Apple recently unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max, featuring a new Main camera with a variable aperture, new Pro camera controls, the A20 Pro chip, and more. With the foldable iPhone Duo now sitting above them in the lineup, the two Pro models are no longer the most expensive iPhones Apple sells, but they remain the most fully-featured traditional iPhones available. The ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ starts at $1,199 and the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max starts at $1,299.
Both see a $100 increase over the equivalent iPhone 17 Pro models, and the increases grow steeper further up the storage ladder, with a 1TB ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ now costing $300 more than a 1TB ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ did last year. Both phones have the same OLED Super Retina XDR always-on display with ProMotion and the Dynamic Island, the A20 Pro chip, 5G connectivity, a 48 megapixel Pro Fusion camera system, and the same four color options. Both are also offered in the same four storage tiers, including a 2TB option that is available on the smaller Pro model for the first time.
Although the two phones share most features, there are eight differences between the devices. Our guide highlights the crucial differences between the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max, and helps to answer the question of how to decide which of these two iPhone models is best for you. Both models share the same thickness of 0.34 inches (8.75 mm), but otherwise have very different sizes and weights.
T-Mobile will put your number on a second iPhone, but for the right price. Apple’s Handoff lets two iPhones share one number, but it won’t come cheap.
‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max Height 5.91 inches (150.0 mm) 6.43 inches (163.4 mm) Width 2.83 inches (71.9 mm) 3.07 inches (78.0 mm) Weight 7.44 ounces (211 grams) 8.78 ounces (249 grams) Other differences essentially come down to display size and battery life. As was the case last year, there are no camera differences between the two devices at all for this generation, with the variable aperture Fusion Main camera and the new manual Pro controls appearing on both models.
‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max 6.3-inch display 6.9-inch display 2622-by-1206-pixel resolution 2868-by-1320-pixel resolution 4,056 mAh battery 5,391 mAh battery Up to 36-hour video playback Up to 45-hour video playback Up to 33-hour streamed video playback Up to 40-hour streamed video playback Apple C2 modem in all countries Apple C2 modem outside the U.S., Qualcomm modem in the U.S. Apple does not advertise battery capacities on its product pages, but energy labels published in Europe confirm the exact figures for models that retain a SIM card tray.
The capacities above apply to those models. ESIM-only versions, including all iPhones sold in the United States, have slightly larger cells because there is no tray taking up internal space, and Apple has not yet disclosed those figures.
Apple lists its own C2 modem in the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ in every country, but the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max only uses the C2 outside the United States. Units of the larger model instead contain a Qualcomm modem, and iOS code seen points to the same radio used in last year’s ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ models, which would make it the Snapdragon X80.
The C2 supports both sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G, as the Qualcomm part does, and Apple says it is faster and more energy efficient than the C1X while adding AI-driven improvements to cellular quality and reliability. Real-world comparisons will not be possible until reviewers test both radios on the same networks.
The clearest hint that the hardware genuinely differs is in the band listings, where the U.S. ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ supports LTE Band 106 and the U.S.
‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max does not. Pricing is also a key area of difference, with the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max reaching $2,499 when configured with 2TB of storage.
256GB 512GB 1TB 2TB ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ $1,199 $1,399 $1,799 $2,399 ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max $1,299 $1,499 $1,899 $2,499 The ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max represents the most you can get out of a traditional iPhone with the best possible battery life, but that does not necessarily translate into a worthwhile purchase for all users. At 8.78 ounces (249 grams), it is heavier than any iPhone Pro Max that came before it, and with a 6.9-inch display it is a large and hefty device.
Some may find the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max’s size excessive or uncomfortably large to hold, while others will love the larger display for consuming media. Screen size is ultimately a matter of personal preference, and since the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max share all of their other features, it comes down to individual taste.
Battery life is the one area where the gap between the two models has widened meaningfully this year. The result is a nine-hour advantage for the larger model, up from six hours in the previous generation.
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