So many iPhone 18 Pro Max leaks: I feel like the thing is already here. In reality, there are way more leaks ahead waiting to step into the light. It's two weeks until Apple lifts the curtain and in those 14 days, well-known insiders and tipsters will go berserk. The iPhone 18 Pro news storm is only beginning.
I'll take a break from covering every last millimeter or spec of the iPhone 18 Pro. Instead, in these five minutes of freedom, I'll take a more holistic approach to Apple's upcoming flagship.
Fingers crossed it's good. But what is "good", exactly?
The iPhone 18 Pro will also be pricier, which isn't good, but here we are. | Image by Macworld
The iPhone 18 Pro is one of the most important phones. Not because it comes with the biggest battery, the best screen or the most capable camera setup (it doesn't), but because it's influential. Everybody in the industry looks at what Apple does… even if Apple is painfully slow when it comes to innovation and taking tech risks.
For example, both Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra and Google's Pixel 11 Pro (and even some flagship Xiaomi and Oppo phones) resemble the iPhone with their rounded corners. What happened to the boxy, cool, rectangular Galaxy S24 Ultra, Samsung? Apple slapped a Camera Control button on the side of its iPhone and, voila, Oppo did the same.
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I don't see myself leaving Android for iOS—which goes to say that I didn't write this Apple ode because I'm in love with my iPhone, as I don't have one—but even I can't deny Apple's influence over the rest of the industry. Of course, Apple gets influenced by its rivals, too. Both Huawei and Samsung beat Apple (and its alleged iPhone Ultra) in the wider-than-taller foldable race; Sammy, in particular, has struck gold with the new Galaxy Z Fold 8.
So, if the iPhone 18 Pro is "good", everyone else will be forced to make "good" phones, too. This is called healthy competition, although one could laugh in a high-pitched voice and say that we're living in a corporate monopoly and competition is an illusion… and I wouldn't argue too much.
What is "good", exactly? That's the big question. "Good" may be a million different things to a million different people. Some value big batteries over anything else. Others crave the brightest display or the fastest processor. I, for example, am a sucker for cameras.
But let me tell you the iPhone 18 Pro could be objectively good and not make the same blunders as the Galaxy S26 Ultra or the just-announced Pixel 11 family.
Dear Apple, remember: a flagship phone is supposed to be a finished product. Yet somehow, even the most expensive phones can arrive with problems that make you wonder whether anyone actually tested and used the thing before it was released.
Take the Galaxy S26 Ultra's display situation. Some owners have reported an annoying red tint appearing on the screen, particularly against white or other bright backgrounds. It's not some catastrophic green-line disaster, and thankfully, reports indicate that this isn't a permanent hardware defect. Samsung has apparently identified the issue as software-related and is working on a display-calibration fix.
Great. I'm so glad there's a fix coming. But the first reports appeared around mid-July, meaning owners have to live with the problem for weeks and months while waiting for Samsung to get its act together. That's not exactly what I would call a premium flagship experience. More importantly, that's not what I'm paying top dollar for.
Forget "perfect"
No such thing. | Image by Jon Rettinger
The iPhone 18 Pro doesn't need to be perfect. That's impossible. But it can do better than Google!
The new Pixel 11 gives us another example of how a flagship can stumble in a completely different way. Google's new phone apparently has trouble running Genshin Impact, one of the biggest and most played mobile games around. That's particularly awkward when cheaper mid-range phones can run the game without turning the experience into a technological horror movie.
The problem is reportedly connected to the PowerVR GPU used by Google's Tensor G6 chipset. Some reports point to the GPU itself not meeting Genshin Impact's requirements, while Google reportedly argues that the game needs better optimization. Either way, I don't really care who is technically at fault. If a flagship launches and one of the world's most popular mobile games doesn't work properly on it, that's a problem Google should have anticipated and addressed before putting the phone on store shelves.
And this isn't even a brand-new problem. Pixel 10 owners reportedly dealt with months of flickering, screen tearing, invisible characters and crashes in Genshin Impact. Google therefore had plenty of time to work with HoYoverse before the Pixel 11 arrived. Yet here we are again.
The whole package
That's the kind of thing I mean when I say the iPhone 18 Pro needs to be "good": I want the whole package to feel properly thought through, tested and polished.
If Apple can launch the iPhone 18 Pro without various "mini" problems, compatibility headaches or obvious software rough edges, Samsung, Google and everyone else will have even less room to hide behind the usual "we'll fix it in the next update".
This is the sort of promise I would rather not hear after I've just paid over a thousand dollars for a pocket gadget.
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Sebastian is one of PhoneArena’s senior opinionators. A veteran news writer with almost 20 years of experience in media and technology, he not only covers all the hot news about Galaxies and iPhones, but often provides hot takes on industry trends. He’s fascinated with camera-focused flagships from the likes of Oppo and Vivo, as well as foldable phones.
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