few years ago, and it really did not work for me. It's the same with the in display fingerprints. When I originally started using them, I really couldn't, but now it's the easiest way to unlock my phone.

We're talking about unlocking your phone here,not your golf swing (the latter I certainly need to practise). I am used to it. I don't find it difficult. But 99 times out of 100 ain't good enough - not when there's something that works 999 times out of 1000. In any event, I'm afraid I don't agree with you. Listen very carefully to the wording of last week's spotlight on the Duo, and I actually would infer the exact opposite of your conclusion. but to return to the topic, my main point is that I would very much like to see how the Pro Max stacks up against the Duo before I decide. Another advantage of waiting till december is that it clears all the eager 'I must have it now!' merchants out the way and you'll probably get it when they say you will.

Just for apple, everybody else has it. Apple just does not want to get it or spend money on it. Simple.

Hi,

As always, awesome review. I'll take a look at both models whenever I go into a store that cells them, probably bestbuy. I still have my 16 pro.

Thank you for saying about how to calibrate dots for BSI, it was driving me mad, and I've got it working now thanks to reading that.
I'm having one weird issue since I set up my 18 pro max, the first time I touch the screen in BSI to start typing, it reads it as a dot, so if I tried to do like a g, it'll read part of the dot and not all of the finger presses, giving me weird characters, or characters before the letter. I've honestly never seen that, anyone else had it or know a fix? If you do, cheers, you're a legend

Which ain't us...

Although it is not working well now, I started using it when it came out. 16 pro max. FYI, if you are having issues and keep asking you for the passcode. do the following. setting, face ID, turn on and off attention, and do restart. It helps but continue to have issues. I think is a bug.

I wonder - is Face ID easier for those of us who have lost sight compared to those that never had it? For me, face ID feels quite natural as I guess my brain is programmed to know where I'm looking. But then I've lived more with sight than without. That's not to say that sometimes it doesn't fail and i have to put my pin in, but generally it seems easy enough.

Just curious.

I was sighted for 19 years. Good question.

I don't think this discussion will ever die. Some people will prefer Face ID others will prefer touch ID. That's the simple fact. We just need to understand that people will do different things and that's OK.

I got used to it and it was fine. For some reason or other the past year it has gotten way less reliable. I am sure after this many years I'm not holding/looking at the iPhone any differently. Also the backup option of if Face ID struggles it should unlock from the Apple Watch happens maybe once out of 300 times. So that feature seems a misnomer. Wish I knew what I was missing because I hate typing the PIN.

This is what I have found to work with newer iPhone devices and FaceID. Make sure whatever room you are in is sufficiently lit up. Doesn't matter if you are in a bathroom, a closet, living room, bedroom, etc. Sufficient lighting is a requirement.
Stand before a wall, maybe a couple of feet away from the wall itself. And place the back of your phone against the wall, try to line up the front of your phone with your face as best as you were able to, placing both of your hands on the device and holding the device against the wall, so that you can figure out your alignment accordingly. Navigate to the Face ID set up screen, and when it tells you to start rotating your head, rotate your face in a very tight circle, it doesn't matter what corner you start at, you can start left and then tilt your face up left, to up, to upright, to right, to downright, to down, to down left, to left. Keep the circle extremely tight, and Face ID will set up for you extremely fast. Timing is everything here, but trust me, this actually works.
Note, when I say keep it tight, do not tilt your head 45° in any direction, you want the circle to be very tight, just barely angling your face to all of the cardinal points. This is what worked for me back in 2023 when I had my iPhone 15 Pro.

Best of luck! 😊

I have an iPhone 18 pro saved in my account on Apple. I am constantly changing my mind about wether to buy it now or later. I want to start playing with it now, and I want it for my little vacation coming up, but I'm so scared the bugs will be terrible. I am not a developer, so I can't run the developer beta. I would if I could.
They should really push out a few bug fix versions in a hurry.
Yeah, I know. They would likely just have different bugs, but are they likely to be worse?

I love Face ID when my hands are wet or dirty and when I put my phone in one of those waterproof cases when I bring my phone boating or in the shower I'm cleaning.
I hate Face ID when I want to unlock my phone laying on the table beside the bed without picking it up, or doing something to it when it is in my purse. Setup needs good light but I find unlocking actually works better in the dark. I have decided I'll just always let a sighted person guide me through the Face ID setup. I have always done the rest of the setup myself, but Face ID is too frustrating and won't work as well if not set up right.
I have found that both unlocking methods fail and require my passcode. Based on evidence and not logic or reality, I could swear the devices know when I am desperate to unlock quickly and decide that much nervous impatience must mean I'm an imposture. LOL
Only my MacBook Air unlocks extremely reliably.
It would be most awesome if either option was available. The paranoid could use both and the rest of us could pick which was better.

You don't need to be a developer to use the developer beta any more. Saying that, it is still a beta so even if 27.2.2 (the current ev beta) doesn't have issues, 27.2.3 could introduce something. I'd probably not suggest it for a holiday where you are likely to be more reliant on it.

And yeah, I had the face ID bug. All in all the set up process was pretty crap.

The fact that I'm seeing more and more people having issues setting up face ID and network, makes me a little nervous. Perhaps I should try the device to device transfer?

Yes, I thought the same thing after I asked a question. I know that recording a speaker on a demo won’t really tell us exactly how the speaker sounds. I think you really only noticed this year directly in the same room with the direct devices that you’re hearing from. I mean, they kinda do this stuff all the time on YouTube as far as comparing I’ve seen it a lot with digital piano comparison and things like that. So I’m sure it’s probably different with phones, but I have seen this before. But yeah, I understand why that might not be helpful.