Apple iPhone 18 Pro review

Apple iOS 27

The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max debut the latest iOS 27, and while Apple doesn't promise any specific number of years of updates, its track record speaks for itself. Seeing how you can install iOS 27 on the iPhone 11, which came out back in 2019, we think it's reasonable to expect the iPhone 18 lineup to receive at least seven major OS updates.

The major visual changes came with iOS 26, which debuted the Liquid Glass design language, so iOS 27 is more about refining the look. It also brings the long-awaited AI-powered Siri, along with extra-large widgets and a handful of other neat features.

But since we've already covered iOS 27 in detail in our iPhone 18 Pro Max review, we won't repeat ourselves, so make sure to check the Software section and get familiar with the newest mobile software from Apple.

Benchmark performance

First, the A20 Pro is built on a 2nm process. Apple touts its desktop-class CPU cores, a more powerful GPU, twice as many Neural Engine cores, and a 50% increase in memory bandwidth.

The chip also introduces a new side-by-side memory architecture, with the DRAM now placed next to the processor die using advanced wafer-level multi-chip packaging. This should improve heat dissipation and sustained performance. The redesigned cooling system helps here, too, with a vapor chamber offering three times the surface area of the one cooling the A19 Pro inside the iPhone 17 Pro. Together, these improvements should help reduce thermal throttling.

The A20 Pro features a 6-core processor with 2x Super Cores clocked at 4.93GHz and 4x Efficient Cores clocked at 2.64GHz. The Apple GPU now has a 7-core design, with Apple promising up to 40% faster performance compared to the A19 Pro.

The Neural Engine now has 32 cores, up from 16 in the A19 Pro, promising a substantial boost to AI performance.

The iPhone 18 Pro has 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM on a 96-bit memory bus, up from 64-bit, resulting in 50% higher memory bandwidth.

The phone is available with 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB of storage. Apple uses NVMe storage with TLC (triple-level cell) NAND for the 256GB and 512GB versions and, new this year, cheaper QLC (quad-level cell) NAND for the 1TB and 2TB models. With memory prices on the rise, QLC helps keep the cost of these higher-capacity options in check, but it comes with a caveat - once the storage is more than 60% full, write speeds can drop to about 40% of those on the TLC-based models. That's one tradeoff worth considering when choosing your storage tier.

Looking at the benchmarks, it looks like Apple did some pretty good work with the A20 Pro.

The performance gains in the CPU department are more than trivial, generational even. The newer SoC offers about 27% improvement in multi-core performance and about 13% in GPU-heavy benchmarks.

And in the combined AnTuTu 11 benchmark scenario, the newer iPhone 18 Pro outpaces the 17 Pro by about 43%, which is quite the achievement.

Sustained performance

Sustained performance was more than decent, especially considering the size of the device and how powerful the SoC is. The 18 Pro got 72% in the APSI Bench stress test and 48% GPU stability in the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test.

CPU and GPU stress tests

Still, it's a small step back compared to the previous generation, and it's not as good as the 18 Pro Max. That last part is to be expected since the Pro Max has a larger chassis, allowing better heat dissipation.