Apple iPhone 18 Pro Camera Test: Variable Aperture and 172-Point Score Impress
DXOMARK's lab evaluation of the Apple iPhone 18 Pro gives it 172 points for excellent overall camera performance. Its standout feature is a variable aperture that keeps group portraits sharp and extends depth of field automatically. The phone also delivers wide dynamic range, natural contrast, and strong low-light results. Weaknesses include long-range telephoto detail falling behind rival flagships, occasional white balance casts, and no portrait blur effect at night.
With a score of 172 points, the Apple iPhone 18 Pro delivers excellent overall camera performance, combining a wide dynamic range, improved contrast and skin tones, effective stabilization, and a well-balanced texture-noise trade-off.
- velcrovan
Someone should assemble a chain of iPhone camera review comparison images published over the years, 18 → 17, 17 → 16, 16 → 15 etc. showing how each year's new phone being so much better than the previous year's somehow becomes perceivably bad next to the next year's phone.
- matja
I'm surprised that in no reviews of the iPhone 18 camera there is mention of the bad quality bokeh, it has heavy ring shapes that looks like what you'd get from a cheap catadioptric lens.
Edit: e.g. the tree in one of the images in the page: https://www.dxomark.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/PoleHDR_D...
- gyomu
> "DXOMARK’s objective measurements and perceptual analyses"
Where are the measurements? All I see are vague generalities like "well-rendered images with improved contrast and natural-looking skin tones". I guess those are the "perceptual analyses"? Is there a "See full measurements" button I'm missing? How do they come up with numbers like "157 Portrait", "172 Outdoors"?
- azatom
Where is a comparing site where the exact same subject and lightening used? Why https://www.gsmarena.com/piccmp.php3 stopped it? I can only find these "trust me" reviews.
- sharktheone
Interesting to see what they got out of basically the same camera sensor. It seems largely just like way better denoising capabilities. Maybe that is why they needed the extra NPU in the A20 chip.
But even with that they are still behind Android phones, while they dominated some years ago