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Every September I get a version of the same message: "Which one should I get?" This year the answer is more interesting than usual, because there are three phones at the top of Apple's range and they're aimed at quite different people. The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max are on sale from Friday, and the folding iPhone Duo arrives on 23 October. So here's how I'd choose between them, starting with the question that matters most, which is what you're holding now.
The three phones, side by side
The iPhone 18 Pro has a 6.3-inch screen, weighs 211g and starts at £1,199. The 18 Pro Max has a 6.9-inch screen, weighs 249g and starts at £1,299. Both come in black, silver, glacier and burgundy, both use Face ID, both have a SIM tray as well as eSIM here in the UK, and both have the same A20 Pro chip and the same camera system. The Pro Max gives you the bigger screen and the bigger battery, with Apple's UK specs quoting up to 43 hours of video playback against 34 on the Pro, and that's the whole difference.
The iPhone Duo is the odd one out. Closed, it's a shorter, wider phone with a 5.4-inch screen, and opened it becomes a 7.6-inch tablet. It weighs 254g, uses Touch ID in the side button rather than Face ID, has no SIM tray at all, and starts at £1,999, rising to £3,199 for 2TB. It has the same A20 Pro chip as the Pros, and it's due on 23 October. I've written about it in detail here.
If you have an iPhone 16 Pro, 16 Pro Max, 17 Pro or 17 Pro Max
I wouldn't upgrade to the 18 Pro or Pro Max, and I'd say that quite firmly. Your phone already runs everything in iOS 27 including Siri AI, the camera you have is excellent, and the battery is still young. The variable aperture on the 18 Pro is clever, but it's an improvement on something you already have rather than something you're missing, and £1,199 is a lot to pay for an improvement. Install iOS 27, enjoy it, and put the money towards something else. Or, if you want something that actually feels new, read the Duo section below, because that's the only upgrade from a recent Pro that actually changes anything.
If you have any non-Pro iPhone
This is where the 18 Pro and Pro Max make sense. If you're on a standard iPhone of any age, from a 12 or 13 right up to a 16 or 17, the 18 Pro is a proper step up rather than a sideways move. You get the variable aperture main camera, a dedicated 4x telephoto lens that the standard phones don't have, the ProMotion display, the best battery Apple has put in an iPhone, and Apple Intelligence and Siri AI if your current phone can't run them. The older your current phone, the bigger the jump.
Between the two, I'd pick on screen and battery rather than anything else. If you read, watch or work on your phone a lot, or you're always hunting for a charger by teatime, the Pro Max earns its extra £100. If you like a phone you can use one-handed and slip into a jacket pocket, the Pro is the nicer thing to carry. Whichever you choose, 256GB is plenty for most people, and I'd think twice before paying the big jumps to 1TB or 2TB.
One honest caveat. If your current phone is fine and you don't care about the camera, the iPhone 17 at £899 is still on sale, still runs Siri AI, and will feel like a big upgrade from anything older than a 15. Not everyone needs a Pro, and I'd rather tell you that than sell you one.
The Duo: the price decides it
With the Duo, the price somewhat dictates the answer before you get to anything else. At £1,999 to start, it costs £800 more than an 18 Pro, and that alone puts it out of reach or out of the question for most of the people I look after, which is fine, because it isn't trying to be the phone for everyone.
If you want cutting edge, though, this is the phone for you, and there's nothing else in Apple's range that comes close to it for that. A screen that opens out to the size of a small iPad, two apps side by side, the thinnest iPhone ever made when it's open, and software that has been rethought to suit both shapes. If you've spent years wishing Apple would do a foldable properly, they have, and if you're the person who wants the new thing first, you already know you're going to buy it.
But I want to be clear about one thing that the excitement tends to hide. The Duo does not have the best camera system in a phone. That's still reserved for the 18 Pro and Pro Max. The Duo has a 48MP main and a 48MP ultra wide, with a 2x telephoto built into the main camera, and that's a very good setup. What it doesn't have is the variable aperture, or the separate 4x telephoto lens with its 8x optical-quality reach, and both of those live on the Pros. So if photography is the reason you buy a phone, the 18 Pro is the better camera, and it's £800 cheaper.
The other things to weigh before you order a Duo are the ones I keep coming back to: Touch ID rather than Face ID, eSIM only with no tray, and the fact that it's a first-generation product. None of those are dealbreakers, but all of them are changes, and I'd want to hold one before committing.
My short version
Recent Pro, from a 16 Pro or 17 Pro onwards: keep it, unless the Duo is calling you. Any non-Pro iPhone: the 18 Pro is the sensible upgrade, the Pro Max if screen and battery matter more than weight, and the iPhone 17 if you'd rather spend £899. Want the newest, most interesting thing Apple makes and the price doesn't frighten you: the Duo, but go in knowing the Pros take the better photos.
If you'd like to talk it through with your own phone in your hand, that's what I'm here for. Book a session and we'll work out which one, or whether it's none of them this year.
