Review
I had never previously kept an iPhone for more than two years, but the iPhone 16 and 17 both came and went without me feeling any compelling need to upgrade from my iPhone 15 Pro. This year, with no regular iPhone 18 in the mix for consideration (for now, at least) and Apple's new folding iPhone Duo firmly outside my budget and interest, the choice was simpler than usual. It was the iPhone 18 Pro or nothing.
With the iPhone 18 Pro priced at £1,199 here in the UK, "nothing" was a serious contender. So, I want to share how I reached my decision to upgrade, along with what I have learned from living with my new iPhone for the past month.
TLDR: The iPhone 18 Pro is the best iPhone I've used, but it's not enough of a leap to justify upgrading from an iPhone 17 Pro, or possibly a 16 Pro.
The Decision
My iPhone 15 Pro has served me well, and I had no complaints about its condition or performance. A combination of things pushed me to consider an upgrade, but the main factor was the battery. It had reached the point where it typically needed topping up a couple of times a day, and I wasn't comfortable with the prospect of increasingly having to watch the battery percentage when I'm out with my cane and relying on apps to help me navigate the world around me.
Most of us will always need to justify the purchase price of a new iPhone, and that's even more true this year, amid RAMageddon, the dramatic cost increases of memory and storage due to demand from AI data centres. The iPhone 18 Pro starts at £1,199 for 256GB, and the 6.9-inch iPhone 18 Pro Max costs £100 more at the same capacity. Both are £100 more than the equivalent iPhone 17 Pro models were at launch, and £1,199 is a lot of money for what reviewers generally describe as a modest update.
But I wouldn't be upgrading from last year's phone. I'd be upgrading from one that is three years old, which changes the maths and thinking somewhat. On top of that, since I bought my iPhone 15 Pro, Apple has doubled the storage of the entry-level Pro model from 128GB to 256GB, and I was able to convince myself that this at least partly justifies the higher price.
I also talked myself into thinking that I needed the Siri AI features that are only available on the newest iPhones: the more expressive Siri voices, the improved dictation, and the more powerful on-device model behind them.
Another voice, however, pointed out that the Pro offers little meaningful benefit for me over the base model, something that I've become increasingly accepting of over recent years. The differences generally come down to the camera and the screen, and neither is an area of much interest or value to me. Then there's LiDAR. For many years, I convinced myself that its promise for blind users should be a factor in choosing the Pro. That promise has still to arrive, and I should accept that it may never do so in the way that I'd hoped.
Because of this growing acceptance that the Pro model was more than I need, I came close to buying the regular iPhone 17 last year. The general consensus was that this was a particularly good year for the standard model, and I could see the argument.
This year's release cycle is different, though. Apple is expected to release the regular iPhone 18 next spring rather than alongside the Pro models, which means rethinking when to upgrade and potentially shifting my usual upgrade cycle.
I don't know what the regular iPhone 18 will offer or cost, and that uncertainty made the decision easier. It's simpler to commit now and get six months of use from a Pro than to wait until spring, only to wish that I'd had the Pro all along.
To further complicate my decision-making, Apple is expected to release a 20th anniversary iPhone next year, and I strongly expect to want one. But, much like my thoughts on the regular iPhone 18, I ultimately made a decision based on what is available now rather than what might be available in six and twelve months' time. I'm fortunate that I can make that decision knowing that I might only have this phone for a year, and then choose to upgrade if I'm as tempted as I anticipate.
I went with the smaller Pro rather than the Pro Max, for the same reason that I've always favoured smaller phones. I'm a firm believer that the best iPhone for a VoiceOver user is the one that can be operated and explored comfortably with one hand. Any extra screen real estate would be of limited value to me, so paying for it would be money wasted.
First Impressions
The iPhone 18 Pro isn't a dramatic change to look at. For those who can see it, it resembles the previous two generations, with colour-matched back glass across the four colours (burgundy, glacier, silver and black). Other than that, I'm told there's little to visually distinguish it from last year's model.
What I can tell you is how it feels in my hand compared with my iPhone 15 Pro. It's slightly larger and heavier. The 18 Pro has a 6.3-inch display compared with the 6.1 inches of my 15 Pro, and at roughly 211g, it weighs around 25g more.
Do I mind? Not as much as I expected. The extra weight is partly down to a larger battery and a substantially bigger vapour chamber for cooling, and I'd happily trade a few grams for both.
Controls
The iPhone 18 Pro requires very little relearning. The Side button, volume buttons and Action Button are all where I expect them to be, and behave exactly as I'm used to. Sometimes familiarity, and not having to retrain muscle memory, is nice, although that could change next year. If Apple's 20th anniversary iPhone brings a similar level of design change to the last time it celebrated an anniversary, with the iPhone X, there may be a lot of new things to learn.
The one new physical control for me, coming from the iPhone 15 Pro, is Camera Control: the touch-sensitive button on the right edge, below the Side button, which arrived with the iPhone 16 range.
I had high hopes for it. My assumption was that I'd assign it to one of the apps that I rely on as a blind user, such as Seeing AI or Be My Eyes, and have a quick physical shortcut to point my phone at the world and find out what's in front of me.
It turns out that none of these tools support Camera Control. I was very disappointed by this, and having gone through the options that Apple offers, I found none of them did much for my use case.
I did briefly try a workaround. By setting up a Shortcut that opens the app I want whenever the app assigned to Camera Control launches, I could get at least something close to what I wanted. But I wasn't happy with the resulting experience. It felt a little too messy, with one app launching in front of another, and I wasn't convinced that it would be reliable enough to depend on in a situation where I needed information quickly.
It's a shame, because this feels like a missed opportunity. A physical button that can be found by touch and launch a camera-based app is exactly the kind of thing that blind users could benefit from. I'd love to see developers of apps like Seeing AI and Be My Eyes add support, or for Apple to make it possible to assign other apps.
For now, I have disabled Camera Control, as none of the available options were useful to me and I found myself accidentally activating it at times. I suspect that I will revisit this decision in the near future and do some further testing until I settle on a useful function for this control.
Performance
The iPhone 18 Pro is powered by Apple's new 2nm A20 Pro chip. As with every year, the benchmarks mean little to me. What I care about is whether VoiceOver can keep pace with my fingers.
I haven't noticed any improvement in VoiceOver responsiveness on this phone. In fact, I probably haven't experienced a meaningful improvement in this area for several iPhone generations. VoiceOver has been fast enough for a long time, and I suspect that on the occasions when I've convinced myself that it felt snappier on a new iPhone, it was largely the placebo effect of expecting it to, or because I wanted to notice an improvement as something that would help to justify the upgrade and the purchase.
If you're considering the iPhone 18 Pro in the belief that it will make VoiceOver more responsive, I'd temper your expectations. It may also be that this is simply no longer a question worth asking, for reasons that I'll come back to when I get to the camera.
Where I have noticed a difference is in using alternative text-to-speech voices with VoiceOver.
Over the past few months, I had been trialling a number of third-party TTS apps on my iPhone 15 Pro. All of them suffered from at least one of the following: slower responsiveness than I was prepared to tolerate, high battery use, or heating up my iPhone. That prevented any of them from being realistic alternatives to the native voices, and I had hoped that the higher performance of the iPhone 18 Pro would address this.
On the iPhone 18 Pro, that has indeed changed. Several of the voices available either through the App Store or, in some cases, currently only through TestFlight, have been more usable than I've previously found.
For the past couple of weeks, my default VoiceOver voice has been Bridget, from Runa TTS. It's as responsive as I would want. It has a few quirks in pronunciation, and it seems ever so slightly more battery hungry than a native voice. However, the better battery life of the 18 Pro is making that trade-off tolerable.
This is a significant shift for me. I spent a very long time with the native Alex voice as my default, because every alternative either came with compromises or was simply a voice that I couldn't live with. I welcome having a real choice.
The Speaker
Michael Hansen, in his own AppleVis review, and some users on Reddit have praised the speaker on the iPhone 18 Pro, with reports that it's better than before. Some of the commenters on Michael's post agreed. But, no doubt because of how subjective this kind of thing is, it's just as easy to find Reddit contributors who either agree that there's no real difference or claim to hear a degradation.
I can't, in all honesty, say that I've noticed an improvement. Perhaps I would if I could do a side-by-side comparison, or maybe I simply don't have the ears to detect it. There's apparently no change to the speaker hardware, but it's been suggested that Apple has tweaked the audio profile, and that this is responsible for the observed improvement. I have no reason to question the experience of Michael and others who say the audio from the speaker is better.
Battery Life
This is where Apple is making its boldest claims this year. It says the iPhone 18 Pro Max offers the largest battery life increase ever seen on an iPhone, and for the first time it's publishing a "typical use" figure: up to 24 hours for the 18 Pro and up to 30 hours for the 18 Pro Max.
For roughly the first week, a new iPhone is often busy with background tasks like indexing photos, so I held off drawing any conclusions until that had settled.
Now that it has, the phone is more than capable of lasting a day of relatively heavy use on a single charge. That said, it's not uncommon for me to take advantage of its fast charging by connecting it to a charger for a short time when the opportunity presents itself. That's probably down to a combination of habit and a feeling of "just in case".
I recognise that frequent and unnecessary charging can contribute to battery wear over time, particularly if fast charging generates heat. So I should likely break this habit, accept that battery life is now more than adequate for my typical use case, and save the fast charging for occasions when it might actually be needed.
The Camera
The big headline for the iPhone 18 Pro is its camera, in particular a new variable aperture on the main lens. The consensus among reviewers is that this is the best camera Apple has made.
I'm not the target audience for aperture control. But like many blind people, I use the camera for practical tasks: reading labels, checking documents, identifying objects, and occasionally taking photos to share with family. For those, what matters is how reliably the camera finds and focuses on a subject and how well VoiceOver guides me to it.
Beyond this, I don't take enough photos to gain much from the best camera on offer. For my use case and requirements, the camera still functions as well as I have become used to, and that's really all that I need from it.
What strikes me is how rarely the camera now comes up in discussions among blind users in the way that it once did. For many years, one of the first questions asked about any new iPhone was whether the camera was any better for capturing and scanning text. It was asked with every new model, and then, at some point, it stopped being asked. My suspicion is that camera quality reached a level where the question became moot.
Possibly the same has now become true of whether VoiceOver feels any snappier. It was a question that I would have asked of every new iPhone, and one that I now find myself with no real reason to ask. These days, when VoiceOver misbehaves, the cause is far more likely to be software than a hardware limitation, and a faster chip can't fix a bug.
Face ID
Face ID is still here, but for me it's no longer the effortless background process that it used to be.
Many people have reported finding Face ID to be less reliable on the iPhone 18 Pro, and that has been my experience too. It has become more fussy, and there are far more times when it fails, compared with my past experience where it had simply worked close to every time.
It's been suggested that the issue is down to the Face ID camera moving to under the screen on the iPhone 18 Pro, and that Apple will be able to correct it via a software update. Apple has already released iOS 27.0.1, which fixed a separate bug that could cause some iPhone 18 Pro models to restart after a failed Face ID attempt, but that is a different matter from the general fussiness that I've described.
I know that some people still wish Touch ID was an option, and that for some, it's a reason to consider the iPhone Duo, which offers only Touch ID. But anybody who wants Touch ID that badly must also accept a much higher price and be willing to accept the new form factor.
Personally, the Duo isn't for me. My expectation is that I would end up mostly using it in its folded state, as the smaller screen on the front would likely be all that I need. I'd probably only use it unfolded through some sense of obligation, because I'd spent the money and it was there.
None of this means that I'm not Duo-curious, though, and I suspect that I'll find myself in my local Apple store at some point just to have a play with one.
iOS 27: Image Descriptions and Siri AI
The iPhone 18 Pro ships with iOS 27, and it's the software rather than the hardware that has made the biggest difference to how I use the phone.
Image descriptions in VoiceOver aren't unique to the iPhone 18 Pro, and were available on my iPhone 15 Pro, but they have honestly been transformative. Are the descriptions available from tools such as Be My Eyes and Gemini better? Yes. However, these native image descriptions are far quicker and easier to access, thanks to the one-finger quadruple tap that I have assigned to them. They're more than adequate for over 90% of my use cases, and they remove the friction of having to use the share sheet.
They also aren't limited to images. They can be used with any UI element on my iPhone, which means that I've already discovered text and controls which aren't spoken by VoiceOver. It turns out that iOS and some apps have accessibility issues that I never knew about before.
Siri itself also deserves a mention. For me, it has proved to be a night-and-day improvement over its past incarnation. People shouldn't expect it to compare with the leading AI tools, and for general knowledge it's okay, if not great. But its awareness of content from apps such as Mail, Messages and Photos is genuinely useful. So is its ability to work with whatever is on the screen at the time, which arguably adds particular value for blind users.
The simplest example is asking Siri to create a calendar event while I'm viewing a text message. One of my personal favourites, though, has been asking Siri to grab the preparation guidelines and recipe suggestions from a product page in the app that we use for most of our grocery shopping, and turn them into properly formatted recipes to add to the recipe manager app that I use. I used to do this manually, and being able to have Siri do it with a simple spoken request is perhaps modest, but it's a nice quality-of-life enhancement.
I've been far less impressed, though, by the Siri AI features that are available on the iPhone 18 Pro but not on my iPhone 15 Pro. The new Siri voices are okay, but not life changing, and it's disappointing that Apple doesn't make them available for use as VoiceOver voices. Dictation seems no better than it was before, and I routinely find myself having to correct bizarre mistakes. As for the on-device model, I honestly can't say whether it's making any meaningful difference. Given how dictation performs, I suspect not.
Who Should Upgrade
If you're on an iPhone 17 Pro, there's little reason to switch. Reviewers broadly agree that the 18 Pro is a modest step forward, and the price hike makes it a tough sell.
If you're coming from an iPhone 15 Pro or older, you'll find a faster chip, better cooling, a bigger screen, noticeably better battery life, and a better camera. For VoiceOver users, I'd say the main benefits are the battery and the reported better speaker, rather than any change to VoiceOver performance.
If you're coming from a model that doesn't support Siri AI at all, which means anything older than the iPhone 15 Pro, that's another potential reason to upgrade. Just keep in mind that I've been underwhelmed by the extra features that are limited to the newest iPhones.
For those with low vision, Apple says it has improved the anti-reflective coating, with better outdoor contrast and fewer reflections. I can't comment on this, but it might be worth trying in person.
Two small caveats are worth weighing before you buy. Face ID has been less reliable for me and for many others, at least for now, and Camera Control isn't yet useful for blind and low vision apps such as Seeing AI and Be My Eyes.
Closing Thoughts
If, like me, you rule out the iPhone Duo, choosing an iPhone is simpler right now in one sense, as there's only one new model to choose from. That may well change in spring, when the regular iPhone 18 is expected to arrive, possibly joined by a second-generation iPhone Air and, more likely, an iPhone 18e. It's harder in another sense, since it's so expensive.
There's real uncertainty about what RAMageddon will mean over the next couple of years. If memory costs keep climbing, further price increases seem likely. If supply expands to meet the increased demand, prices could eventually settle or even drop back. I don't know which way it will go, and that uncertainty is one more reason that I was happy to commit now rather than gamble on what might be available, and at what price, in six or twelve months' time.
For me, the iPhone 18 Pro is proving to be the right choice. The battery life has reduced my charge anxiety and the extra performance headroom has given me the freedom to move away from the Alex voice for the first time in a long while. I'd expect to keep the phone for the next two to three years, which makes the £1,199 easier to justify, although I might only have it for one if next year's anniversary iPhone proves as tempting as I expect. My disappointments are a button that, for now, I've switched off, and a Face ID that has become noticeably more fussy than I'm used to.
If there's one thing from my month with iOS 27 that I'd encourage other VoiceOver users to fully explore, it's image descriptions. You don't need an iPhone 18 Pro for them, as they're available on most recent iPhone models. I'm also enjoying Siri finally being able to do the kind of things that it should have been capable of a long time ago.
As always, I'd love to hear your own experiences. Have you upgraded to the iPhone 18 Pro? Have you noticed any difference in how third-party voices perform? Have you found a good use for Camera Control? Have you found image descriptions as transformative as I have, and have you discovered any interesting and valuable uses for them or the improved Siri? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Comments
Somewhat off topic but...
Hi David,
I'm curious. What recipe manager app do you use which integrates with Siri AI? I am on the lookout for one.
Thanks!
thanks for this
this is very interesting and thanks for the review.
also, on another note, i hope you are doing well now and that your health has improved grately.
Awesome Review
Awesome review. I very much enjoyed reading this.
Awesome review
Hi David, it’s great to see you back. I’m here with a review. This is an awesome review. I can definitely see why you wanted to upgrade from your 15 approach to the 18 pro. I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I have a regular iPhone 15 as my primary device and then my secondary device is an iPhone SE 2022, which is what I’m writing this comment on. And I just updated iOS 27.0.1 yesterday afternoon on both of my devices. Glad that it was worth the upgrade for you. I’m glad you said that you can’t use the new Siri voices with VoiceOver. I was asking that for a while and I hadn’t heard about that either way, so that’s good to know. Since my devices are too old to get any kind of Apple Intelligence capability. I don’t even get the new voices for Siri. To me those voices were just kind I actually found them to be a bit too human like for me. So I’m actually kind of happy I didn’t get them. It is too bad that they’re not available for voiceover for people that would want them. Every other voice is available for voiceover. Maybe it’s a different kind of processing power where voiceover isn’t able to handle those kind of voices in this screen rating format yet. I don’t know, but that’s my theory. Anyway great review again and it’s great to see you back on here writing. Hope you’ve been doing better, hopefully isn’t everything hope you’ve been doing better healthwise and all that. ok. I didn’t really love those places.
Genuinely useful
I very much appreciate this review. I’m currently rocking the base iPhone 14, was thinking to purchase the 18 pro. The only things that are currently holding me back is the bugs on iOS 27, and the plateau that came with the iPhone 17 lineup. I intensely disliked the plateau on the 17 which prevented me from upgrading. Apple has continued this plateau with the 18 lineup, and unfortunately this time I am hesitant to hold off another year. Mainly, because not only the battery on my current device is heavily degraded, but it is also very laggy under intense usage and heats up very quickly.
And with me potentially moving to another state in the next few months, I cannot afford to have a device that drains very quickly and is very laggy.
Could you just purchase a new battery for your 14?
Hi blue, could you just purchase a new battery for your 14 if you’re not ready to upgrade yet? I don’t know if Apple will still supply those batteries but I just thought perhaps that could be an option for you? Cause yeah I don’t like the idea of the plateau either. Also, I really know for me. I don’t want any bigger. I’ve got a base model iPhone 15. That’s plenty big enough for me. I have small hands and I’m also completely blind and I’ve been since birth so I wouldn’t be able to use a bigger screen anyway cause it would be useless for me. Good luck with whatever you decide to do. I’ll either keep the device. You haven’t get a new battery or find something that will work for you and good luck with the move.
Re: Somewhat off topic but...
Hi Gar, I'm a long-term user of Paprika. Sadly it doesn't offer Siri integration, so I still have to finish the job manually by pasting Siri's output into a new recipe. If you find one that does integrate, I'd love to hear about it.
David
Re: thanks for this
Thank you for the kind words, and for reading. Things are indeed much improved, and life has been treating me very well.
David
Re: thanks for this
That's brilliant to hear!
Same Path ... Same thoughts
You echo my thoughts exactly. I didn't realise it was such a large screen increase though, interesting to know.
Could you do a thread on the new TTS you're playing with?
One of the reasons I upgraded, aside from the battery, was having more grunt under the hood and the possibility of buildling some accessibility solutions that might not run as well on more moderate hardware.
Re: Same Path ... Same thoughts
Hi Oliver, thanks for the comment. The screen size increase isn't as noticeable in your hand as it might sound. When Apple moved to the larger screen with the iPhone 16 Pro, it shrank the bezels at the same time, from about 1.7mm to 1.2mm. The screen grew, but thanks to the smaller borders, the phone itself is only slightly bigger.
David
Same thought process
Wow! We went through a remarkably similar thought process in deciding to purchase the iPhone 18 Pro. The difference is that I was coming from an iPhone 13 Mini that wouldn't have the pro or Siri features. I did want to see if a pro was worth it for me. Still figuring that out.
Of course the 18 pro is like having 1.5 of my iPhone Mini in my hands, but it isn't hurting me as much as I thought it would considering the drastic weight and size difference..
I was extremely worried about Face ID not working as well on my new phone, but I am having no trouble at all. I can't guarantee this will help, but I think the following suggestion is worth trying.
I set up my Face ID after installing the 27.0.1 update and not during the setup process. I had read that most of the Face ID problems were caused by software bugs in the setup process, so knew better than to mess with it then. I realize that wouldn't have made sense for anyone who got their iPhone 18 right away after release. I got mine later.
Now that 27.0.1 is out, it might make sense to go through the Face ID setup again.
Make sure it is in a room with enough light.
If at all possible, get competent sighted help.
I hate recommending that, but it has really made a difference for me. The VoiceOver guidance really tries to make it work for us, but it is really hard to aim perfectly without a real person holding and guiding my hand holding the phone.
Perfection in holding it when unlocking is not at all necessary once the setup is done well.
I was shocked to find out I can even have attention awareness on and still have it unlock very consistently. Yes, I'm totally blind, but I am aware that I automatically look toward sound, so my eyes do go toward my phone when I wake it. I just have to remember to open my eyes. LOL Eyes closed is fine if attention awareness is off.
I keep being disappointed with Siri's ability to listen. My old phone seemed to hear me much better. I especially notice it when I am calling "Siri, Where are you!" Which I do often. Find My is just so excessively loud and complicated in comparison.
BTW, I think the Runa TTS voices are less of a battery drain than Alex no matter the device used.
Too bad BARD takes more battery to play a book than it takes to watch a movie for the same length of time.
I'm loving the big battery when it comes to identification tasks with the camera. I used such things very sparingly when away from home, because they ate through battery too fast on my old phone.
And even though I was afraid to give up convenient muting, I have decided having the action button set to recognition is really nice. Now there's no need to unlock just to quickly read some text in the real world.
I've only tested the other detection features at home so far. I'm afraid a large public bathroom is the most likely place for others to be useful, which might be awkward, but I can pretty much guarantee I'll get desperate enough to try some day.
I Just got mine today, not sure how I feel about it.
The mail app is painful. Why is it saying I have unread messages, but not showing any in my inbox? That catagory crap was a bit much too, but I think I managed to shut that off in the more button.
Yeah, I turned off that crap last year when I first came out
Yeah, that email categorized and crap came out last year. I turned off that thing so fast. That’s awful. Not a fan. Yeah the mail app is OK. Once you turn that off I think. I’ve been my experience anyway. I’m using an iPhone 15 with my primary device and I’m running iOS 27.0.1 on that as well as my secondary device of my iPhone SE 2022 running the same software. But yeah, that category thing being set might default was awful. I don’t know why Apple has to mess with a good thing I swear. Kind of ironic that your older phone was doing better hearing you asking where serious than your new one considering that she came up with 13 mini. I really wish there was still many phones in the Apple lineup, but I’m pretty sure that’s not coming back unfortunately. But I’m going to keep this as your phone as long as possible. I love this form factor. I know we’re not getting it back so I gotta keep this around as long as I can. Also, I really do kind of still love having a home, but I didn’t even though my regular phone doesn’t. Yes granted I can do the gesture, but I still think it’s easier to just have a single button for that. Yeah, a mute switch is something. I’m really not looking forward to giving up. That was actually the reason I went with an iPhone 15 and not anything newer when I upgraded. I knew that was going to be the last phone that would have one. When the 15 line came out the only phones that got the action button then was the 15 grown up so the base model 15 and the 15+ didn’t they had a regular meat switch. So I have a regular base model 15. I got it last year in August so I might even as late as that I was literally able to walk into my Apple Store locally here and get that it was in stock and everything. It’s the 512 gig variant in pink. Exactly what I wanted. I can’t believe that that’s not even the highest storage level you can get anymore. That’s crazy. I can’t imagine eating anything more than that. You’ve been in my SC 2022. I had the highest storage available for that too and that was 256 gigs. I’m just glad that the base models now storage level is I think either 128 or 256 is what they’re starting at now so that’s good. 64 definitely isn’t working anymore. My first ever iPhone was eight and that was only a 64 gig one. Nothing filled up crazy fast. I did delete a whole bunch of things in there just to save space on there. But that’s OK. It’s no longer here anymore. I give it back to Apple when I got my SE 2022. I got that right before I was 17 because 16 was the last one that was supported on eight so yeah here we are. At least that phone is still being supported. I mean heck it’s already four years old so it’s pretty awesome that Apple still supporting it. When we in heck they’re still supporting an iPhone 11 so yeah that’s pretty awesome. Running the oldest device supported is not necessarily a bad thing. I did that all the way through iOS 16 with the iPhone 8 and it came with 13.3 something when I first got it so I had it for good while. As far as the 18 pro, I hope you guys enjoy it and I hope that people are not gonna have as many issues with Face ID and stuff once they get all that set up. Still been an awesome review. I love reading stuff like this even if I don’t get any new devices myself or anything I think it’s still fun to read other peoples thoughts and experiences.
How do you turn it off?
How do you actually turn it off? Is it just a matter of unchecking or de selecting that show catagories option in the more button? Because I still seem to have 8 unread emails I can not view although that could very well be its own issue on my end.
Turning Mail categories off
Not sure if this will necessarily resolve your unread emails announcement, but Mail categories can be turned off by double-tapping the "More" button and deselecting "Show Categories" in the menu.
Another thing you can do to try and identify the unread emails is to filter your inbox. To do this, double-tap the "Toggle Filter" button, and then double-tap the button immediately to its right to change what's being filtered. Double-tap the "Toggle Filter" button again to stop filtering messages.
HTH
Re: Same thought process
Hi, thank you for reading, and for sharing your own experiences in such detail. I've set up Face ID a second time since getting the phone, but I might do it once more, just in case the third time's the charm. My understanding is that light level makes no difference to Face ID, as it uses infrared, so it should work just the same in total darkness as it does in full light. Still, thank you for the suggestions, and I'm glad to hear it's working so well for you.
David
I have still never set up Face ID
Hi guys, I have still never set up Face ID. That is totally my choice though. I’m glad that it’s working well for people who have done it. I just use a passcode to unlock my iPhone 15. I figure for me since I’ve been totally blind since birth, I really don’t have any concept of having to look at anything to turn my face towards so I just didn’t bother with it. But if it’s working for people great Miami means use it. I just have four digit passcode and that’s it. It always gives the Almer feedback when you put in a passcode. I think somebody was asking about that earlier on a different post. I always just figured that was expected behavior. But yeah I just found it odd that Apple didn’t get a standard iPhone 18 out for the fall, I just had a plural on a pro Max. It’s just seems like something that they haven’t done before. Although I guess they may have last year, but I don’t remember. Maybe they’re gonna come out with like an 18 E like they did for the 16 and 17 so yeah, it’s still pretty cool though. I’m glad the people that I’ve gotten 18 pro had a pretty good experience with it. I think for my particular cases I probably won’t ever need or use a pro at least as far as I can tell my foreseeable future right now with iPhones I probably won’t. I really wish Apple would bring back the minis though. I have small hands. I don’t want a giant foam and I don’t need a giant screen so yeah but unfortunately, I already know that isn’t gonna happen either. I wish I could’ve gotten a mini while they were available.
Nice
Nice read. Thanks for sharing 👍
Hoping that we'll see a similar type of review on here for the Duo, as like you I'm curious but won't be getting one for at least a couple of generations.
Re: Same thought process
Yes, previous phones only used infrared, but the iPhone 18 Pro is different because of the sensor being under the glass. I've read that it supplements the IR camera with actual image data.
Thanks for the review!
I too just upgraded to an 18 Pro, except from a 13 Mini. The new processor and battery life improvements have been night and day. (I was hoping to stick it out with my Mini til the 20th anniversary iPhone but it wouldn't have been worth it in terms of the lack of functionality the Mini was displaying after 5 or so years of constant use.)
The speed and ease of the on-device image descriptions was astounding to me. Having live recognition open while I hold things in front of the camera comes in clutch. Also social media browsing is much easier now (which is not good in terms of my tech addiction lol).
FaceID was OK for me, granted I installed iOS 27.0.1 before setting it up. (To set it up independently I hold the phone in front of me and roll my head around my neck, if that makes sense, to get all the angles. This method was also how I set it up on my last phone way back when.)
I found the weight manageable (although BSI is a little harder and my hands were in somewhat discomfort the first few days).
I just wish iOS 27 was less buggy. It really makes the experience a lot more unpleasant. As a longtime VO user I can work around most of the bugs but a beginner would struggle, I'd imagine.
I really wish I could’ve had a mini
I really wish I could’ve had a mini when that was a thing. Unfortunately, I had already had my first iPhone by the time that was a thing so I wasn’t ready to upgrade yet. And then by the time I did have a chance to upgrade from the eight there wasn’t a mini anymore so the best thing for me I ended up with was SE 2022. For me that was cool because it looks just like an iPhone 8. Thank goodness I kept that thing. I’ve since upgraded from the SE to a 15 regular Race model 15 by I have kept my SD as an iPod as I was never able to get an iPod when working. So here we are. Hey, like my ultimate dream here and I already know this will never happen :-) is I would love like the form factor of an iPhone 5 with all the modern processors in pot, life and stuff. I already know it’s not going to happen and I’ve mentioned it to Apple before they said that they’ve gotten a bunch of requests for something like that. Hey, I wish I still had that thing, but unfortunately that wasn’t working anymore either. That one was also kind of an iPad so it’s because by the time I get my hands on that thing it was literally my sister‘s old phone, but she forgot she had. Kind of a funny story actually. She was literally cleaning out her room and found it. I think it was like after like three years or something like she didn’t even know if she still had it and I was just starting to learn how to do the voice of our gestures on my phone. She gave it to me because she wasn’t gonna use it anymore and whatever she was literally like hey, I have something for you if I can get it charged like she literally didn’t even know if she can get the battery charged on it or anything and thankfully she was able to and then she turned on voiceover on it and gave it to me and said here have fun and I said well for how much cause I literally would’ve like bought it from her and she was like nope I think I’m gonna give it to you. I was like OK cool so yeah it was pretty cool. I ended up with that and I use it for quite a few years. The only reason unfortunately that I wasn’t able to keep using it is because the battery was starting to go bad and it in the phone. We just kind of shut down completely after like 20% battery couldn’t even get it to 10% before you had to plug it in so it just wasn’t really working right so I need to all the content on it and then just like recycling. So the coolest thing now though is with iOS 27 We have a return of all the they call it legacy the old Voice that finally became available for voiceover, so I’m really happy about that because I get to use the ones that I missed from iOS 10 days as my voices. I’m currently using Martha enhanced on my iPhone 15 and Catherine hamster on my iPhone SE 2022. I think if I were going to upgrade now, I would see when the standard 18 comes out and then I would maybe look at that, but I don’t have any reason to upgrade right now. My device is still work perfectly well thankfully. I’m really happy that people have had pretty good experiences with this 18 pro though. I love that there are different form factors because obviously we all use devices differently and have different needs so I think it’s pretty cool that Apple has a lot of different options. I really wanna see one of those duo phones. Getting one yet either but definitely once I can help. I’d be really curious to know if the interface on that thing is more like an iPad interface or if it’s gonna be more like an iOS interface even though it’s still running iOS just because of the way that there’s gonna be a two screens. I guess we’ll see once people get a chance to get their hands on one. Yeah I definitely can’t wait to hear a review about that phone from a voiceover users perspective. It would be pretty interesting. Sorry for the long post. Oh and before anybody says anything yes I know I wrote Catherine hamster instead of Catherine enhanced. Lol.
Re: I really wish I could’ve had a mini
I'm mildly interested in reading a review here on that duo phone too, Singer Girl. Think I'll get the 18 Pro, but it's nice to know what the others are like. Have to be careful to get the one that has the features I will need later on, just planning ahead for when I want to do more photography. It's kind of like I need the phone for describing things and social media, maybe a picture here and there, right at the moment, and I have to resist getting the least of the models. Such is my life. LOL
Oh, you mean like future proofing?
Yeah, I think you mean like future proofing. Yeah it’s hard because there’s definitely phones that have great features that look really cool but if they’re not ones that we would ever use and we obviously wouldn’t want to put money into that but then you have to make sure you have the features that you’re actually going to need and it’s all a bouncing act. Yes, OK yes it’s the first world problem but yeah like you said your life. Lol. But you would be coming from an SE 2000 2218 Pro, correct? That would really be a big jump. I am so not ready to give that phone up. I’m actually writing my comment on it right now. I’m keeping this thing as long as I possibly can. I wasn’t letting Apple take the last device ever with a home button. They did ask me if I wanted to trade in my iPad mini six generation and the SE 2022 when I got my iPhone 15 and I was just like no I’m keeping that I mean I wanted to tell them the rest of it like you know I’m keeping it because he didn’t want anybody taking away my home button yet I mean, yes I can do the gesture on a 15 without a home button, but I still wish that we had that. I still find it easier to push one button to go home and one button to do the app switcher to do the three finger swiping things but it is what it is. Apple‘s not bringing it back so I can’t do anything about that unfortunately. Here we are. The other thing I’m really not ready to give up as a mute switch. I really I’m not looking forward to the day that I’m going to have to switch to an action button. I swear Apple just changes the hardware just to change the hardware for no other damn good reason. I mean look if somebody really does know a legit reason why we don’t have to switch anymore please tell me because maybe I’m missing something here but there’s just too many freaking side buttons on these phones now. I really don’t want a phone with the camera button either. I’ll have to look into that one at this time for me to upgrade. The phone that doesn’t have a camera button and action button and then volume button and I mean a power button it’s just too many freaking buttons on the side of the phone. I can’t touch. I’ve already accidentally activated so many damn times with the iPhone 15 because the power button button being doubled. Whatever done I promise. Oh, I just don’t like that. I accidentally activate Siri so many times with the side button because it’s so easy to accidentally push that.
Re: Oh, you mean like future proofing?
Ya, future proof might be a good way of describing it, just from myself. LOL Things will shift back over to other interests at some point for me, that's one thing I can be completely sure of.
I am still using the SE3, and it's all I need for now.
Yeah, it is a great phone
I think it’s a great phone. I really wish the Apple would’ve stuck to that design for one of their models but hey, they didn’t. When I was using it as a phone, it was definitely a big difference in clarity even a phone calls and stuff from just from the iPhone 8 that I had from before that and it was a big difference. I think this thing is gonna get updates for a while though so you should be fine. Mine is not a phone anymore like I said earlier, but I had to keep it around. I may obviously it’s up to you if you wanna need your device but just out of curiosity, would you keep this one around as an iPod like what I did with mine? Just wondering how many people still keep their older devices as iPods.
Re: Yeah, it is a great phone
I'll probably keep it around. I do have an iPhone 7, but it doesn't get updated and I'm afraid to do much with it because of its old software.
Duo-curiosity update
My Duo-curiosity has now been satisfied.
We were quite literally passing our local Apple Store, so the chance of some hands-on time was too tempting. The store was busy, so I kept it brief. That was long enough to get a feel for it in hand, but not long enough to turn VoiceOver on and take it for a proper spin.
It didn't feel like an iPhone, either folded or open. Folded, it's shorter, wider and thicker than my 18 Pro, and although it's only fractionally heavier than the 18 Pro Max, the shape made it feel weightier than the numbers would suggest. It simply felt odd in hand. Not like a phone. Just don't ask me to explain how or why. It also felt like it would make for an awkward fit and an unfamiliar sensation in a pocket, although Apple's security tether meant that I couldn't put that to the test. As is the nature of these things, I expect all of this would quickly change after a few days of living with it.
It felt very premium, though, and the fold and unfold were smooth and reassuringly sturdy. I *think* I could feel the screen crease, but only when I went looking for it. I doubt that I would notice it in normal use. I've never held an iPad mini, but I imagine the Duo must feel very similar to one when open.
Is it for me? Heck, no. Apart from the price, I can't see a benefit over a regular iPhone for my use case and circumstances. Also, splitting my screen into two or more windows has never clicked with me in 30+ years of computing, and I don't expect the Duo's unfolded mode would change that.
I'd love to hear from VoiceOver users who have bought a Duo and found real use cases for it.
I wouldn't mind getting the duo
If the 2 TB version wasn't almost 6000 bloody Australian dollars.
Not worth it for a Device I would only be using for the small screen and touch ID. That's literally the only reason I would use it.
Not buying anything this year
I was all excited about the iPhone Duo and even preordered it on October 16th, but was only allowed into the site at T+5 when the delivery dates had already been pushed back to late November the earliest. I still preordered a Night Sky colored iPhone Duo, which to my surprise was dark blue instead of black so I was already feeling bad for not preordering the Starlight or white model. Then I started reading complaints of Duos broken on arrival and watched a video where the Duo was subjected to a durability test that failed spectacularly, as the inner screen is very prone to scratching and the hinge is very prone to malfunctioning after exposure to dust, so I ended up cancelling my order.
My current daily driver is the baseline iPhone 17; I also own the 17 Pro which was seized to investigate a security breach but should be returned soon, so I have no compelling reason to buy any of this year's iPhones, or any other Apple gear for that matter. Maybe the AirPods 5, but since I already own two pairs of AirPods Pro 3 (with one of which having also been seized), I don't think that I need more AirPods either.
Editing to state that the original poster might be confusing the camera control button with the action button, which is above the volume controls, whereas the camera control button is on the bottom right side of the device in portrait orientation. The action button can be configured to activate Apple's live recognition, which I think is its default configuration and probably runs on-device.
Re: Not buying anything this year
unreleated, but how on earth does your earpods get seazed. i'd understand a phone or computer, but airpods? wow
Re: Not buying anything this year
I suspected that their firmware was also compromised, since in many occasions they would connect, disconnect, and reconnect to my devices. Thinking in hindsight it was likely that the devices were the problem, but I was kinda panicking back then after finding that System Integrity Protection was disabled on my Mac Studio, something that requires local access and that I never do myself as I use virtual machines when I need to defang macOS for reverse-engineering, so I just handed all my Apple gear over to the police.
Re: Not buying anything this year
No confusion. It may be worth another look at the review. In particular:
And
The Action Button is already assigned to something that I don't want to change, which is why I had hoped Camera Control would offer a second physical, fast launcher for a camera-first app such as Seeing AI or Be My Eyes.
Re: Not buying anything this year
sounds like you live a way more eventful life compared to me ngl,
Re: Not buying anything this year
Worst part is that I still don't know who targeted me or why, and suspect that this was state-sponsored, because they had access to my bank account for months and didn't touch the money, so they were looking for something else. I suspect that they were looking for computer vision technology that I'm currently developing to hopefully help Ukraine with self-piloting drones, but that's just a wild guess.
The fact that they managed to disable SIP on my Mac Studio means two things:
No idea how they managed to control my iPhone and iPad though, but both devices would have actions performed on them when unlocked, my iPhone in particular had new photos added every day, and when I reset my Apple Watch using Find My, it rebooted with VoiceOver speaking Mandarin. Those were not fun times.
Not buying anything this year either
I’m not buying anything this year either. I am totally happy with my two iPhones 15 is my primary SE 2022 secondary. Plus when I found out that the duo phone is $2000 in the US. There is no way in hell, I’m paying that kind of money for anything. But if you’ve seen videos about the duration test to somebody sit on here, I’m definitely not willing to put out that kind of money for something like that that’s ridiculous. Although I suppose that should’ve been expected from a first generation device possibly, but you would think that they would’ve done more testing on the hinges or something like that if they were gonna do it kind of like that. Mini is pretty big. I used to have one. It’s a big flat kind of slab like device I guess a giant iPhone screen, but it doesn’t exactly operate exactly like an iPhone and that’s what makes it harder to use. I think when you’re totally blind, but that’s only because I was trying to use it like a phone because I wasn’t told how to use it otherwise. Yeah splitting the screen apps and stuff is just too complicated for me. I’m guessing they’ll do a phone wouldn’t be any better. I would love to hear some reviews about that once there are some voiceover usually you get their hands on one though. Yeah, I kinda wanna go and at least look at one though. I haven’t gone back to my local Apple Store for a little while. I should just go back in there. Just cause it’s kind of fun to see what’s what. Thankfully, the one near me people are really good and they do know how to set up the new devices turn on voiceover. They knew right away as soon as they saw me walk into the store they know that I use voiceover. They even knew a little bit how to do some of the set up process, and if they didn’t know that either looked it up or they found another employee in their store who didn’t know so it was really cool. Both of my phones were brought directly from Apple that I have now and they were set up at Apple as Well.
Re: Not buying anything this year either
hay, at least samsung had the same or almost close issue with it's first folding phone.
it will get better one day,
Really didn’t realize that
Oh wow, I didn’t realize that. Good to know. I guess everybody else can take a risk on it if they want to. I’m not interested in taking a risk like that for $2000. If somebody wants to do it go for it. I definitely would be interested to see what a Voice user thinks of this device. I may know the two screens even equally operable with voiceover? Just wondering because I don’t think anybody’s ever said that like which screen you actually use all the time so yeah and an iPad mini is pretty big compared to a phone so if this thing is that kind of interface it’s gonna be a basically an iPad with phone call capabilities. It’s basically taking your it’s basically no different than a cellular iPad at least as far as what I understand it so it kind of makes me wonder what like the need for a device like this would be if it’s essentially an iPad but it’s got iOS in it so why would somebody need a cellular iPad if they have the dual phone? I mean, maybe I’m wrong but that’s how I’m from my understanding of this at the moment. That’s what I’m thinking. Come on here and let me know cause maybe I’m not interpreting that right but that’s what I’m thinking.
Re: Really didn’t realize that
I picture the iPhone Duo as something akin to an iPhone Mini when closed, and akin to an iPad Mini when opened: essentially two devices in one. I think if someone had a use case for both an iPhone and an iPad, they might consider the iPhone Duo to fill both rolls.
Re: Really didn’t realize that
I was going to buy one precisely because it's an iPhone smaller than regular iPhones when folded, and could unfold to show an iPad-like screen where I could showcase my work to the sighted in casual social settings on the big screen without having to lug an actual iPad. In addition I also prefer TouchID to FaceID, so if the Duo hadn't failed the durability test and screens weren't already getting cracked left and right just two days after launch, I would have kept my order.
Re: Really didn’t realize that
that's the issue. i like both the ipAd minni and ipHone minny lmao so, but the price is just to much for a phone that is easyer then my mack software to brake
Yeah, the price is ridiculous
Yeah, the price is pretty ridiculous. OK well that kind of makes a little bit more sense now that it’s kind of iPhone and iPad and one so I guess that means that both screens are completely operable voiceover? That’s pretty cool in a way. Look at the concept is awesome. I’m not gonna lie. But there’s no way in hell I’m working out US$202,000 for it. Even if I had that money, I could think of so many more things I could put it towards. I kinda have a feeling this thing isn’t gonna sell that much especially if they’ve already had so much failed ability chests. You said it was two days after lunch? That’s absolutely insane. Wow I don’t even know what to think. Yeah, I’m definitely gonna just stick with the regular iPhone. I think you were really smart to cancel that order. But yeah, the concept is really cool cause I totally get what you’re saying about wanting to show your bigger screen to side person. It makes a lot of sense. I need to literally have two interfaces in one device? I guess there’s the part that I’m not really sure about so does it run iOS and iPadOS simultaneously and you switch between them or is it really running iOS and there’s just a bigger stream that once it’s in that mode, it will switch to an iPad like interface? Yeah I don’t know. I just have a lot of questions about how that actually works I guess. But yeah.
I didn't know about the 20th aniversary iphone next year
I'll then hold for another year to my iphone 14 with bad battery and broken faceID, I am hesitant to go in apple store for repair I still pay apple care monthly and the math apple wanted me to think has worked, for them :) lmao. For the battery my ugreen 10000 ma works very well so I don't care much but for the temperature and throttling.
PS: completely unrelated but I didn't know David Goodwin was still an active user on his own site, so cool!! Thank you by the way?
singer Girl, the dictation ambassador
Singer Girl, you are my dictation hero! already today I've come across something you meant to write in the septic line (subject line?), and now we have a very, very, very expensive iPhone Duo priced at $202,000 and issues with the screen two days after lunch (launch?). Carry on dictating your content. You make some very valid points but were you to make them by typing instead of dictating I have to admit I would miss the highly amusing quirks your dictation adds.
Re: singer Girl, the dictation ambassador
Excuse me, but have you already forgot the fact that I am the Dictation champion around here
2023 may never be forgotten ever
don't forget about your sprinkler dfu mode devices, guys.
na but going back on toppec, i think if the duo costed 2220 thousand, like what singer girl said, i don't know who would by it. probebly not anyone i'd no
I’m glad that I’m amusing all of you
I’m very glad that I am amusing all of you. Sometimes dictation gets messed up because I have a stutter so had the extra numbers in there. It’s supposed to be US$2000. But even that is completely ridiculous. Oh yeah, and by the way, I don’t type on here because the only guy typing I know how to do is typing. And there’s no way in hell I am standard typing my comments. I don’t have access to or the ability to get a Bluetooth keyboard. I just pretty much was laughing the whole time when bingo said what he said about my comment. I mean, technically it’s going against the rules of this site because no one is supposed to talk to anybody about their dictation but you know what I’m honestly at the point now I’m just finding it amusing myself. The only thing that I would be remotely interested in a duo phone would be to see how it worked with voiceover. I would still love to get my questions answered. Does that phone switch interfaces when switches modes of operation? So is it in iOS operation interface? It’s on the small screen and then switches to an iPad interface when we use the bigger screen? Does anybody know? I mean, maybe even a side person would be able to tell us that. Because it’s running iOS I’m assuming I mean I just can’t wrap my head around how that would work on an iPhone. Is all good. Yeah I used to get yelled at this site for my dictation issues and it actually made me leave temporarily and now I’m back. Because everybody’s been a lot nicer to me since we had almost closure of this website. So thanks guys. I’m glad I’m making somebody entertained.
This septic isle
I'm sorry, but septic line is still the best dictation mistake ever! Singer Girl would have had all sorts of trouble in the EU referendum debate ten years ago, especially if she were a Eurosceptic - that would have become Euro septic. That was of course when this septic tank voted to leave the EU, which at least means we get iPhone artificial intelligence Siri (or series, as Singer Girl puts it). That's a brexit Benefit overlooked by all those who want to row back on it; but I am wandering somewhat from the subject-matter (septic-matter? or sceptered matter?) of the post, which could get me into all sorts of trouble. Best get back on tropic if possible, before people start getting cricketal. Suffice to say that I am laughing with you, singer Girl, not at you. If you are like the old man from Calcutta, who had a most terrible stutter, don't worry about it. so did King george VI, in the days when this septic isle was formerly great. Of course, the old man would now have to be from Kolkata, wouldn't he? There was an old man from Kolkata, who had a most terrible starter. That still works but the finish would be rather challenging. I think you also made mention of a side person in your last comment, as opposed to a front or back person presumably. And if this gets me booted off the website, well website shmebsite as far as I'm concerned!
The Duo is, according to my trouble and strife, exactly as you describe. Unfold it and it transfigures itself into an iPad-like interface. It's not yet after lunch, so she hasn't gone down the Apple Store and tried to break the thing in half with her bare hands (bear hands?) yet.