DXOMARK has given the Apple iPhone 18 Pro a camera score of 172. That puts it second on DXOMARK’s global smartphone camera ranking, three points behind the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra. That Pura 80 Ultra has held first place on 175 since August 2025. DXOMARK published the full test yesterday a day after the new iPhones went on sale.
DXOMARK is a commercial testing lab that has published image quality scores since 2008. It scores photo and video separately and combines them into one overall number. That then becomes a list with different phones being ranked.
The iPhone 18 Pro has also received DXOMARK’s Gold Camera 2026 label and is second in its ultra-premium group, which covers phones priced above $800.
DXOMARK tested the iPhone 18 Pro. Apple’s specifications list the same rear cameras for the iPhone 18 Pro Max. The two phones differ elsewhere: as we reported on 13 September, the US iPhone 18 Pro Max is the only model without Apple’s C2 modem.
The scores
The overall score of 172 is built from a photo score of 171 and a video score of 176.
This is the breakdown, with the best score in DXOMARK’s database for each category:
- Photo, main camera: 181 (best: Huawei Pura 80 Ultra, 184)
- Photo, bokeh: 175 (best: Oppo Find X9 Ultra, 185)
- Photo, ultra-wide: 152 (best: Vivo X300 Ultra, 175)
- Photo, telephoto: 143 (best: Oppo Find X9 Ultra, 173)
- Video, main camera: 189 (the best in the database)
- Video, ultra-wide: 152 (the best in the database)
- Video, telephoto: 127 (best: Vivo X200 Ultra, 140)
The 176 for video is the highest video score DXOMARK has given any phone. The Pura 80 Ultra still leads on photo with 180.
DXOMARK also scores use cases, which do not count towards the overall number. The iPhone 18 Pro has the top low-light score at 150. It gets 157 for portraits, where the Pura 80 Ultra leads with 169, and 138 for zoom, where the Vivo X300 Ultra leads with 161.
The iPhone 17 Pro’s 168 score now makes it sixth. Most of the iPhone 18 Pro’s gains comes from the main camera. Main camera photo score went from 175 to 181 and bokeh from 170 to 175. Ultra-wide and telephoto photo each moved two points, to 152 and 143. Video went from 172 to 176.
What the variable aperture changed
DXOMARK’s iPhone 17 Pro test criticised group portraits. With a fixed f/1.78 lens, people further from the camera than the main subject came out soft. DXOMARK noted then that phones with a variable aperture, such as the Pura 80 Ultra, keep everyone in focus. In the new test, DXOMARK says the iPhone 18 Pro extends depth of field automatically in group portraits. Its sample photo of two people at a table shows both faces sharp. The iPhone 17 Pro lost detail on the face at the back in the same scene.
✅ Variable aperture improves group portraits
✅ Excellent exposure & dynamic range
✅ Strong low-light detail
✅ Best-in-class video stabilization
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#iPhone18Pro #DXOMARK
Apple says the camera narrows to f/4 for groups, opens to f/1.48 in low light and shoots portraits at f/1.8. DXOMARK lists “best-in-class low-light photography” first among the phone’s strengths. It also notes moderate noise in textured areas and some loss of fine detail in very dark scenes. On video, DXOMARK says stabilisation stays smooth even when the person filming is running, helped by 60fps capture.
Where it loses points
Long-range zoom is the main weakness. The telephoto camera is a 100mm, 4x lens. The 8x setting is a 12MP crop from its 48MP sensor, which Apple calls “optical-quality”. DXOMARK rates the zoom as strong at close and medium range, then says fine detail gets noticeably softer at long range. The telephoto photo score of 143 is 30 points behind the Find X9 Ultra’s. The Pura 80 Ultra, for comparison, has a second telephoto lens at 212mm.
DXOMARK’s other complaints are slight colour casts and white balance shifts, faces that come out dark in strong backlight, and a brightness difference between the photo and video previews. It says flare and aliasing are “frequently visible”. Flare is better controlled than on the iPhone 17 Pro but stays visible when the aperture is closed down. Portrait mode also does not blur the background at night.
How to read a DXOMARK score
DXOMARK’s scale has no fixed maximum. The highest camera score in its database today is 175. DXOMARK says its engineers shoot more than 3,800 photos and almost three hours of video per phone, in the lab and outdoors, with the camera on its default settings, so the score describes what the phone does on auto.
DXOMARK also sells test equipment and consulting to phone makers. It says it tests commercial devices “regardless of whether the manufacturers are clients”, and its FAQ says every device goes through the same protocol. We find the sub-scores more useful than the single overall number, because they show which camera on the phone earned the points.
On these numbers, the iPhone 18 Pro is the best phone DXOMARK has tested for video and for low light. Buyers who care most about long zoom will get more from the Pura 80 Ultra, the Find X9 Ultra or the X300 Ultra.
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