Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max Review: Killer Cameras, Speed And Smarts

On the user experience, software, and AI side of things, iOS 27 delivers Siri AI, Apple’s revamped conversational virtual assistant, and the company’s first proper Gemini competitor. The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max also incorporate new imaging features which were previously only available via third-party apps. And as usual, these handsets benefit from Apple’s broad ecosystem of apps, services, and accessories.

Today, I’m reviewing the iPhone 18 Pro Max, the bigger one of the two, but much of this review also applies to the smaller iPhone 18 Pro. So, are these Apple’s best iPhones yet or should you consider the iPhone Duo? How much of an upgrade is the new A20 Pro chip? Does the variable aperture on the main shooter make any difference? Has battery life improved as much as Apple claims? Let’s find out.

iPhone 18 Pro Max Hardware And Design

In Apple’s past, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max would have been “S” models, like the iPhone 3GS was to the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 4S was to the iPhone 4, etc… You get the idea. Tick-tock cycles are nothing new in tech and the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are an incremental upgrade (tock) to last year’s iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max’s major redesign (tick). Colorways aside, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max look and feel identical to their predecessors.

Burgundy replaces Cosmic Orange as the signature hue this year, Glacier replaces Deep Blue, Silver carries on (but the rear glass insert is now silver instead of white), and Black is new. The design is unchanged, and consists of a unibody aluminum chassis incorporating the frame and large camera pod, and featuring a glass insert stamped with Apple’s logo on the back. The shooters are arranged in a triangle like on every iPhone Pro since the 11 series.

The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max’s control and port layout is identical to the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max’s. You’ll find the power / lock key and Camera Control on the right side, and the volume rocker and Action button on the left. There are speaker and mic grilles flanking the USB Type-C port (USB 3.2) along the bottom edge, but nothing along the top. Like their predecessors, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are rated IP68 for dust and water ingress.

As you’d expect, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are eSIM only in North America, Japan, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, and the six Gulf nations. In the rest of the world, these phones have a SIM tray on the left side, but lack support for mmWave 5G and pack slightly smaller batteries. Four years in, I still strongly believe that excluding the SIM tray from iPhones in some markets hinders flexibility and reduces consumer choice.

iPhone 18 Pro Max Specs And Features

Processor & 5G Platform	Apple A20 Pro SoC (7 GPU cores), Qualcomm X80 5G Modem (US only), Apple C2 5G Modem (RoW), Apple N1 Networking Chip
Display	6.9-inch 1.5k LTPO OLED (Super Retina XDR), 2868 x 1320 resolution, 1-120Hz
Memory	12GB
Storage	256GB/512GB/1TB/2TB
Rear-Facing Cameras	48MP 1/1.28” f/1.48-f/4.0 Dual-Pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS - 48MP 1/2.55" f/2.2 120º Ultrawide PDAF - 48MP 1/2.55" f/2.8 4x Telephoto sensor-shift OIS, PDAF
Front-Facing Cameras	24MP 1/3.6" f/1.9 PDAF 1:1 aspect ratio (Center Stage)
Video Recording	Up to 4K @ 120fps, 1080p @ 120fps, 1080p slow-mo
Battery	5567mAh (eSIM), 5391mAh (nano SIM), 54W wired charging, 25W wireless charging (with MagSafe magnets)
OS	iOS 27
Dimensions	163.4 x 78 x 8.8mm
Weight	249g
Connectivity	802.11be Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, UWB, Thread, USB-C 3.2, LTE, 5G (sub-6GHz and mmWave)
Colors	Black, Silver, Glacier, Burgundy
Pricing	Starting At $1,299

iPhone 18 Pro Max Display Quality

If you turn the screen off and look in the top left corner at just the right angle and in just the right light, you might be able to see a faint, darker circle. That’s where the IR camera is located, and where the OLED panel uses a slightly different pixel matrix. But overall, you’d be hard-pressed to notice this under-display IR camera. Bezels are thin and uniform, and both screens are covered in Apple’s Ceramic Shield 2 glass.

iPhone 18 Pro Max Camera Performance And Image Quality

Both phones record stabilized HDR (Dolby Vision) video at up to 4k 60fps (4k 120fps with the main shooter), up to 1080p in slow motion (240fps rear, 120fps selfie), up to 2.8k 60fps in Action mode (rear only), and up to 4k 30fps for Dual Capture and HDR time lapses. Cinematic mode (portrait video) tops out at 4k (60fps main, 30fps selfie), and can now be applied to any video after capture. Spatial video recording is also available (rear only).  Audio is recorded in mono, stereo, or 3D (Spatial Audio), with optional wind noise reduction and audio zoom. Photo modes include night, macro, portrait, and panorama. Night and macro modes are automatic, and can be disabled. Apple’s Next-generation Portrait mode lets you adjust focus and depth after the fact, and features six Portrait Lighting effects. Panorama mode (rear only) takes ultra-high resolution images (up to an impressive 63MP).
Like most modern iPhones, these handsets use Apple’s Photonic Engine (computational photography imaging pipeline), and include features like Deep Fusion (neural image processing) and Photographic Styles (styles applied to pictures during or after capture). But the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max benefit from a new version of Photographic Styles, which, beyond the usual tone/color matrix and texture options, now benefits from a film grain toggle.
In my experience, the iPhone 18 Pro Max takes beautiful pictures with plenty of detail no matter the conditions, and it delivers the kind of imaging consistency Apple cameras are known for. Exposure is accurate, colors are natural, and dynamic range is great for a smartphone. Low-light performance is solid, and zooming is pretty clean up to about 20x (max zoom is 40x for photos, 24x for videos). Plus, it leaves most Android phones in the dust when it comes to video recording.

As for the variable aperture, Apple’s camera app offers four presets (f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8, and f/4.0), which are applied automatically, but can be set manually. This opens up some fun creative options, like adding star-like effects around light sources in night photos. But overall, the difference between f/1.48 and f/4.0 is subtle unless you shoot something close up, since the effect is limited by the main sensor’s relatively small size.
Interestingly, third-party camera apps are able to vary the aperture continuously between f/1.48 and f/4.0. And speaking of which, Apple’s camera app now finally includes manual controls for EV, aperture, shutter speed, white balance, and focus (but not ISO, oddly), just like third-party camera apps. Better yet, you can customize which controls are displayed in the viewfinder (up to eight, including others like aspect ratio, resolution, and night mode).