Apple has officially unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max at its "Surprise and Shine" event, alongside a foldable iPhone Duo. Both Pro models carry a $100 price increase over their predecessors: the 6.3-inch iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199, while the 6.9-inch iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299. Preorders begin September 12 at 8am ET (5am PT), with phones arriving in stores on September 18. The devices come in four finishes: black, silver, glacier, and a new burgundy color.
The headline feature is a new 48MP Fusion Main camera with variable aperture, Apple's first for iPhone, using six blades to automatically or manually adjust for lighting and depth of field. New Pro controls let users manually adjust aperture, shutter speed, and white balance, and check exposure via an on-screen histogram. Other camera upgrades include 4K Dolby Vision time-lapse, the ability to apply Cinematic effects after recording video shot at up to 60fps, upgraded Photographic Styles with texture and grain controls, and a new Apple Reference Image feature that captures signed sensor data to help verify whether a photo has been edited. The Dynamic Island has been redesigned to be smaller while now displaying up to three Live Activities at once.
Both phones are powered by the new A20 Pro chip, built on a 2-nanometer process with a 6-core CPU and 7-core GPU said to be up to 40% faster than the A19 Pro, plus a Dual 16-core Neural Engine with 32 total cores for double the AI processing power. A new vapor chamber with three times the surface area of the iPhone 17 Pro's is designed to boost sustained performance by up to 40%. The phones also include Apple's N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread, along with a new C2 modem promising faster uploads and 15% lower energy use than the previous C1X modem, plus mmWave support in the U.S.
Battery life sees what Apple describes as major gains, with eSIM-only models offering up to 36 hours of video playback on the iPhone 18 Pro and up to 45 hours on the iPhone 18 Pro Max, which Apple says represents the largest battery-life increase in iPhone history. The Pro Max can reportedly deliver up to 30 hours of general usage on a full charge, and five minutes of wired charging can provide about seven hours of video playback. Both phones can charge to 50% in around 15 minutes over a wired connection, or in 30 minutes wirelessly.
Both phones ship with iOS 27, which introduces Siri AI, a new version of Siri built on Apple Intelligence designed to be more conversational and capable of drawing on personal context across messages, photos, and other apps. Additional AI-powered features include Siri Mode in the Camera app, Spatial Reframing, Extend, and an upgraded Clean Up tool in Photos. Siri AI rolls out in beta with iOS 27 starting September 14, initially in English, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish support arriving in October.
With prices up $100 from last year, Apple is offering trade-in credit ranging from $35 to $885 through its own store, with carrier trade-in deals reportedly offering up to $1,200 in credit for eligible older iPhones. Apple Upgrade leasing plans start as low as $34.99 per month over 24 months. Additional retailer and carrier preorder deals are expected to roll out in the days following the September 12 preorder launch.