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iPhone 18 Pro Faces Value Challenge From Pixel 11 Pro

6:07 PM ETConfirmed

Technology Desk

In Short: The iPhone 18 Pro, despite its internal improvements, faces a value challenge from the Pixel 11 Pro, according to Android Authority.

The iPhone 18 Pro, despite its internal improvements, faces a significant value challenge from the Google Pixel 11 Pro, according to Android Authority. The new iPhone model starts at $1,200 for 256GB of storage, with prices reaching up to $2,400 for the 2TB variant.

In contrast, the Pixel 11 Pro starts at $1,099 for 256GB, offering a more affordable option for consumers. The gap widens further when you move up the storage tiers, saving you upwards of $200 compared to the latest iPhone.

[QUOTE Android Authority] Having said that, I am a tad more impressed by the direction Google is taking with its computational photography capabilities, which make everyday life challenges easier on its Pixel handsets.

While the new iPhone Duo has received a lot of fanfare, the standard iPhone 18 Pro is going to be the one driving most of Apple’s sales. It doesn’t look much different from the iPhone 17 Pro on the outside, but Apple’s presentation was full of internal changes, from better battery performance to a new physically adjustable camera aperture.

All those features do seem tempting at first glance, but I’d still go with the Pixel 11 Pro any day — just because it’s a much better overall purchase than its Apple counterpart.

For someone already stretching their budget over $1,000 (which, by the way, is already pretty generous for a smartphone), the Pixel 11 Pro gets you a much better bang for the buck than the iPhone.

The Pixel 11 Pro also offers a feature called 'Now Playing,' which silently and continuously recognizes music playing around you, a functionality that Apple is now replicating on its newest Apple Watches.

This feature is designed to verify the authenticity of images captured by a real iPhone sensor. Apple Reference Image is a camera mode on the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max that signs the captured pixel data inside the sensor, then turns that signed data into a second, cryptographically signed copy of your photo that anyone can verify as authentic and not revoked.

Apple announced the feature on September 9 alongside the iPhone 18 Pro, and its security team published the full technical description on September 15 on the Apple Security Research blog.

Capture telemetry data (like hardware IDs and sensor signatures) is sent up to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, which then creates a unique signature tying the reference image to that specific iPhone. If AI-doctored versions of a photo start circulating online, a photojournalist could produce the reference image to conclusively prove what the camera sensor originally saw.

What this adds

Background

What's confirmed

• It doesn’t look much different from the iPhone 17 Pro on the outside, but Apple’s presentation was full of internal changes, from better battery performance to a new physically adjustable camera aperture.
• The gap widens further when you move up the storage tiers, saving you upwards of $200 compared to the latest iPhone.
• Apple Reference Image is a camera mode on the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max that signs the captured pixel data inside the sensor, then turns that signed data into a second, cryptographically signed copy of your photo that anyone can verify as authentic and not revoked.

What's still developing

• The iPhone 18 Pro now starts at $1,200 for the same 256GB of storage, and its subsequent storage upgrade tiers are significantly more expensive, going all the way up to an eye-watering $2,400 for the 2TB variant — add another $100 for the bigger Pro Max sibling.
• The Pixel 11 Pro, on the other hand, has eliminated the base 128GB storage this year, so the 256GB storage is available for the same $1,099 as last year, increasing the starting price by $100.
• It does not say whose iPhone, and the published reference image provides no public path back to the photographer.
• We observed that users can set up Surfshark on their iPhones in less than 2 minutes.
• We’ve compiled and analyzed the 10 best VPNs for iPhone to ease your decision-making.
• Here, we’ve reviewed the top 10 iPhone VPNs to help you find an appropriate VPN to secure your online activities.
• NordVPN is a paid service, but it’s a great VPN for iPhone.
• With the feature turned on, iPhone photos can be, in effect, saved twice — once as a normal, editable photo and once as an Apple Reference Image.
• SynthID embeds its signal directly within the pixels of the image — invisible to humans but visible to AI-detection tools.
• Sure, iPhones dominate with 69% market share in the US, but Android is still more feature-rich and gives you more hardware flexibility.
• It essentially replicates the functionality that Google pioneered on Pixel devices, delivering zero-input song identification whenever music is detected nearby.
• 1TB 12GB RAM £ 1,899.00 € 2,349.00 2TB 12GB RAM £ 2,499.00 € 3,099.00 256GB 12GB RAM € 1,599.00 Similarly priced Popular recent phones in the same price range as Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max Apple iPhone 18 Pro $ 1,250.00 OnePlus 15 $ 1,299.00 Google Pixel 11 Pro XL $ 1,299.00 Honor Magic8 Pro $ 1,230.00 Realme GT 7 Pro $ 1,295.00 Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max - user opinions and reviews?

Sources

• Android Authoritylink
• Fstopperslink
• Memeburnlink
• Nieman Lablink
• Warpbeatlink
• Zdnetlink
• Androidauthoritylink
• Gsmarenalink
• MacRumorslink
• Dataconomylink
• Financelink
• Smartprixlink
• WIREDlink
• The Indian Expresslink
• Thenextweblink
• WarpBeat — background on iPhone 18 Pro Faces Value Challenge From Pixel 11 Pro link
• Techmo — video link