Apple rates the 6.3-inch iPhone 18 Pro at up to 36 hours of video playback, which is three hours more than it rates the iPhone 16 Pro Max and three hours less than last year’s iPhone 17 Pro Max. The small Pro has, in other words, caught up with a big Pro, just not the most recent one.
That is the useful way to read the battery half of the size decision. Within this year’s pair the Pro Max is still clearly ahead, at up to 45 hours of video, 40 hours streamed and 30 hours of typical use against 36, 33 and 24 hours. Across generations, the gap the smaller phone has closed is two years wide.
Key facts: every rating Apple publishes for the two sizes
| Rating | iPhone 18 Pro | iPhone 18 Pro Max | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video playback | Up to 36 hours | Up to 45 hours | 9 hours, 25 percent |
| Streamed video | Up to 33 hours | Up to 40 hours | 7 hours, 21 percent |
| Typical use | Up to 24 hours | Up to 30 hours | 6 hours, 25 percent |
| Wired fast charge | 50 percent in around 15 minutes with a 60W adapter | Identical | None |
| Wireless fast charge | 50 percent in 30 minutes with a 35W adapter and MagSafe | Identical | None |
| MagSafe and Qi2 ceiling | 25W | 25W | None |
| Five-minute charge | Not published | About seven hours of video playback | One model only |
| Battery capacity | Not published | Not published | Not published |
The small Pro has caught a Pro Max, just not last year’s
Line the published video playback ratings up and the 36-hour figure sits above every Pro Max Apple still documents except the 17 Pro Max. It is also three hours above the 6.3-inch iPhone 17 Pro, and nine hours above the iPhone 16 Pro.
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| Model | Video playback | Streamed video | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 18 Pro Max | Up to 45 hours | Up to 40 hours | Up to 30 hours |
| iPhone 17 Pro Max | Up to 39 hours | Up to 35 hours | Not published |
| iPhone 18 Pro | Up to 36 hours | Up to 33 hours | Up to 24 hours |
| iPhone 16 Pro Max | Up to 33 hours | Not published | Not published |
| iPhone 17 Pro | Up to 33 hours | Up to 30 hours | Not published |
| iPhone 16 Pro | Up to 27 hours | Up to 22 hours | Not published |
| iPhone 15 Pro | Up to 23 hours | Not published | Not published |
If you are moving up from a 16 Pro Max and were buying the bigger phone for endurance, Apple’s own numbers say the smaller 18 Pro would already be an improvement on what you have. That is a different question from whether it beats the phone sitting next to it in the store.
What the nine hours costs
The Pro Max premium is $100 at every storage tier, and the phone weighs 249 g against 211 g. Nine extra hours of rated video playback is the largest single thing on the spec sheet that the money and the grams deliver, since the chip, the cameras, the connectivity and the charging claims are all listed as identical.
Apple also publishes one charging claim for the Pro Max alone: five minutes on a cable for about seven hours of video playback. There is no equivalent figure for the 6.3-inch Pro, and none for wireless charging on either. Our explainer on the 45-hour claim and charging speed goes through what each rating measures.
The qualifier attached to both numbers
Apple’s press release attaches the 36-hour and 45-hour figures to the eSIM-only version of each phone, which is the one sold in the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico and eight other markets. Apple does not publish separate ratings for the versions with a SIM tray, so buyers outside those markets are reading a figure measured on a slightly different phone.
Neither figure is a benchmark either. Apple publishes no test conditions, no screen brightness, no codec and no capacity in milliamp hours, which is why the ratings are best used to rank models against each other rather than to predict a day. Our 18 Pro against 17 Pro comparison and the full launch-day specification cover the rest of the sheet.
What Apple has not said
- Battery capacity in milliamp hours for either size, which would allow any of these ratings to be checked.
- Typical-use figures for any earlier iPhone, so the 24-hour and 30-hour numbers cannot be compared with 2025 or 2024 models.
- A five-minute charging figure for the 6.3-inch Pro, or any short-charge figure over MagSafe or Qi2.
- Ratings for the models with a physical SIM tray, as distinct from the eSIM-only versions the quoted hours describe.
- Any figure for battery life while recording video, gaming or navigating, the three jobs most likely to decide which size you want.
Pre-orders for both sizes open at 5 a.m. PT on Saturday, September 12, which is 12:00 UTC, and the phones reach stores on Friday, September 18. The battery half of the choice comes down to nine rated hours, $100 and 38 g, with no independent measurement of any of it until the phones are out.
