Apple has reportedly confirmed that iPhone 17 Pro cases aren’t officially compatible with the iPhone 18 Pro. However, the difference may be so small that you can probably get away with using one anyway.
According to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, Apple says the camera plateau on the iPhone 18 Pro is slightly thicker than the one on its predecessor. The difference is just 0.1mm, measuring 11.5mm on the iPhone 18 Pro compared with 11.4mm on the iPhone 17 Pro.
That tiny change is enough for Apple to say the cases aren’t interchangeable, although there’s an interesting catch: Gruber’s own testing suggests they actually work just fine.
He found that his iPhone 17 Pro cases fitted the iPhone 18 Pro models without any problems, while iPhone 18 Pro cases also fitted the iPhone 17 Pro. That means the physical difference appears to be minor enough that existing cases may still work in practice. Even so, Apple isn’t officially recommending it.
The same could apply to the larger Pro Max models, although the source doesn’t provide specific testing details for those cases.
Apple’s own cases should therefore be usable across both generations based on Gruber’s testing. Meanwhile, many third-party cases are also likely to fit. There could still be exceptions, particularly among cases with tighter camera cutouts or less forgiving designs, so it’s not a universal guarantee.
The interesting part is that this isn’t really a dramatic redesign issue. The reported difference in the camera plateau is only a tenth of a millimetre. Moreover, real-world testing suggests it doesn’t prevent the cases from fitting.
So, if you’ve already got an iPhone 17 Pro case sitting around and you’re planning to move to an iPhone 18 Pro, you may not necessarily need to replace it immediately. However, just don’t take Apple’s official compatibility guidance as a guarantee that every case will fit.
The post Will iPhone 17 Pro cases fit the iPhone 18 Pro? appeared first on Trusted Reviews.