And here are the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max! At first glance, the newest Pro iPhones resemble the previous versions—save for the color options. However, the company is bringing forth several noteworthy, incremental upgrades to both of its pro-level iPhones.
The Dynamic Island physical cutout is now smaller in size and takes up less space at the top center of your screen. While now smaller, it can now support up to three activities at the same time. Outside of that, both phones, still IP68-rated, have screens reaching up to 3,000 nits of brightness, and the Pro still keeps its 6.3-inch size along with the 6.9-inch Pro Max.
The new Pro iPhones are powered by Apple’s latest A20 Pro chip, which handles high-end gaming, better battery efficiency, image processing, on-device AI tasks, and the new, more useful version of Siri. The new chip has a 6-core CPU with 2 new supercores and a faster GPU with 7 cores, which results in 40% faster performance over the previous chip.
Batteries on both phones get larger, with the 18 Pro Max still being the largest of the two. Apple claims up to 45 hours of use, while the 18 Pro is quoted at up to 36 hours. The company gave wired charging a boost, as a 15-minute charge will grant you 50% of juice. The Pro iPhone keeps its MagSafe and Qi2.2 charging up to 25 W.
Its camera plateau gets marginally thicker to make room for the new camera hardware inside. The rear camera system retains its three 48MP sensors, but the company gave a noteworthy boost to its main sensor. It now offers a variable aperture, which allows the camera to physically open the size of the lens to allow more or less light to help combat overexposure, improved background blur for portrait photos, and better low-light images—all while keeping the details sharp.
Also new are pro controls, cinematic effects can be applied in post with 60fps, time lapses now support 4K, and Audio Mix adds music for directional audio. However, its telephoto sensor retains the 8x optical zoom and the 18MP selfie camera as well. Support for Dolby Atmos 4K, ProRes RAW, and Dual Capture also remains.
Both phones will ship with iOS 27, which includes the new-and-improved Siri. Apple’s latest version of its AI assistant will arrive with a dedicated app and integrated system-wide, including the camera. Having used the beta version of Siri for a few months, it’s a welcome and much-needed improvement to the Siri of the past.
As with every other Apple product or piece of tech, the iPhones cost $100 more this year. The 6.3-inch iPhone 18 Pro will start at $1,200 for the 256GB option, and the 6.9-inch iPhone 18 Pro Max will start at $1,300 for the 256GB storage size. Both will arrive in light blue, silver, black, and burgundy color options. Pre-orders for both start on September 12th and will go on sale on the 18th.
