Apple today introduced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, headlined by a 48MP Fusion Main camera with variable aperture, a first for the iPhone, along with the A20 Pro chip and what the company calls its largest battery life increase ever on a Pro Max model. Pre-orders begin Saturday, September 12, with availability starting Friday, September 18, in four finishes: black, silver, glacier, and a new burgundy.
The variable aperture uses six laser-cut blades that automatically adjust for depth of field and lighting, and photographers can manually choose among four aperture settings in the Camera app, with an API for developers. A new computational imaging pipeline sharpens shots, and upgraded Photographic Styles add texture and grain controls. Video gains the ability to apply Cinematic effects after capture at up to 60 fps, 4K Dolby Vision HDR in Time-lapse, and improved Audio Mix that can isolate music.
Read more: Leaker Says iPhone 18 Pro Models Will Gain Variable Aperture Cameras
A new Pro controls interface in the Camera app puts settings like lens aperture, shutter speed, and white balance at users' fingertips, along with a histogram for exposure checking. The Dynamic Island is redesigned to show three Live Activities at once while still supporting Face ID.
The A20 Pro, built on a 2-nanometer process, has a 6-core CPU, a 7-core GPU that Apple says is up to 40 percent faster than the A19 Pro, and a Dual 16-core Neural Engine with 32 total cores for double the AI processing power. The two handsets also carry the N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread, plus the C2 cellular modem, which supports mmWave in the U.S. and uses 15 percent less energy than C1X. A redesigned vapor chamber with three times more surface area than the iPhone 17 Pro's helps sustain performance.
Battery life gets a big boost: eSIM-only models offer up to 36 hours of video playback on the iPhone 18 Pro and up to 45 hours on the Pro Max, with the Pro Max gaining around seven hours of playback from a five-minute wired charge. The Pro can charge to 50 percent in about 15 minutes wired or 30 minutes wirelessly. These figures follow earlier leaks that suggested the Pro Max would carry a 5,567 mAh battery, which would be the largest ever in an iPhone.
Both phones run iOS 27 with Apple Intelligence, including Siri AI in beta, which can use personal context, onscreen awareness, and camera-based queries. A new Apple Reference Image feature signs every pixel of photos taken in Reference mode, creating an unalterable reference image viewable in the Photos app, with APIs for third-party apps. Apple also notes upcoming support for the SynthID standard to help identify AI-generated or edited images.
The new models arrive alongside other Apple announcements this week, including expanded health features for Apple Watch and iPhone.
