Upgrading from iPhone 16 Pro to 18 Pro

I’ve just bought a new iPhone. Nope, not the Duo; I got an iPhone 18 Pro. But here’s something: in my last phone upgrade post I said…

If I upgraded each year I don’t think I would appreciate the new features quite as much.

Even after waiting two years, though, I haven’t noticed as much of a difference as I’d hoped. Well, except for the case, but I’ll get to that later!

The biggest difference I’ve felt was the switch from Touch ID to Face ID when I upgraded from iPhone 6 to iPhone XS. Going from 13 Mini to 16 Pro comes a close second, while iPhone XS to 13 Mini was interesting but not earth-shattering. Then there’s this.

There are a handful of notable things:

• The Dynamic Island is smaller, as the Face ID camera is now behind the screen:
  • This allows for three background activities, rather than two, which is nice
  • The pixels where the Face ID camera is hiding aren’t as dense, meaning the text up in that top-left corner is slightly fuzzier, but I have to look very closely to notice it
• The front-facing (selfie) camera is better:
  • No need to hold the phone horizontally for landscape photos
  • Centre Stage makes framing easier
• The battery lasts noticeably longer; I’ve even set the charge limit to 90% and there’s still a tangible difference
• It’s ever-so-slightly heavier, which I like; I don’t miss the super-thin days of my iPhone 6 at all (so the iPhone Air is not for me)

It has a tougher, more scratch-resistant screen, an improved telephoto camera, and a variable aperture on the main camera, all of which are good things, but haven’t really been noticeable to me.

And that’s about it for the phone itself! The case, though, deserves a bit more attention.

Case

For years I’ve used official Apple cases in leather. I liked the grippiness and the durability; the leather cases I had on my iPhone XS and 13 Mini lasted as long as I had each phone. Any dinks and scratches gradually disappeared as I handled the phone.

By the time I bought my iPhone 16 Pro, Apple had stopped producing leather cases. Their replacement, FineWoven, had received terrible write-ups and had already been discontinued, so I was left with Apple’s silicone case or a third-party case.

I really like the Apple cases as they have a built-in Camera Control sensor, rather than a cut-out, which is how third parties tend to tackle it. So silicone it was!

Silicone cases feel amazing when they’re brand new, but they soon get slightly claggy. This makes them difficult to drop, which is good, but it also makes them harder to get in and out of a pocket without turning the pocket inside out! Not the greatest of starts.

Within six or seven months, the rubber coating of my first silicone case was starting to thin, and shortly thereafter it began to peel away. Apple were happy to give me a new one, which was good, but the same thing happened with my replacement case after roughly the same amount of time. This time Apple couldn’t help as it was outside the year’s warranty period, which runs from the original purchase date rather than the date of the replacement.

By this time Apple had introduced TechWoven, a more durable successor to FineWoven, alongside the iPhone 17 range. I hoped I could replace my worn-out silicone case with a fancy new TechWoven one. Unfortunately, TechWoven wasn’t available for the 16, so I was stuck with silicone.

With this new iPhone, however, I finally had the option of TechWoven! I’m less than a week in, but I’m really enjoying the case. The material feels high quality, it looks really smart, it’s easy to clean, and the buttons have a satisfying click.

Finally, since the camera bump is now the full width of the phone, it’s more balanced left-to-right when it lies on a flat surface. There’s still a tiny amount of wobble because the lenses protrude further than the bump and are all on one side, but with the case on it’s perfectly stable.

My best iPhone yet?

Apple has a habit of saying ‘this is the best [insert product here] we’ve ever produced’, which is hardly surprising: each year’s model is more powerful and feature-rich than the last.

This wasn’t as big a leap for me as previous upgrades, but in terms of overall satisfaction, this might just be the best iPhone I’ve ever owned.