Apple has unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max with an updated camera system, a new level of software intelligence, privacy and the longest battery life ever seen on an iPhone.
iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will be available for pre-order on September 12th and will go on sale on September 18.
They will be available in four colours: the new burgundy and glacier, as well as silver and black.
Apple has created the iPhone 18 Pro as the ultimate device for Apple Intelligence with even greater on-device AI capabilities and context and a new level of performance with the new A20 Pro chip and iOS 27.
On the camera side, the new iPhones have a new variable-aperture camera system.
Apple Intelligence leverages on-device awareness to offer action-oriented assistances while maintaining Apple’s industry-leading privacy standards.
“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.
“And we didn’t just make incremental improvements in these areas — we took huge leaps forward to create the best Pro iPhone we’ve ever made.
“iPhone 18 Pro makes it easy for anyone to capture stunning photos and videos using variable aperture, while providing more versatility for creators and more control for pros.
“Paired with impactful upgrades to Photographic Styles and powerful video capabilities, iPhone 18 Pro unlocks entirely new ways for users to express themselves.”
Design-wise the iPhone 18 Pro doesn’t look much different to the previous model apart from improved colour-matched aluminium.
Apart from the new colours, the other change is a smaller Dynamic Island capable of tracking up to three live activities at once.
With iOS 27, Siri AI has also been improved significantly to a fully conversational, context-aware assistant.
It can comprehend on-screen content, maintain cross-app context, and execute multi-step actions within third-party apps such as automatically adding ingredients from an email directly to a grocery list.
Other embedded capabilities include generative image creation via Image Playground, advanced photo tools like Cleanup and Extend and Spatial Reframing and proactive information surfacing—such as automatic flight tracking within the Phone app.
The iPhone 18 Pro is powered by the new A20 Pro chip, built on an advanced 2-nanometer process technology with every element of the silicon architecture is tuned to run complex AI models efficiently on-device.
With a 32-Core Neural Engine it delivers a 2x increase in AI compute power compared to the previous generation.
The 7-Core GPU & 6-Core CPU delivers a 40 per cent gain in graphics performance, specifically optimizing real-time generative media processing.
The new memory packaging places the silicon side by side with the memory layout allows the chip to attach directly to the new vapour chamber.
The next-generation vapour chamber featuring 3x the surface area provides up to 40 per cent better sustained performance, preventing thermal throttling during intense workloads.
And thanks to the efficiency of the A20 Pro and an expanded battery architecture, iPhone 18 Pro Max offers up to 45 hours of video playback—the largest battery life increase in iPhone history.
The iPhone 18 Pro camera system introduces Apple’s first 48MP main camera with a variable aperture, allowing the lens to open and capture 50 per cent more light in dark environments while maintaining sharp, natural depth of field across all scenes.
Six laser-cut blades allow users to transition between various apertures to make it even easier to capture the best shot by adjusting for depth of field and lighting.
Apple has addressed the rise of synthetic media with the new Apple Reference Image capability which cryptographically signs photo data at the sensor level to create a verifiable digital negative to confirm authenticity.
Pricing and availability.
The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will be available to pre-order from Saturday, September 12 at 10 pm and will go on sale on September 18.
Pricing for the iPhone 18 Pro is $2,099 (256GB), $2,499 (512GB), $3,299 (1TB) and $4,499 (2TB).
Pricing for the iPhone 18 Pro Max is $2,299 (256GB), $2,699 (512GB), $3,499 (1TB) and $4,699 (2TB).
