iPhone 18 Pro Review: Rs. 36,000 for an Iris and a Chip

There are 2 iPhone Pros on sale in India this October, and the older one is Rs. 36,000 cheaper.

That is the decision this review is about. The iPhone 18 Pro went on sale here on 18 September at Rs. 1,64,900 for 256GB, Rs. 1,89,900 for 512GB, Rs. 2,39,900 for 1TB and Rs. 3,14,900 for 2TB. 3 major retailers list the 256GB model at exactly Rs. 1,64,900 today, so for once the launch price and the street price are the same number. In a year when most phones have drifted upwards, holding still is worth noting.

Next to it, the iPhone 17 Pro (256GB) launched at Rs. 1,34,900 and now lists at Rs. 1,28,490 at 2 major retailers. Our iPhone 18 Pro launch report covers what changed between them. This review is about whether those changes are worth Rs. 36,000 to you.

A camera with an iris, and a chip on a new kind of transistor.

Most of what a phone camera calls "depth of field" is a calculation. The lens has 1 fixed opening, and the soft background behind a portrait is drawn afterwards by software deciding where you end and the wall begins. The iPhone 18 Pro's main camera has a mechanical aperture with 4 settings: f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8 and f/4.0.

Here is what that means in practice, on paper. Wide open at f/1.48, the sensor collects the most light, which helps in a dim restaurant or a wedding hall after the lights go down. Closed down to f/4.0, more of the scene is genuinely in focus at once: a group of 8 people at a family function, or a plate of food from front to back, without software guessing at the edges. It is a moving part inside a sealed, water-resistant phone, which is exactly why almost nobody builds one. We have not shot with it and will not describe the pictures. We can say it is a real mechanism and not a renamed filter.

The other cameras are also serious. All 3 rear cameras are 48MP, including the 4x telephoto, and there is no filler lens anywhere on the back. At this price that should be expected, and it is still worth confirming.

The chip is the first in a phone built on TSMC's 2nm process, which uses a new transistor design. Apple claims performance gains, and we will not print a number we have not measured. What a new process reliably delivers is efficiency: the same work with less heat. On a 6.3-inch phone in a Delhi June, that is what keeps a 4K recording going instead of pausing to cool down.

Put together, it is better specified than 53% of the 204 phones we track on sale in India.

You keep the SIM tray, and you pay for it in battery.

Apple sells the iPhone 18 Pro without a SIM tray in a short list of countries. India is not one of them, so the phone sold here takes a nano-SIM plus an eSIM. For anyone who still changes operators by walking into a shop, that is good news.

The tray takes up space inside the phone, though, and regulatory filings put the India model at 4,056mAh against 4,288mAh for the tray-free version. Apple's widely quoted "up to 36 hours" of video is for the tray-free version. Apple India's own page says up to 34 hours for the phone sold here. On our index the battery is larger than only 6% of the phones we track on sale in India. Most of those are much larger, cheaper Android phones, so the comparison is unkind, but it is still the real capacity of the phone in your pocket.

Charging needs a small explanation. Apple does not publish a wattage for the phone. It says the 18 Pro reaches 50% in about 15 minutes with a 60W-capable adapter that supports AVS (Adjustable Voltage Supply), and no adapter comes in the box. Read that as a figure for a specific charger you may need to buy, not as "60W charging". Any other charger is not covered by that claim.

Rs. 36,000 for an aperture and a new chip.

Look at it as a buyer would. The iPhone 17 Pro is still available from 3 major retailers. At about Rs. 1,28,500, it is roughly Rs. 36,000 cheaper than the 18 Pro, for a phone that is one generation older and runs the same iOS 27.

So the question is simple. If you are coming from an iPhone 13 or older, both are large upgrades, and the 18 Pro is the one that will be supported longest. If photography is your hobby and you shoot in low light or want optical depth of field, the aperture is the kind of hardware change software cannot copy, and the 18 Pro earns its price. If neither applies, Rs. 36,000 is a lot to pay for a chip you will mostly feel as battery life and for a camera feature you may rarely use.

Updates. Apple does not promise a number of iOS versions. Its formal commitment, filed for the UK, is a minimum of 5 years of security updates from when a model is first sold. In practice Apple has supported iPhones for longer, but a track record is not a written promise, and we judge both the same way.

On the Android side, the Galaxy S26 Ultra now lists between about Rs. 1,25,000 and Rs. 1,40,000 for 256GB, well below this phone. If you would consider switching, our Pixel 11 Pro review covers Google's alternative, though it is thinly stocked at major retailers right now. If you want a bigger screen and battery from Apple, our iPhone 18 Pro Max review covers the larger model, and we set the 18 Pro against a folding phone in iPhone 18 Pro vs Pixel 11 Pro Fold.