dbrand Forced me to do This Review

A "Maroon Sheep" Hides a Performance Beast [00:00:00]

• The iPhone 18 Pro's external design is nearly identical to its predecessor, making it seem like a minor update.
• However, benchmark tests reveal a massive generational leap in performance, particularly with the new A20 Pro chip.
• The chip not only surpasses previous models but also offers better thermal management and battery life.

  "This thing is a wolf in maroon sheep's clothing, and I just want to feel what it's like to daily something that is realistically darn near double the speed of my current daily driver."

Blazing Fast App Installations [00:01:47]

• Setting up a new iPhone 18 Pro from scratch, the speed of app downloads and installations was astonishing.
• The phone could download and install apps faster than the user could select them.
• This speed is attributed to faster CPU cores and efficient storage.

  "I was simply not able to parse the list and click them faster than this phone could download and install them."

Super Cores and Desktop-Beating Speed [00:02:24]

• Apple's new chip design features four efficiency cores and two "super cores."
• These "super cores" achieve single-core performance exceeding even the fastest desktop processor designs.
• Geekbench single-core scores break 4,000 points, a significant leap.

  "Our labs testing found that their super core not only crushes every other phone chip in Geekbench single core, but it breaks 4,000 points."

Storage Speed Variations [00:03:30]

• While the 256GB model offers fast storage, larger 1TB and 2TB models may be slower.
• These larger models use QLC flash chips that can throttle significantly as they fill up.
• This slowdown might affect prolonged operations like long video recordings or large backups.

  "They found that the QLC flash chips that are used on the one terabyte and two terabyte versions can actually slow down significantly as they fill up and throttle as slow as 45 megabytes a second on average, once their buffers are empty."

Gaming Dominance and Thermal Management [00:04:47]

• The iPhone 18 Pro shows over 50% improvement in 3D Mark Steel Nomad compared to the previous generation.
• It significantly outperforms competitors like the Galaxy S26 Ultra and Pixel 11 Pro in gaming benchmarks.
• Despite increased performance, an enlarged vapor chamber helps manage heat, with only a slight increase in hotspot temperature.

  "That's just, that's not just victory over their chief rival Google. That's humiliation."

iOS Animations Masking Hardware Speed [00:07:02]

• The default iOS animations can make the phone feel slower than its powerful hardware suggests.
• Enabling "Reduce Motion" in accessibility settings can mitigate this and reveal the hardware's true responsiveness.
• The phone's battery life is a significant improvement, with the Pro Max achieving 34 hours and 18 minutes of video streaming.

  "iOS 27 is not winning any accolades for its bug-free operation. And more important to me from a performance standpoint, it features an animation style that is so slow that I feel it ends up actually masking a lot of the responsiveness that this hardware is capable of."

Variable Aperture Camera [00:09:48]

• The main 48-megapixel camera features a new Sony sensor and a variable aperture, a first for Apple.
• The aperture can adjust from f/4 for deeper focus and sunstars to f/1.48 for better low-light performance.
• This, combined with the large sensor, pushes smartphone camera capabilities beyond previous limits.

  "It closes down to F4 for deep focus, a slightly sharper image, and fun sun stars at the cost of letting less light into the sensor, which traditionally on mobile cameras is something you need a lot of."

Enhanced AI Features [00:15:52]

• Generating custom shortcuts using plain text commands is a standout AI feature.
• An example shows creating a shortcut to scan receipts, convert them to JPEG, and name files by scanned date.
• The photo cleanup tool now uses cloud models for better results, effectively removing unwanted elements like reflections.

  "The coolest one by far, for me at least, has got to be generating shortcuts with plain text."

Contextual Siri and Personalization [00:17:54]

• Siri gains personal context by indexing iMessages, allowing for more relevant answers.
• Indexing took days, but Siri could then recall information like a grandma's birthday from past messages.
• This improved usefulness makes interacting with Siri more appealing again.

  "The other day, I asked it, when is my grandma's birthday coming up? And it pulled up a message my mom sent me from last year that said, today is nanny's birthday. You should reach out."

Dbrand Accessories Showcase [00:19:20]

• Dbrand offers a range of cases and screen protectors for the iPhone 18 series.
• The "Minimal" case is highlighted for its slim profile and sandstone texture.
• Other accessories include a wallet case with a kickstand and various case styles like Grip, Tank, and Ghost.

  "Wow. That is very minimal. It's the basicest case. You put your phone in it, and now it's a different color and a little larger. Truly groundbreaking work, dbrand."