Apple Announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max--2nm A20 Pro, Variable-Aperture Camera, $100 More, from $1,199, Arriving September 18

Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max on September 9 at its "Surprise and Shine" event, and Apple says both arrive Friday, September 18, at $1,199 and $1,299, $100 more than the iPhone 17 Pro models. The case dimensions are unchanged; the news is inside: a 2nm A20 Pro, a 48-megapixel main camera with a six-blade variable aperture and, on the Pro Max, what Apple calls the largest battery-life increase ever on an iPhone.

The A20 Pro moves to 2nm and the batteries last longer

The A20 Pro is built on a 2nm process, Apple's press release says, with a new 6-core CPU, a 7-core GPU up to 40 percent faster than the A19 Pro, a Dual 16-core Neural Engine whose 32 cores double the AI processing, and 50 percent more memory bandwidth. 9to5Mac breaks the CPU down as two "super cores" and four efficiency cores, and TidBITS relays Apple's claim of a CPU up to 20 percent faster. The iPhone 18 Pro also gets the C2 modem, with faster uploads than the C1X on 15 percent less energy and mmWave in the U.S.; TidBITS noticed that the Pro Max spec sheet does not list the C2.

A redesigned vapor chamber has three times the surface area of the iPhone 17 Pro's, which Apple says enables up to a 40 percent gain in sustained performance. Apple rates the eSIM-only iPhone 18 Pro at up to 36 hours of video playback and the Pro Max at up to 45, and adds a "typical use" figure: 30 hours for the Pro Max in the release, 24 for the Pro per TidBITS. The Pro gains 5 grams and the Pro Max 16, to 249 grams, per TidBITS.

Six blades sit behind the main camera

The 48MP Fusion Main camera, on both models, uses six laser-cut blades driven by a new rotor mechanism to move between apertures; MacRumors adds that each blade is thinner than a human hair and made of a polymer composite. Apple names three stops: ƒ/1.48 for low light, ƒ/1.8 for portraits and ƒ/4 for more depth of field; TidBITS lists a fourth at ƒ/2.8 and notes that the Ultra Wide stays fixed at ƒ/2.2 and the Telephoto at ƒ/2.8. The widest stop replaces the iPhone 17 Pro's ƒ/1.78, per TidBITS; by our arithmetic that is about a 45 percent larger opening. MacRumors says the aperture picks itself to suit the scene and opens to let in around 50 percent more light in the dark, and that Cinematic mode effects can be applied to regular video after capture. Every iPhone camera before this one had a fixed aperture, TidBITS notes, back to the 8GB iPhone we spent a weekend with in 2007.

The storage tiers climb to $2,499

The iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 and the Pro Max at $1,299, in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB; 2TB, offered only on the iPhone 17 Pro Max before, is on both iPhone 18 Pro models. MacRumors ran the tiers: the Pro is $1,399 at 512GB, $1,799 at 1TB and $2,399 at 2TB; the Pro Max is $1,899 at 1TB and $2,499 at 2TB. A 1TB Pro is $300 more than the $1,499 iPhone 17 Pro was, and a 2TB Pro Max is $500 above the iPhone 17 Pro Max's $1,999. The iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max are discontinued, per the MacRumors event recap.

Apple's pre-order announcement lists up to $1,200 in credit with select carriers on a trade-in of an iPhone 14 or newer in any condition, an Apple Upgrade lease at $34.99 a month over 24 months for the 256GB Pro, and three months of Apple One free for new and qualified returning subscribers.

Pre-orders opened September 12 and the phones arrive September 18

Pre-orders opened Saturday, September 12, at 5 a.m. Pacific on apple.com and in the Apple Store app in more than 65 countries and regions, including the U.S., Canada, the UK, Japan and China; 9to5Mac had ordering live from Apple and Walmart two minutes after the hour. Apple has the first deliveries and store stock arriving Friday, September 18, with 20 more countries and regions following Friday, September 25. Both phones come in black, silver, glacier and a new burgundy.

"With iPhone 18 Pro, we've made advancements to the areas our users care about most: camera, performance, battery, and intelligence," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, calling it "the best Pro iPhone we've ever made." We will post a hands-on report once we have one. On paper, the aperture is the first iPhone camera change in years we would pay the extra $100 for; the storage tiers are where Apple makes that $100 back.