DXOMARK has scored the iPhone 18 Pro’s camera at 172 points, placing it second in the lab’s global smartphone camera ranking. According to Gizmochina’s reporting on the same DXOMARK ranking, the only phone ahead of it is the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra.
DXOMARK published its Apple iPhone 18 Pro camera test on September 19, listing the phone in its “Ultra-Premium” segment for devices priced above $800. The score is DXOMARK’s own, independent lab result, not a figure from Apple.
What DXOMARK Actually Measured
The iPhone 18 Pro’s headline number breaks into a photo sub-score of 171 and a video sub-score of 176. DXOMARK’s own page marks the phone’s main-camera video score of 189 and its ultra-wide video score of 152 as the best results it currently lists for any device in those categories.
Photo performance is more mixed. The main camera scores 181, behind the Pura 80 Ultra’s 184. Bokeh comes in at 175, behind the Oppo Find X9 Ultra’s 185. Ultra-wide photo scores 152, well off the Vivo X300 Ultra’s 175, and telephoto photo scores 143 against the Find X9 Ultra’s 173.
DXOMARK credits the iPhone 18 Pro’s new variable aperture, its first on any iPhone, adjustable between f/1.48 and f/4.0, with keeping more of a scene in focus in group shots. In its own words:
“With a score of 172 points, the Apple iPhone 18 Pro delivers excellent overall camera performance, combining a wide dynamic range, improved contrast and skin tones, effective stabilization, and a well-balanced texture-noise trade-off.”
The lab also lists specific weaknesses: long-range telephoto performance that trails some rival flagships, no blur effect in night portrait mode, visible color casts and white balance shifts in some conditions, and occasional flare and aliasing artifacts.
Where It Lands Against the Competition
DXOMARK’s own ranking page confirms the 172 score and the second-place finish, but its full ranking table is rendered by JavaScript and doesn’t expose rival scores in the raw page. For the specifics of what’s ahead of the iPhone 18 Pro, Gizmochina reports that the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra holds the top spot with 175 points, a lead it has kept since last August, and that the iPhone 17 Pro, which scored 168, has since dropped to fifth as newer phones have been tested.
Gizmochina also reports the iPhone 18 Pro’s DXOMARK use-case scores: 150 for low light, which it says is the highest on DXOMARK’s current list, 157 for portraits (behind the Pura 80 Ultra’s 169), and 138 for zoom (behind the Vivo X300 Ultra’s 161). DXOMARK’s variable aperture also isn’t a first for the category. Huawei’s Pura 80 Ultra already ships one, and Apple’s plans for the feature had circulated in leaks since late 2025.
A DXOMARK score isn’t the only thing that matters when buying a camera phone. Real-world software updates, computational photography changes, and personal shooting habits all shift how a camera feels to actually use. But as an independent, standardized benchmark, a close second-place finish, with a best-in-class video result, is a solid showing for Apple’s first phone with a mechanical variable aperture.
Source: DXOMARK, Gizmochina
