Among the iPhone 18 Pro’s major new features, improved battery performance is drawing attention as the change users will notice most. It is seen as more practical in everyday use than a variable-aperture camera, a new Siri and the A20 Pro chip.

On Sept. 13, tech media outlet TechRadar cited battery life as the iPhone 18 Pro’s “game changer”. Apple says the iPhone 18 Pro model that supports physical SIM cards, including in South Korea, offers up to 34 hours of video playback. That is about 26 percent more than the iPhone 16 Pro’s 27 hours. Streaming video rises about 41 percent, to 31 hours from 22 hours.

Based on that, the outlet expected real-world daily usage time to improve by roughly 30 percent. It said this is not Apple’s official figure. It said of the iPhone 16 Pro compared with the iPhone 18 Pro: "There are cases where you have to turn on low power mode or adjust use of maps and high-power apps once the battery drops below 20 percent." It said a roughly 30 percent increase in battery headroom could reduce such battery anxiety to a significant extent.

The iPhone 18 Pro also includes other major changes. Apple’s smartphone for the first time features a variable aperture on a 48-megapixel main camera, adjustable from f/1.48 to f/4.0. The A20 Pro has a 6-core CPU with 2 super cores and 4 efficiency cores, a 7-core GPU and a dual 16-core neural engine. A new Siri AI is also provided with iOS 27.

Apple cited a new battery design, the A20 Pro’s power efficiency and system-wide improvements as reasons for the battery gains. eSIM-only models, including in the United States, use the physical SIM space for the battery as well, extending video playback time to up to 36 hours.

That means a battery that reduces worries about charging, rather than flashy AI or camera features, is emerging as the key factor likely to spur real replacement demand for the iPhone 18 Pro.