Apple's iPhone 18 Pro sits two full generations ahead of the iPhone 16 Pro, and the price tag shows it. The newer phone starts at roughly $1,200 in the US and ₹164,900 in India, against $1,000 and ₹120,000 for the iPhone 16 Pro, according to a spec comparison published by Gizmochina. Some of that gap comes down to storage: the iPhone 18 Pro starts at 256GB, while the iPhone 16 Pro's entry tier is still 128GB.
The design swap is the most visible change. The iPhone 18 Pro moves to an aluminum frame with a glass back and Ceramic Shield 2 up front, dropping the titanium build that the iPhone 16 Pro still uses. Both phones carry IP68 water and dust resistance. Whether that's an upgrade or a downgrade depends on whether you valued titanium for its own sake, since Apple's own framing here is about tougher screen glass, not a sturdier chassis.
Both phones use a 6.3-inch LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED panel at 120Hz with HDR10 and Dolby Vision, so resolution and sharpness are a wash. The iPhone 18 Pro pushes peak brightness to 3,000 nits, up from 2,000 nits, and adds an anti-reflective coating, which should matter most outdoors in direct sun.
Inside, the iPhone 18 Pro runs Apple's A20 Pro chip on a 2nm process with a seven-core GPU and 12GB of RAM, replacing the 3nm A18 Pro's six-core GPU and 8GB of RAM in the iPhone 16 Pro. Both phones run iOS 27, so the chip gap is really about future headroom rather than anything visible on day one.
Battery capacity grows from 3,582mAh on the iPhone 16 Pro to 4,056mAh on the iPhone 18 Pro's nano-SIM variant, and wired charging speeds up, reaching 50% in 15 minutes versus roughly 30 minutes on the older phone. Wireless charging stays at 25W MagSafe or Qi2 on both.
Cameras are where the newer phone pulls furthest ahead on paper. Both keep a 48MP main sensor with optical stabilization, a 48MP ultrawide and a LiDAR scanner, but the iPhone 18 Pro opens its main lens to f/1.5 and swaps in a 48MP periscope telephoto with 4x optical zoom, against a 12MP periscope offering 5x zoom on the iPhone 16 Pro. More resolution, shorter native reach, in other words a trade rather than a clean win. The iPhone 18 Pro also records Dolby Vision HDR video at up to 120fps against 60fps on the older phone, and adds ProRes RAW and Apple Log 2. Its front camera jumps to 18MP with a multi-aspect sensor, up from 12MP.
None of this makes the iPhone 16 Pro obsolete. It still runs the current iOS release, still shoots a capable 48MP photo, and costs $200 less in the US and ₹44,900 less in India at the prices Gizmochina lists. Buyers chasing the brighter screen, the new chip or the telephoto resolution bump will find the premium easy to justify. Everyone else has a strong case for staying put, or buying last year's model at whatever discount it picks up once the newer phone settles into stores.
MDFiled by The Mobile Desk
Phones from leak to launch to price cut: what was announced, what it costs where, and when it goes on sale. Indian launches and prices included, not appended.
More from this desk →
Be the first to comment
Join the argument. No password, just your email or a passkey.