With the iPhone 17 series, Apple made some major updates, including all-new designs, new cameras, and more. But there is still room for improvement.
That's why below, we've listed five of the things we'd really like the iPhone 18 series to offer. Some of these wishes are for specific models and others for the entire line.
It's early days of iPhone 18 rumors, so we can't say with too much confidence whether we'll get most of them or not. But we can make some guesses, and they're all things that could greatly improve Apple's iPhone offering.
1. A telephoto camera for the iPhone 18
Even the base model iPhones are expensive phones, with the iPhone 17, for example, starting at $799 / £799 / AU$1,399, but for all that money you still don't get a telephoto camera.
That's even worse considering that the similarly priced Samsung Galaxy S25 has a telephoto camera, and that's probably the iPhone 17's main rival. The Google Pixel 10 also has a telephoto camera, so it seems really stingy that Apple doesn't include one.
That's something we'd like to see with the iPhone 18: a telephoto camera to match its wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle lenses.
However, we are not optimistic that this will happen. After all, Apple just increased the base model's refresh rate to 120Hz, and that seems like an even more basic feature for a high-end phone.
2. Improved AI
Apple is known for offering great hardware and software in its phones, but one area where it is notably lacking is AI. Compared to Google's Gemini and other AI offerings like ChatGPT, Apple's attempts simply can't compete, so this area needs some updates.
Of course, since AI is largely software, any improvements could come to existing iPhones anyway, but the iPhone 18's superior specs could allow an AI overhaul to really shine.
Fortunately, it looks like we could be getting big improvements in a short time, although they may not be due to Apple itself. Rather, Apple will reportedly use a customized version of Google's Gemini to power the long-awaited Siri AI update.
This update could reportedly arrive in March or April, i.e. before the September-bound iPhone 18 series. But again, this is likely to be faster, smoother, and overall better on the iPhone 18 series, and we may see some iPhone 18-specific AI features that require next-gen hardware to work.
3. Longer distance zoom in Pro and Pro Max
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max have reasonable telephoto cameras, with 48MP sensors offering 4x optical zoom. That's not too far behind the competition – although models like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Google Pixel 10 Pro zoom in a little over 5x – but we'd like to see the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max jump ahead.
Specifically, we'd love to see a zoom in the region of 10x, although ideally we'd also like it to be capable of a shorter range zoom, perhaps by adding an extra lens like Samsung does with its Ultra phones, or by equipping these phones with a variable zoom lens, which can switch between different optical distances.
Doing this would also allow Apple to equip the base iPhone 18 with a zoom camera (as we wanted above) while still being able to point out how the iPhone 18 Pro is better, if the base model has, say, only a 5x or 3x zoom.
4. Better battery technology
When it comes to batteries and charging specifications of Apple phones, there is a lot of room for improvement.
The main thing we'd like to see is higher capacity batteries, especially now that Chinese phones like the 7300mAh OnePlus 15 are way ahead.
Right now, the iPhone's largest battery is just over 5000mAh, so we'd like to see a significant increase in capacity from the iPhone 18 series, and ideally that would be achieved through the use of silicon-carbon batteries. This technology is what OnePlus and some others have used to achieve such high-capacity batteries, as it allows for greater capacity in the same space, so phones don't have to get thicker.
We'd also like to see charging speeds increase, as while Apple is a bit vague about charging specs, it does claim that the iPhone 17 Pro Max can reach up to 50% charge in 20 minutes with a 40W or higher adapter, or that it can reach the same level of charge in about 30 minutes with a 30W or higher MagSafe charger.
For comparison, the OnePlus 15 supports 120W wired charging and 50W wireless charging, which in both cases is dramatically more charging power than any iPhone supports.
If Apple increases the battery capacity, then more charging power would be especially useful, but either way it's something we'd like to see.
5. More RAM
Finally, we'd like to see the iPhone 18 series include more RAM than the iPhone 17 line. With the current models, you get 8GB on the iPhone 17 and 12GB on the Pro phones, which isn't bad, but it's less than what many Android flagships offer.
Now, in the past this didn't matter much, but RAM is becoming increasingly important in the age of AI, and particularly if Apple is willing to improve its AI features, it would be nice if that was combined with an increase in RAM.
Ideally, we'd like there to be at least 12GB on the base iPhone 18 and 16GB on the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, and we wouldn't say no to more than that.
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