PSA: Apple Lets You Adjust The Intensity Of The Flashlight Beam Only On Pro iPhone Models

With iOS 18, Apple surprised everyone with a completely new design for its iconic flashlight tool. Now, when you turn on the flashlight on an iPhone, you'll see an elaborate animation showing the precise light throw. In iOS 17, the flashlight widget in the dynamic island only displayed the status of the flashlight, i.e., if it was enabled or not. But in iOS 18 and subsequently iOS 26, Apple is making good use of the space in the dynamic island to give the flashlight toggle more functionality.

As more users upgrade to newer iPhones with the dynamic island, more people have begun taking advantage of the feature. Not everyone realized, though, that the flashlight intensity control isn't available on regular iPhone models. That's exactly why a Reddit user who upgraded from an iPhone 14 Pro to an iPhone 17 started wondering if Apple had removed the feature. While the feature is still present, it's restricted only to the Pro iPhones.

If you have a Pro iPhone and you decide to upgrade to the standard iPhone 17, since it's the most value for money model this year, you should know that they still have some differences — even though the gap is now narrower than ever. For example, iPhone Pro models have a True Tone flash system with a multi-LED array, while the non-Pro iPhones use a simpler, single-lens LED module. That makes it impossible to adjust the flashlight beam.

If you have an iPhone 14 Pro or newer, you can adjust the flashlight by interacting with the widget on the Dynamic Island (as long as it's a Pro model). You can focus the beam straight ahead or widen it for greater coverage. You can also dim the brightness in certain situations. If this feature is important to you, ensure you upgrade to a Pro model only, or else you will lose out on the functionality.