Display of force
A smartphone’s display plays a key role in the overall user experience, as it’s the component we directly interact with the most. The iPhone 14 Pro retired the notch in favor of the Dynamic Island back in 2022, revolutionizing the screen cutout and making it more functional. The iPhone 18 Pro goes a step further, shrinking the cutout to accommodate up to three Live Activities in the Dynamic Island instead of two.
While you probably won’t notice the slightly bigger display, with an extra 0.2 inches, bringing the Pro to 6.3 inches and the Pro Max to 6.9 inches, you’ll definitely notice the slimmer bezels, which are practically invisible compared to the 14 Pro.
The iPhone 18 Pro has a smaller Dynamic Island.
Apple
Other notable display upgrades over the 4-year-old phone include a 1,000-nit increase in peak outdoor brightness, with the iPhone 18 Pro maxing out at 3,000 nits. The screen is now also guarded by the Ceramic Shield 2, which has quite literally prevented my iPhone 17 Pro Max from attracting any visible scratches after a full year of unprotected daily use.
Sharper by a long shot
The advanced cameras are one of the main reasons many users opt for an iPhone. The iPhone 14 Pro already offers a highly capable Pro camera system, but the 18 Pro models take it to the next level.
For starters, the ultra-wide and telephoto lenses’ resolutions have both been bumped from 12MP to 48MP, matching that of the main lens. This upgrade allows you to take higher-resolution photos, minimize pixelation in low-light environments, and crop more flexibly. Plus, you’re getting up to 8x optical zoom, a significant increase from the 14 Pro’s 3x limit. That’s not to mention that the digital zoom now goes all the way to 40x.
The iPhone 18 Pro is the first iPhone with a variable aperture camera.
Apple
Other iPhone 18 Pro rear camera enhancements include a variable aperture for better depth of field and lighting adjustments, granular controls for elements like the shutter speed and white balance, ProRes and Apple Log recording support, wind noise reduction and AutoMix for editing footage audio, better low-light video recording, and much, much more. Those who actively take photos and videos will particularly appreciate all the improvements Apple has made over the past four generations.
