iPhone 18 Pro: Everything you need to know about Apple’s new Pro iPhone

Apple has officially unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, bringing some of the biggest changes to the Pro lineup in years across cameras, performance, battery life and Apple Intelligence.

Headlining the upgrade is Apple’s new A20 Pro chip, alongside a 48-megapixel Fusion Main camera with variable aperture, a smaller and more capable Dynamic Island, the new C2 cellular modem and major battery improvements. The phones also arrive with iOS 27 and support Apple’s new Siri AI experience.

Here is everything you need to know about the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, including the cameras, A20 Pro chip, battery life, colors, storage, price, pre-order date and release date.

What’s new with iPhone 18 Pro?

The iPhone 18 Pro generation focuses heavily on four areas: cameras, performance, battery life and intelligence. Apple has introduced variable aperture to the iPhone camera for the first time, upgraded its silicon to the 2-nanometer A20 Pro, redesigned thermal management and reduced the size of the Dynamic Island while increasing the amount of information it can display.

Image: Apple

The lineup also introduces Apple’s C2 modem and N1 wireless chip, while iOS 27 brings Siri AI and the next generation of Apple Intelligence.

iPhone 18 Pro camera

The centerpiece of the iPhone 18 Pro camera system is a new 48-megapixel Fusion Main camera with variable aperture. Six blades inside the camera can adjust the aperture depending on lighting and depth of field, while users who want more control can manually select from four aperture settings.

The camera can widen to ƒ/1.48 for low-light photography, use ƒ/1.8 for portraits and narrow to ƒ/4 when more of a scene needs to remain in focus. Apple has also introduced a new computational imaging pipeline designed to improve detail.

What are Pro controls on iPhone 18 Pro?

Apple is giving photographers more direct control through a new customizable Pro controls interface in the Camera app. Users can manually change aperture, shutter speed and white balance, as well as display a histogram to monitor exposure.

Photographic Styles also gains texture and grain controls, while video improvements include the ability to apply Cinematic effects after recording footage at up to 60 frames per second. Time-lapse can now be captured in 4K with Dolby Vision HDR.

What is Apple Reference Image?

Another new photography feature is Apple Reference Image. When a picture is captured in Reference mode, signed sensor data is used to create an unalterable reference version of what the camera originally saw. It can then be compared with the finished image to help determine whether changes have been made.

The feature is particularly relevant to photographers and photojournalists, but Apple is also positioning it as another way for ordinary users to understand the authenticity of images in an era of increasingly convincing AI editing.

Smaller Dynamic Island

The Dynamic Island has been redesigned on the iPhone 18 Pro lineup. Although it takes up less space, Apple has expanded what it can show, including support for displaying as many as three Live Activities simultaneously.

Face ID remains part of the system for unlocking the iPhone, authenticating payments and signing into apps.

A20 Pro chip

Both iPhone 18 Pro models are powered by A20 Pro, Apple’s first Pro iPhone chip manufactured using a 2-nanometer process.

A20 Pro has a six-core CPU, seven-core GPU and a Dual 16-core Neural Engine with 32 neural processing cores in total. Apple says memory bandwidth has increased by 50 percent compared with A19 Pro, while GPU performance can be up to 40 percent faster.

The extra AI performance is particularly important for on-device Apple Intelligence features and computational photography.

New vapor chamber and cooling system

Apple has also reworked how the iPhone 18 Pro manages heat. The new chip package places A20 Pro directly against a next-generation vapor chamber, which has three times the surface area of the system used in iPhone 17 Pro.

Image: Apple

According to Apple, the combination can deliver up to 40 percent better sustained performance than the previous generation, helping the phone maintain performance during demanding games, camera workloads and AI tasks.

C2 modem, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6

iPhone 18 Pro introduces Apple’s C2 cellular modem system. Apple says C2 delivers faster uploads than C1X while using 15 percent less energy, and it adds mmWave support in the United States.

The phones also use Apple’s N1 wireless networking chip, bringing support for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread.

iPhone 18 Pro battery life

Battery life receives a substantial upgrade. On eSIM-only versions, Apple rates the iPhone 18 Pro for up to 36 hours of video playback and the iPhone 18 Pro Max for up to 45 hours.

The Pro Max receives the largest battery-life increase Apple has ever delivered on an iPhone. Apple also estimates up to 30 hours of real-world usage from a full charge on the Pro Max under its updated battery usage model.

How fast does iPhone 18 Pro charge?

Wired charging is faster too. Apple says iPhone 18 Pro can reach around 50 percent charge in approximately 15 minutes with suitable charging equipment. Wireless charging can reach around 50 percent in approximately 30 minutes.

On iPhone 18 Pro Max, around five minutes of wired charging can provide approximately seven hours of video playback.

iOS 27 and Siri AI

The iPhone 18 Pro ships with iOS 27 and is designed around the next generation of Apple Intelligence. Siri AI is rolling out in beta and can use personal context, understand information displayed onscreen and answer broader questions.

The new A20 Pro hardware gives the Pro models considerably more capacity for running AI models directly on the device.

iPhone 18 Pro colors

Apple is offering four finishes for both models: black, silver, glacier and a new burgundy option.

iPhone 18 Pro storage

Storage starts at 256GB. Apple is selling both the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB configurations.

How much does iPhone 18 Pro cost?

In the United States, iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199, while iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299. Prices increase with higher storage capacities.

When can you pre-order iPhone 18 Pro?

Pre-orders for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max begin at 5 a.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, September 12 in more than 65 countries and regions, including the United States and United Kingdom.

When is the iPhone 18 Pro release date?

The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will be released on Friday, September 18, when deliveries begin and the devices become available in Apple Stores in the first wave of launch countries.

Availability expands to a further 20 countries and regions on Friday, September 25.