Apple’s iPhone is a product that the world, including potential buyers, critics, and competitors, watches obsessively. Over the years, the Cupertino giant has repeatedly shown up every September with the best iteration of its smartphone technology, spread across multiple Pro and non-Pro models. The iPhone 18 series broke that tradition.
The premium models, the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and Apple’s first-ever foldable, the iPhone Duo, launched at a dedicated fall event on September 9, 2026, Apple’s “Surprise and Shine” showcase. The more affordable models, including the standard iPhone 18, iPhone 18e, and iPhone Air 2, are still on track for spring 2027, though Apple hasn’t confirmed the release yet.
That’s why it’s still worth tracking the purported iPhone 18 this year, so you can plan your upgrade (and prepare your wallet) well in advance.
Release date and price
Price was a sensitive topic all year, not just for the iPhone 18 series but for every smartphone launched in 2026. The ongoing memory crisis and rising component costs compelled manufacturers to either raise prices or upsell buyers to higher-memory variants.
iPhone 18
The standard iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e are still heavily rumored to be delayed until spring 2027, alongside the iPhone Air 2, effectively making the Pro models Apple’s “default” traditional smartphone focus for the 2026 holiday shopping season.
| Expected release | Starting price | |
| iPhone 18 | March 2027 | ~$799 |
| iPhone 18e | March 2027 | ~$599 |
| iPhone Air 2 | March 2027 | ~$999 |
Please keep in mind that these prices are still mere speculation, and Apple hasn’t confirmed them.
iPhone 18 Pro models
Apple confirmed the date on August 26 with official event invites, and the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max launched exactly as expected. Pre-orders opened Saturday, September 12 at 5 a.m. PT. The phones hit shelves Friday, September 18, in more than 65 countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Japan, Australia, India, and Mexico. A second wave of 20 additional countries followed on September 25.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman’s final prediction landed dead-on: both Pro models got exactly a $100 price increase over last year. The iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199, and the iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299, both for 256GB.
| iPhone 18 Pro | iPhone 18 Pro Max | |
| 256GB | $1,199 | $1,299 |
| 512GB | $1,399 | $1,499 |
| 1TB | $1,799 | $1,899 |
| 2TB | $2,399 | $2,499 |
To soften the blow, Apple has already put two measures in place. First, the company has launched “Apple Upgrade,” a Klarna-backed leasing program that lets you pay the cost of the iPhone in easy monthly installments. As part of the program, iPhone leases start as low as $17.99/month.
Separately, Apple has also raised its trade-in values across most iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models, something that will reduce your effective upgrade cost when you exchange your current device for a new one. In fact, the company has also added third-party smartphones, including those from companies like Samsung, Google, and OnePlus, to its exchange program for the first time.
Design and display
iPhone 18 (rumors)
According to the latest rumor from Fixed Focus Digital (via Weibo), the base iPhone 18 could look and feel like its predecessor, the iPhone 17. In other words, we could get the same glass-and-aluminum sandwich design with flat edges, rounded corners, a pill-shaped camera module, and a minimal yet premium look.
The overall dimensions and weight might remain unchanged, barring minor modifications, and it could still feature a 6.27-inch LTPO OLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, perhaps with improved peak brightness and always-on efficiency.
It might have a smaller Dynamic Island, though newer leaks dispute this, suggesting the smaller cutout could be reserved for the Pro models exclusively. As for display specs, the baseline iPhone 18 could borrow the iPhone 17’s 6.3-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display with a pixel density of 460ppi and a peak brightness of 3,000 nits.
iPhone 18 Pro models
The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max look like their predecessor, but they have a couple of differences that are hard to notice at first.
Both Pro models keep the same roughly 8.75mm profile as the iPhone 17 Pro generation. What changed is weight: the iPhone 18 Pro now weighs 211 grams (up from 206 grams), and the Pro Max weighs 249 grams (up from 233 grams), the tradeoff for a larger battery in an unchanged chassis.
The back and camera plateau are also now color-matched to the frame, eliminating the two-tone look of previous generations. Face ID is retained via the standard TrueDepth module. IP68 water and dust resistance carries over unchanged (rated to survive up to 6 meters for 30 minutes).
Speaking of Face ID, Apple has hidden the infrared camera under the display at the top-left corner of the screen. This leaves the standard front-facing camera and the Face ID dot projector in the Dynamic Island cutout, essentially shrinking it by roughly 35%. The freed-up screen real estate lets the Dynamic Island track up to three Live Activities (up from two on the iPhone 17 Pro).
Aside from the weight and smaller cutout, the new colors will set the latest iPhones apart. Apple retained the Silver finish but replaced the others with a fan-favorite Black, my personal favorite Glacier, and the new signature finish, Burgundy.
The iPhone 18 Pro gets a 6.3-inch all-screen OLED display (2,622 x 1,206 resolution), while the iPhone 18 Pro Max gets a 6.9-inch panel (2,868 x 1,320), both at 460 ppi with ProMotion up to 120Hz, 1,600 nits of peak HDR brightness, and 3,000 nits outdoors.
Ceramic Shield 2 now covers both the front and the back of the phone, a first for the Pro line. Like the 17 Pro, the 18 Pro models also support features like always-on display, True Tone adaptive screen temperature, and an anti-reflective coating.
| iPhone 18 Pro | iPhone 18 Pro Max | |
| Type | Super Retina XDR OLED with Dynamic Island | Super Retina XDR OLED with Dynamic Island |
| Size | 6.3 in (diagonal) | 6.9 in (diagonal) |
| Resolution | 2,622 x 1,206 px at 460 ppi | 2,868 x 1,320 px at 460 ppi |
| Refresh rate | ProMotion, adaptive up to 120Hz | ProMotion, adaptive up to 120Hz |
| Brightness | 1,000 nits typical; 1,600 nits peak (HDR); 3,000 nits peak (outdoor) | 1,000 nits typical; 1,600 nits peak (HDR); 3,000 nits peak (outdoor) |
| Other | Always-On display, True Tone, Wide color (P3), 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, anti-reflective coating | Same features as Pro |
Performance and software
iPhone 18 (rumored)
Under the hood, the iPhone 18 will almost certainly feature the standard A20 chip, Apple’s first built on TSMC’s 2nm process. Beyond improvements in raw performance and efficiency, Apple’s purported mobile processors could use a new WMCM (Wafer-level Multi-Chip Module) design, as analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims and a few other industry sources corroborate, integrating the CPU, GPU, and DRAM into the same package.
While Ming-Chi Kuo claimed the entry-level flagship could get 9GB of RAM, barely a 1GB improvement over the current generation, Jeff Pu has contradicted that claim, lending more weight to the initial 12GB rumors, and that’s been the consensus ever since.
The new iPhones will debut with iOS 27 out of the box, and the baseline iPhone 18’s exact feature set for that release remains to be seen.
iPhone 18 Pro models
The A20 Pro is real, and it’s Apple’s first 2nm chip in an iPhone (Samsung’s Exynos 2600 technically crossed that finish line first, but Apple’s implementation is more capable).
It packs a 6-core CPU (two performance cores, four efficiency cores), a 7-core GPU with built-in Neural Accelerators that are up to 40% faster than the A19 Pro’s, and a dual 16-core Neural Engine, 32 cores total, doubling the on-device AI throughput of last year’s chip.
A redesigned vapor chamber with three times the surface area of the iPhone 17 Pro’s delivers up to a 40% gain in sustained performance under load.
RAM stays flat at 12GB, matching the iPhone 17 Pro generation exactly, no bump this cycle. But the new chip packaging does deliver 50% more memory bandwidth than before. Storage options stay the same as last year, though: 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB.
On connectivity, the Pro models use Apple’s second-generation C2 modem, which draws 15% less power than the outgoing C1X. It also enables faster uploads and supports mmWave 5G in the US. Wireless duties go through Apple’s N1 chip (not a new N2 chip, as some rumors suggested), supporting Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread.
Satellite features carry over largely unchanged: Emergency SOS via satellite, Messages via satellite, and Find My via satellite are all present, but the rumored leap to 5G-via-satellite didn’t materialize this generation.
| iPhone 18 Pro | iPhone 18 Pro Max | |
| Chip | A20 Pro (2nm) | A20 Pro (2nm) |
| CPU | 6-core (2 performance + 4 efficiency) | 6-core (2 performance + 4 efficiency) |
| GPU | 7-core with Neural Accelerators, hardware-accelerated ray tracing | 7-core with Neural Accelerators, hardware-accelerated ray tracing |
| Neural Engine | Dual 16-core (32 cores total) | Dual 16-core (32 cores total) |
| RAM | 12GB | 12GB |
| Storage | 256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB | 256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB |
| Modem | Apple C2 | Apple C2 |
| Wireless chip | Apple N1 (Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread, 2nd-gen Ultra Wideband) | Apple N1 (Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread, 2nd-gen Ultra Wideband) |
iOS 27 has been available since September 14, 2026. One key highlight is Siri AI, a genuinely rebuilt conversational assistant that lives in its own dedicated app. It has on-screen awareness (it can look at what’s on your display and act on it), and it can chain tasks across different apps instead of handling one command at a time.
It’s launching in beta, English-only at first, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish arriving in October.
Beyond Siri AI, iOS 27 brings deeper Apple Intelligence integration with on-device processing, new photo-editing tools including Spatial Reframing, Extend, and Clean Up, and a revamped Image Playground that can create photorealistic images.
Then there’s iPhone Handoff, which lets supporting carriers share one number across two iPhones, plus expanded child-safety tools and a new Notify Me feature in Safari to track webpage changes. The operating system update also comes with faster AirDrop and quicker app launches, along with general improvements to Messages, Mail, Passwords, and Shortcuts.
| iPhone 18 Pro | iPhone 18 Pro Max | |
| OS at launch | iOS 27 | iOS 27 |
| Headline feature | Siri AI, dedicated app, on-screen awareness, cross-app task chaining (beta, English-only at launch) | Same |
| Other iOS 27 features | Apple Intelligence (on-device + Private Cloud Compute), Spatial Reframing, Extend, Clean Up, Image Playground, iPhone Handoff, expanded child-safety tools, Safari Notify Me | Same |
Cameras and battery
iPhone 18 (rumored)
Both the iPhone 18 and the iPhone 18 Pro models were rumored to get a 24MP square-shaped sensor on the front to sharpen up ultrawide selfies, though newer reports at the time assigned that upgrade to the Pro models only, with the regular iPhone 18 possibly sticking to its existing 18MP Center Stage camera for at least this product cycle.
Since there are no major rumors about the iPhone 18’s rear camera setup, it could remain similar to the iPhone 17: a 48MP primary camera and a 48MP ultrawide camera.
iPhone 18 Pro models
The front camera did not get the rumored megapixel bump. Both Pro models ship with the same 18MP Center Stage camera (f/1.9) as the iPhone 17 Pro, now with 4K Dolby Vision recording.
The rumors about the variable aperture on the iPhone 18 Pro were true. It’s there on both the Pro and the Pro Max, not just on the latter as some rumors suggested. The 48MP main camera uses a six-blade mechanism that physically shifts between f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8, and f/4, letting you control background blur and light intake.
It’s a first for any iPhone and resolves months of conflicting reports about which model would get it.
The rest of the rear camera system: a 48MP ultrawide (f/2.2, 13mm, 120-degree field of view) with macro support, and a 48MP tetraprism telephoto (f/2.8, 100mm) offering 4x true optical zoom, up to 8x optical-quality zoom, and a combined 16x optical-quality range, with digital zoom reaching 40x.
On the software side, Apple shipped Pro Controls, a manual interface for shutter speed, white balance, aperture, and a live histogram.
Buyers also get upgraded Photographic Styles with texture and grain controls, Cinematic effects that can now be applied after recording at up to 60fps, 4K Dolby Vision HDR time-lapse, and Apple Reference Image, a new feature designed to verify photo authenticity.
| iPhone 18 Pro | iPhone 18 Pro Max | |
| Main | 48MP, variable aperture ƒ/1.48–1.8–2.8–4.0, 24mm, sensor-shift OIS | 48MP, variable aperture ƒ/1.48–1.8–2.8–4.0, 24mm, sensor-shift OIS |
| Ultra Wide | 48MP, ƒ/2.2, 13mm, 120° FOV, macro support | 48MP, ƒ/2.2, 13mm, 120° FOV, macro support |
| Telephoto | 48MP tetraprism, ƒ/2.8, 100mm (4x optical); also enables a 12MP, 200mm (8x optical-quality) crop | 48MP tetraprism, ƒ/2.8, 100mm (4x optical); also enables a 12MP, 200mm (8x optical-quality) crop |
| Zoom range | 16x optical-quality range total; up to 40x digital | 16x optical-quality range total; up to 40x digital |
| Front | 18MP Center Stage, ƒ/1.9, autofocus | 18MP Center Stage, ƒ/1.9, autofocus |
| Video | 4K Dolby Vision up to 120fps; ProRes/ProRes RAW up to 4K/120fps; Apple Log 2; Cinematic mode up to 4K/60fps | 4K Dolby Vision up to 120fps; ProRes/ProRes RAW up to 4K/120fps; Apple Log 2; Cinematic mode up to 4K/60fps |
| New software tools | Pro Controls (aperture, shutter, white balance, histogram), Apple Reference Image, Photographic Styles 3, Smart focus tracking | Same |
Battery capacities are confirmed via Apple’s EU energy labels: the iPhone 18 Pro comes in at 4,056mAh (up 1.7% from the iPhone 17 Pro’s 3,988mAh), and the iPhone 18 Pro Max jumps to 5,391mAh (up 11.7% from the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s 4,823mAh) (via MacRumors).
Apple rates the Pro for up to 24 hours of typical use or 36 hours of video playback, and the Pro Max for up to 30 hours of typical use or 45 hours of video playback.
| iPhone 18 Pro | iPhone 18 Pro Max | |
| Typical use | Up to 24 hours | Up to 30 hours |
| Video playback (local file) | Up to 36 hours | Up to 45 hours |
| Video playback (streamed) | Up to 33 hours | Up to 40 hours |
Charging speed has also increased from 40W on the iPhone 17 Pro to 60W across both iPhone 18 Pro models. Apple claims the new Pro models can reach 50% in about 15 minutes with a 60W adapter or higher. MagSafe charging remains at 25W, charging the Pro models up to 50% in around 30 minutes.
