The iPhone 18 Pro’s new design makes it feel like a filler episode from Apple

Get ready, Apple fans, the iPhone 18 Pro is pretty much finalized at this point and its components are almost ready to enter the mass production stages. But if you were hoping for a massive redesign like the one we got with the iPhone 17 Pro last year, you’re going to be a little more than disappointed.

Don’t fret, though. For all intents and purposes, the iPhone 18 Pro is like a filler episode until we get to the meat of Apple’s exciting new upgrades next year. Here’s why.

It will likely look largely the same

When the iPhone 17 series was just around the corner, reports indicated that Apple had a grand three-year plan for revitalizing the iPhone. It would begin with the iPhone 17 Pro — which launched alongside the new iPhone Air as well — with a redesigned exterior.

After that, the iPhone 18 Pro was supposed to feature a smaller Dynamic Island with an under-display Face ID. Lastly, the iPhone 20 Pro would come out without any notches or punch holes and feature a flawless edge-to-edge display.



According to newer reports, Apple seems to be having trouble moving Face ID below the display. If the company uses the same Dynamic Island as the iPhone 17 Pro, then your iPhone 18 Pro will look no different, harkening back to the years of identical iPhone releases.

But, even if Apple does manage to shift Face ID below the display, the phone is still very much a minor upgrade. The glass panel on the back might have a less contrasting tone and fit in better with the chassis, but that’s about it.

In fact, the biggest design-related reason to get an iPhone 18 Pro or an iPhone 18 Pro Max seems to be the new red color for iPhone. That’s it.

iPhone 18 Pro has negligible hardware upgrades

Apple is expected to use the next version of its in-house cellular modem line across the iPhone 18 series. The processor will also see a bump as usual, but that will translate to almost unnoticeable performance gains for the average user.

In my opinion, the most promising hardware upgrade that the iPhone 18 Pro could get would be a larger battery. Some leaks suggest that the battery capacity on the iPhone 18 Pro could be almost as much as 5,200 mAh. That’s not a massive jump, but any upgrade in battery capacity is a very welcome one.

Why the iPhone 18 Pro feels like filler

Surely all of this doesn’t automatically make the iPhone 18 Pro the filler episode equivalent of smartphones, right? To my mind, it kind of does.

Think about it, the big iPhone-related release this year is going to be the iPhone Ultra: Apple’s long-awaited foldable iPhone. The base iPhone 18 and the potential iPhone Air 2 are coming early next year alongside the iPhone 18e instead.

That makes the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone 18 Pro Max a couple of phones that are just…there. All eyes are going to be on the iPhone Ultra this year and they’re going to be on the iPhone 20 Pro next year if Apple is able to make it what it has envisioned.

At most, if the smaller Dynamic Island does become a reality this year, it will literally just serve as a proof of concept for the iPhone 20 Pro. A way for Apple to declare that they are capable of shifting everything disrupting the displays of its phones below said displays.

So what does that make the iPhone 18 Pro? A phone that will exist simply because it’s expected to exist. If you’ve been waiting for years to upgrade your older iPhone, I’d highly advise you to wait another year and get the iPhone that Apple has been working on since at least last year.

Don’t get the iPhone 18 Pro unless that deep red color really speaks to you. I hope the iPhone 20 Pro is available in black, though. That would be very welcome, Apple.

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