Seems like Apple’s skipping the budget option–for now.
The company’s latest event officially launches their newest iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, with the base iPhone 18 reportedly postponed until 2027. Both phones served as the first product announcements for the event, with Apple CEO John Ternus promising big improvements across the board: as to be expected given the price increase.
And while the star of the show is arguably, the foldable iPhone Duo, let’s first take a look at what Cupertino brand has cooked up with this new iPhone 18 Pro series.
Doubling Down on that Camera Tech
Improved cameras have always been the main reason to go for any phone sporting the ‘Pro’ moniker and Apple is doubling down on this aspect by introducing variable-aperture cameras on their phones. Both phones’ 48MP Fusion Cameras move from a fixed f/1.78 aperture unit to one that varies from f/1.48 to f/4 range.
A variable aperture allows users to adjust their shots depending on the lighting conditions. They can use a wider aperture when shooting at low light or a narrower one for a sharper focus. These also come alongside additional Pro controls on the phone’s iOS Camera app, which now includes other manual settings like shutter speed, white balance, and more.
Variable aperture cameras on a phone isn’t anything new of course. A number of Android brands have tried it in the past; some of them still have it even. Apple seems to have gone for a simpler setup that allows users to switch between four preset levels instead of full manual control.
The rest of the camera setup however, is pretty much the same hardware as the iPhone 17 Pro series. You get a 48MP, f/2.2 ultrawide sensor that also doubles as the macro lens, and the same 48MP “tetraprism” aka periscope zoom lens. On the front, the iPhone 18 Pro retains the 18MP Center Stage camera with autofocus; perfect for your conference calls.
Both phones can shoot 4K Dolby Vision at up to 120FPS and regular 4K videos at up to 60FPS. You can however, apply new Cinematic Effects on these regular videos directly after capture.
Jumping to 2nm Performance
Both the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone 18 Pro Max come equipped with Apple’s A20 Pro chip, built from a 2nm process. Design-wise, the new chip is composed of a 6-core CPU, a 7-core GPU, and a dual 16-core Neural Engine; meaning you now get double the AI processing power compared to the 17 Pro.
Apple says the A20 Pro should deliver up to 40% improved graphics performance, even going as far as showing gameplay footage from Monster Hunter on the phone. They also said this new chipset offers 50% more memory bandwidth than the A19 Pro which should help you move your larger files.
The new series also gets Apple’s N1 chip for WiFi 7, Bluetooth 6.0 and Thread connectivity as well as the ultra-wideband chip introduced in the iPhone 16. Apple will switch to the new C2 modem however, making it the first time it’s been made available on an iPhone. This should enable faster file uploads compared to the C1X, at least for those using the US model.
No word on RAM capacity just yet but storage-wise, both phones will be starting with 256GB, with bigger storage capacities up to 2TB available at a premium.
A Familiar Design
Design-wise, the iPhone 18 Pro series follows the same language as the previous 17 Pro series. No titanium to be found here; Apple’s sticking with an aluminium frame supposedly for better thermal performance. They’ve also added a vapor chamber like last time, even attaching the A20 Pro to attach directly to it, further helping with its cooling.
The phones also follow the same display specifications and overall dimensions as last year’s lineup as well that is 6.3-inch diagonally for the iPhone 18 Pro and 6.9-inch for the Pro Max. The size of the Dynamic Island bar seems to have been reduced to give users more screen real estate but they’ve also been improved so that they can now show three Live Activities at once.
The phones still use the excellent Super Retina XDR OLED panels paired with an anti-reflective coating so colors should look great and feel fast in the hand. It’s protected by their Ceramic Shield 2. On the back, they use the plain Ceramic Shield in this cut-out design to facilitate wireless charging.
Both phones retained its Camera Control and Action buttons in the same spot so those upgrading directly from the previous generation should feel right at home.
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Improved Charging & Battery Life
Apple claims that the phones should have improved battery life across the board. Its new iPhone 18 Pro will reportedly have the same battery life as the previous iPhone 17 Pro Max, which is estimated at around 36 hours of video playback. Meanwhile, the iPhone 18 Pro Max will supposedly reach up to 45 hours of video playback.
Do note that these are reportedly just for the eSIM-only variants since these reportedly have a much larger battery than ones that support a physical SIM. As for charging, no concrete numbers were given during the event but they did say that 15 minutes of wired charging should be enough to take the iPhone from 0 to 50% which should be a good improvement.
Pricing and Availability
The iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 (approx. ₱74,920) while the iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299 (approx. ₱81,168) for the base 256GB variants. Available colors include Black, Silver, Glacier, and a new Burgundy color option to round out the set. The phones will officially release on September 18, Friday.
Make sure to follow us for more announcements on when pre-orders open for the iPhone 18 Pro! Plus all the freebies we’ll be including in the package~
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