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iPhone 18 Pro delivers big gains in charging speed and cooling efficiency.
Photo: Rajesh Pandey/Cult of Mac

iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max appear to bring two upgrades you will appreciate in everyday use: faster charging and better cooling.

Apple hyped these improvements during its September 9 launch event. And early testing suggests the upgrades are real.

A full charge in under an hour

Apple bumped the iPhone 17 Pro’s charging speed to 40W last year. With the iPhone 18 Pro, it pushes that figure up to 60W. A deep-dive test by a Chinese reviewer shows this speed boost makes a real difference.

True to Apple’s claims, the iPhone 18 Pro Max charges from 0% to 50% in only 15 minutes. More importantly, a full charge takes 55 minutes, finally bringing the iPhone’s time to full charge below an hour. 

At peak, the phone pulled 52W of power, though this was for only the initial 12 minutes on an empty cell. 

Oh my God! The charging speed of the iPhone 18 Pro Max has improved dramatically, and it even beats the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

10 minutes: 34%
15 minutes: 55%
55 minutes: 100%

And don’t forget, this is with a 5,400mAh battery.

Charging speed has never been one of the iPhone’s… pic.twitter.com/3y73ma0roO

— Ice Universe (@UniverseIce) September 16, 2026

What’s impressive is that the iPhone 18 Pro Max achieves the faster charging times despite shipping with a bigger battery. Plus, the phone did not get uncomfortably hot during the process.

Note that the testing was conducted on the physical SIM variant of the device, which packs a smaller 5,391 mAh cell. The eSIM-only variant packs a bigger 5,567 mAh battery, but even its charging times should be similar. 

iPhone 18 Pro stays cool under load

Another key improvement on the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max is the improved cooling system. This is something that Apple talked about in detail while unveiling the phones.

iPhone 18 Pro cooling is NUTS!

It’s able to cool down 5.9W of sustained power and stay COOLER at 44.3°C compared to 47.2°C on the Vivo iQOO 15 Ultra.

But there’s a catch.. The iQOO 15 Ultra is a GAMING phone with a 17x17mm active cooling fan and a massive vapor chamber cooler! https://t.co/5ypC71f3vX pic.twitter.com/MzT4VmeDsy

— Vadim Yuryev (@VadimYuryev) September 16, 2026

Besides a more efficient A20 Pro chip with a new packaging technique, the iPhone 18 Pro features a redesigned vapor chamber that offers three times the cooling area of its predecessor.

Testing by Chinese reviewer Geekerwan shows that this allows for better heat dissipation and cooling. In a 30-minute stress test, the iPhone 18 Pro Max recorded a maximum temperature of 44.3°C, almost a degree less than the iPhone 17 Pro Max. It achieved this despite consuming 5.9W of power, higher than last year model’s 5.4W power consumption.

Both improvements could prove useful in everyday use. Faster charging means less time plugged in, while the cooling results suggest the iPhone 18 Pro should run cooler than its predecessor when gaming or used in direct sunlight.