The iPhone 18 Pro’s big camera update is all about the small gains
The iPhone 18 Pro offers iterative updates, primarily focusing on a new moving aperture camera feature and improved thermal management. Despite these additions, reviewers suggest that current iPhone 17 Pro owners may not find a compelling reason to upgrade.
Why it matters
It highlights the plateauing innovation cycle in the smartphone industry, where flagship devices are becoming increasingly incremental.
Last week, Apple announced an iPhone unlike any it has made in the past. An iPhone that has seemingly already led several other phone manufacturers to pursue entirely different designs for their flagship products. A remarkably distinct device with the kind of “I can’t believe they did that” software touches that Apple sometimes pulls off when it’s at the top of its game.
That phone is not the iPhone 18 Pro.
The 18 Pro and Pro Max are in the unusual position of being the second-most interesting iPhones that Apple is launching this year. The foldable iPhone Duo stole the show at Apple’s launch event, but it’s not arriving until next month. In the meantime, the 18 Pro cometh, and it is extremely familiar even with a totally new hardware feature in the camera.
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