Apple has announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, two flagship phones built around the most advanced camera the company has ever made and its newest 2-nanometer processor. The announcement came on 9 September 2026 from Cupertino, California, with pre-orders beginning Saturday, 12 September, and availability starting Friday, 18 September. "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. "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 starts at 1,199 dollars in the United States, or 49.95 dollars per month, while iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at 1,299 dollars, or 54.12 dollars per month for 24 months. Both come in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB storage capacities, in black, silver, glacier and an all-new burgundy finish. ## A Camera That Changes Aperture The headline feature is the new 48MP Fusion Main camera with variable aperture, bringing aperture control to iPhone for the first time. Six laser-cut blades controlled by a rotor mechanism smoothly transition between different apertures, automatically adjusting for depth of field and lighting. The camera can widen its aperture to f/1.48 for low-light shots or narrow it to f/4 to keep entire groups in focus, while portraits are optimized at f/1.8. Pro users gain manual control over aperture, shutter speed and white balance through a new Pro controls experience in the Camera app, complete with a histogram for checking exposure. A developer API extends aperture control to third-party apps. Video gains the ability to apply Cinematic effects after capture at up to 60 fps, and Time-lapse now records in 4K Dolby Vision HDR. The phones also introduce Apple Reference Image, an authenticity feature powered by a new sensor that can sign every pixel it sees. Photos taken in Reference mode produce an unalterable reference image, viewable like a digital negative, that lets anyone verify whether edits were made — a capability Apple positions as vital for photojournalists. ## A20 Pro Power and Tripled Vapor Chamber The A20 Pro, built on the latest 2-nanometer process, features a 6-core CPU with integrated Neural Accelerators, a 7-core GPU up to 40 percent faster than A19 Pro, and 50 percent more memory bandwidth. Its Dual 16-core Neural Engine doubles the AI processing power of the previous chip. A redesigned thermal system supports the silicon: custom packaging places the die beside the memory, removing memory from the thermal path and letting the chip attach directly to a next-generation vapor chamber with three times more surface area than iPhone 17 Pro's, enabling up to a 40 percent gain in sustained performance. Battery figures mark the largest increase ever on iPhone. ESIM-only models deliver up to 36 hours of video playback on iPhone 18 Pro and up to 45 hours on the Pro Max. Wired charging reaches 50 percent in around 15 minutes, and five minutes of charging on the Pro Max provides roughly seven hours of playback. Both models run iOS 27, which brings Siri AI, a conversational rebuild of Apple's assistant powered by Apple Intelligence with on-screen awareness and personal context. The eSIM-only versions, sold in twelve markets including the United States, Japan, Canada and Saudi Arabia, add two further hours of playback by reclaiming the SIM tray space. Apple says both phones are made with 40 percent recycled content overall as it works toward carbon neutrality by 2030.