// 9TO5MAC — MOBILE & WEB
Four advantages iPhone 18 Pro will have over the iPhone Ultra
Apple is about to unveil its flagship new iPhones: iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Ultra. Price will be an obvious advantage for the Pro line, but here are several other ways iPhone 18 Pro will have an edge over the more expensive Ultra model.
iPhone 18 Pro is rumored to get big changes to its Main camera, including a variable aperture upgrade. And expectations are that iPhone Ultra won’t get the feature.
Variable aperture has been rumored for a while, but we still don’t know exactly how Apple plans to implement it. It could provide big improvements to Portrait mode and offer new levels of control over depth of field. Low-light photography could similarly get a big boost.
The components required to enable variable aperture are expected to be larger than the current Main camera. As a result, it’s believed that the ultra-thin iPhone Ultra will miss out.
iPhone Ultra should offer solid battery life, per regulatory leaks. But the Pro line—specifically iPhone 18 Pro Max—will still offer the best battery life in an iPhone.
iPhone 18 Pro Max is reportedly getting a 10% larger physical battery than iPhone 17 Pro Max. It will also benefit from efficiency gains in the A20 Pro and C2 chips. As a result, battery life should easily be the best ever in an iPhone.
With the unique form factor of a foldable, it’s hard to judge iPhone Ultra’s battery life based on specs alone. But the ultra-thin design and smaller physical battery will no doubt keep it from matching iPhone 18 Pro Max.
For the first time in years, a flagship new iPhone model won’t offer Face ID. Instead, iPhone Ultra will be limited to Touch ID.
iPhone 18 Pro, meanwhile, will stick with the Face ID system that’s been around for nearly a decade now.
Apple reportedly couldn’t make enough room in the thin iPhone Ultra design for the Face ID components. Proper support would have required double the components, too: one set for the outer display, and another for the inner one. So in the authentication department, iPhone 18 Pro will have a clear advantage.