iPhone 18 Pro Review: Is It Really the Longest-Lasting iPhone?

Apple says the iPhone 18 Pro Max has the best battery life of any iPhone yet, with considerable gains over last year’s 17 Pro Max. But does it really? I came up with a new battery test, involving a pickle and poking, to find out just how much longer it lasts—and whether that difference is actually worth upgrading for. And for anyone who wants to recreate this extremely serious scientific experiment at home, here’s the $13 auto clicker I used. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FX3RGKZF?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title And, of course: pokethepickle.org. Chapters: 00:00 iPhone 18 Pro review 00:32 iPhone 18 Pro + Pro Max specs 00:58 Apple’s battery life claims 01:10 A new battery test: Poke the Pickle 02:17 Battery results 02:38 Comparing to Apple’s claims 03:29 Final thoughts + what to buy 04:27 Act now! Pokethepickle.org 📬 Our videos are free here, but support our work by subscribing to the New Things. You’ll love the newsletters! https://thenewthings.com/subscribe. 📙 Order Joanna’s new book at https://joannastern.com 💼 Want to sponsor our stuff? Email joanna.partnerships@smoothmedia.co ▶️ Subscribe here so you don’t miss future videos https://www.youtube.com/c/joannastern Who is Joanna Stern? Emmy winner. Pulitzer finalist. Professional asker of uncomfortable questions. New York Times bestselling author. Joanna spent 12 years at The Wall Street Journal making videos and writing columns before founding New Things. Before that, she helped start The Verge and worked at ABC News. She believes technology should work for humans—and that journalism should be fun. She is working on both. She also is the author of the new book I AM NOT A ROBOT: My Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything. As NBC News' Chief Technology Analyst, her reporting and The New Things content regularly appears across NBC's broadcasts and platforms. For Joanna’s full resume, see LinkedIn. You can find me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/joannastern Or on X here: https://x.com/JoannaStern Or on LinkedIn here: linkedin.com/in/joannastern