4 Upgrades The iPhone 18 Needs To Put Apple Ahead Of The Curve

The iPhone is the most popular smartphone in the U.S., accounting for over 60% of the smartphone market share, according to Statcounter. Apple also enjoys a very strong presence in the global market, with the iPhone selling like hotcakes every time a new generation is launched. That said, iPhones are typically not at the top of the list when we talk about value for money. Heck, the iPhone 16 — an $800 smartphone — featured a 60Hz display in 2024. Yet, it sold well.  

Surprisingly, the iPhone 17 series that was unveiled in 2025 offered numerous great additions. There's a reason why we called the base iPhone 17 the best model that Apple released last year. It comes with a 120Hz ProMotion display, a new Center Stage front camera, solid performance, and great optics. Turns out, people do, in fact, appreciate it when companies actually listen to feedback and pack in long-requested features, because Apple reported that the iPhone 17 lineup has been the most popular in the company's history.

As we inch closer to the launch of the iPhone 18 series, expectations are higher than ever. As someone who regularly hops between Android and iOS, though, I have a few wishlist items that I hope Apple checks off this year that would truly solidify the iPhone as the best all-around smartphone that money can buy.

iPhones have always infamously boasted less on paper compared to their Android counterparts. Yet, the latest iPhone has always managed to deliver similar, if not better, performance, camera quality, and battery life. This is largely because Apple controls both the hardware and the software that builds an iPhone. For instance, the iPhone 13 Pro Max, with its 4,352 mAh battery, managed to outlast competitors packing in much larger batteries. Unfortunately, there's only so far good optimization can take you.

After the honeymoon period ended, I never managed to get excellent battery life again on my iPhone 15 Pro Max. I spend most days plugging it in at least twice. Sure, in our review of the iPhone 17 Pro Max, we mentioned how its larger 5,088 mAh battery offered an excellent experience, but I feel Apple can do better. I recently picked up a OnePlus 15, and it packs in a mammoth 7,300 mAh battery that lasts me well beyond a day and a half — sometimes even two. This is all thanks to the advent of silicon carbon technology in phone batteries.

Many Chinese OEMs have been using Si-C batteries in their flagships for a while now, and it's time the West caught up. Imagine an iPhone 18, still with its great battery optimization, just now with a denser Si-C battery. While we're at it, let's also drop faster wired charging speeds into the mix, please.

The iPhone has a great camera system, no doubt — it manages to consistently rank as one of the best smartphone cameras available. My iPhone 15 Pro Max from 2023 still manages to capture better results than my newer OnePlus 15 in many scenarios. I feel Apple could take its smartphone camera experience to the next level, but not without a few hardware upgrades, especially one targeting the zoom lens.

The iPhone 17 Pro series has a 48-megapixel 4x telephoto lens that lets you capture 12-megapixel 8x optical zoom shots. You can zoom in much closer, though, and with ample light, the telephoto lens doesn't disappoint. However, the competition has been catching up. For instance, Digital Camera World crowned the Oppo Find X9 Pro as the best zoom camera among current-gen smartphones. As reported by 9to5Mac, a reputable Weibo leaker has hinted that Apple may, in fact, pack the iPhone 18 Pro series with notable camera improvements.

This includes a bigger 1/1.12-inch sensor for the primary shooter, improved optical image stabilization for the ultrawide lens, and a refreshed 200-megapixel sensor for the telephoto lens. The iPhone 18 Pro is also rumored to sport variable aperture for its lens, allowing for better control over the depth of field. It's unlikely for the base model iPhone 18 to also receive all of these upgrades, but last year's Center Stage front camera was a welcome addition regardless.

The transition to bezel-less displays was a tough one, especially with smartphones featuring all sorts of notches, hole-punch cutouts, and even motorized pop-up cameras, but I'm glad we made it. Modern Android flagships now get you uniform bezels all around with a tiny hole-punch cutout for the front-facing camera. iPhones, however, also need to worry about housing other sensors required for Face ID, which is why they have a bigger cutout on the display.

Credit where credit is due — Apple made the most out of this hardware oddity by masking it with an excellent software feature — the Dynamic Island. It's where Live Activities for the iPhone live. As useful as the feature is, the hole-punch cutout on the iPhone does get in the way sometimes, especially when watching content in the landscape mode. A fully immersive display is possible — we have a couple of Android phones that use under display front cameras. 

Though it's unlikely that Apple would switch to this technology in its current state, another Weibo leaker shared images of what appears to be a much smaller hole-punch cutout for the upcoming iPhone 18. It would also be nice to see a 144Hz or 165Hz display on the Pro models — it would take proper advantage of Apple's in-house silicon that seems to handle AAA titles just fine.

One of the biggest reasons iOS was hailed as the better mobile operating system for years was stability. Despite it lacking many features and any form of advanced customizability, people liked it for the fact that it just worked great all the time. As years have passed, iOS has borrowed quite a lot of features from Android — goodies like always-on display, widget support, and Control Panel customization — but this has come at the cost of the stability that iOS was once praised for.

Even ignoring Apple's failed attempts at delivering a revamped Siri, recent versions of iOS have been giving users performance and battery drain issues. With iOS 26, Apple introduced the new Liquid Glass design language, which looked amazing in demos but quickly fell apart when users actually got their hands on it. It took Apple several betas to find the right balance between transparency and readability, but the fact that Liquid Glass relies on real-time rendering has meant that older iPhones are struggling to offer a lag-free experience.

For once, it would be great to have a major iOS update that's focused entirely on stability and performance rather than introducing flashy new features. There are already reports suggesting that iOS 27 will be exactly that — a return to form for the operating system. I, for one, would be delighted to see the iPhone 18 series launch alongside stable software, an improved keyboard, and, hopefully, a smarter Siri.

Let's face it, even without major upgrades, the upcoming iPhones will sell in the millions. The upgrades I've listed would be great to have, though. As much as I appreciate how well all my Apple devices talk to each other, there's still plenty of room for Apple to push the envelope. One thing I always miss after switching from an Android smartphone to an iPhone is fast charging. I've also been spoiled by giant silicon carbon batteries — it would be great to see an iPhone offer unparalleled battery life with faster top up speeds.

It also feels like the iOS experience has been slowly falling apart with every update. I've previously expressed why the iPhone's keyboard is flawed, and although Apple has addressed a few of these annoyances in a patch fix, the typing experience still feels lackluster — especially compared to how good Android users have it. Between performance issues and other bugs, a stability update for the iPhone's software is what we need most.

Rest assured, the iPhone 18 lineup will likely still be an easy recommendation to those looking for a smartphone with a great camera. It's just the few niceties that the iPhone still lacks that keep it from feeling like the complete package.