Originally published at: iPhone 18 Pro Gets A20 Pro and Variable Aperture Camera - TidBITS
No one was surprised when Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max at its “Surprise and Shine” event—Apple always announces new iPhones in September, and it was a safe bet that Apple would increment the number from last year’s iPhone 17 lineup. Nor was it particularly surprising that the iPhone 18 Pro introduced the A20 Pro chip, the successor to last year’s A19 Pro, and that new models often boast better battery life, as the iPhone 18 Pro does. But the iPhone 18 Pro does bring two more distinctive changes: a new 48-megapixel Fusion Main camera with a variable aperture and a smaller, more useful Dynamic Island.
Apart from those improvements, however, the iPhone 18 Pro is remarkably similar to its predecessor, with identical case dimensions, unchanged buttons and ports, 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch screen sizes, Face ID, satellite connectivity, sensors, and MagSafe charging. The phones are a little heavier, though: the iPhone 18 Pro gains 5 grams, while the Pro Max jumps by 16 grams to 249 grams, making it Apple’s heaviest non-folding iPhone. They’re still iPhones, though, albeit with the new glacier (light blue) and burgundy colors joining black and silver. Burgundy looks to be this year’s cosmic orange.
Notably, Apple did not introduce the plain iPhone 18, likely reserving scarce resources for these higher-margin iPhone 18 Pro models and the new iPhone Duo foldable phone. Rumors have long suggested Apple would split the lineup this way, with the iPhone 18 reportedly due in early 2027, a schedule that may help Apple manage constrained component supplies more efficiently.
Let’s look at what’s new.
A20 Pro and C2 Chips
The A20 Pro moves from a 3nm manufacturing process to 2nm, replaces performance cores in the 6-core CPU with faster super cores, adds a seventh GPU core, doubles the Neural Engine from 16 to 32 cores, increases memory bandwidth by 50%, and introduces a new side-by-side memory package and a next-generation vapor chamber with three times the surface area, both of which improve cooling. Apple claims up to 20% faster CPU, 40% faster GPU, and 2x AI compute than the A19 Pro, while the iPhone 18 Pro’s redesigned thermal system provides up to 40% better sustained performance than the iPhone 17 Pro.
In practical terms, that should make the iPhone 18 Pro better for on-device AI and graphics rendering. After spending a year with a plain A19-equipped iPhone 17 and testing the iOS 27 beta on it, I think that extra processing power will be welcome. The iPhone 17 isn’t slow, exactly, but I often feel that it could be faster, particularly with Siri AI and other Apple Intelligence tasks.
The iPhone 18 Pro also gets Apple’s new C2 cellular modem, an update to the C1X that appeared in the iPhone Air last year. Apple says it delivers faster uploads while consuming 15% less energy than the C1X and supports 5G mmWave in the US. Curiously, the iPhone 18 Pro Max doesn’t include the C2 in its specs; it’s unclear why Apple didn’t include it in both models.
Camera Improvements
Up to this point, all iPhone cameras have had fixed-aperture lenses. (Although Portrait mode seemingly allowed adjusting an ƒ-stop, that was a computational depth-of-field effect, not an actual aperture change.) The iPhone 18 Pro sports a new 48-megapixel Fusion Main camera with a variable aperture that offers four selectable positions to control how much light reaches the sensor: ƒ/1.48, ƒ/1.8, ƒ/2.8, and ƒ/4.0. The Ultra Wide camera remains fixed at ƒ/2.2 and the Telephoto at ƒ/2.8. The Camera app can control the variable aperture automatically, but users who want manual control can now select any of the four aperture settings. At The Verge, Antonio G. Di Benedetto suggests that the real win is the maximum ƒ/1.48 aperture (previously ƒ/1.78), which should help in low light and provide a shallower depth of field for better bokeh.
With the new Pro controls, experienced users can more easily access their most-used settings and take advantage of new manual controls beyond lens aperture, including shutter speed and white balance, plus use a histogram to check exposure levels throughout a scene.
Video producers can apply cinematic effects after capture to videos at up to 60 frames per second. Time-lapse mode can now record videos in 4K and Dolby Vision HDR. Audio Mix delivers higher-quality voices and can now isolate music. Apple also added Smart focus tracking, which uses on-device AI to lock onto moving subjects and maintain focus even if they leave and re-enter the frame.
Intriguingly, users can now prove the authenticity of photos taken in the iPhone 18 Pro’s new Reference mode with Apple Reference Image, which uses the new sensor in the Fusion Main camera to sign every pixel. Reference images appear next to the main image in Photos, letting you visually compare the two to see whether any changes were made.
As a non-professional photographer, I find most of these details overwhelming. I care about the quality of my photos, but I’m largely uninterested in the camera specs underneath. That’s partly why I chose the iPhone 17 last year, and I haven’t been unhappy with its camera capabilities (see “iPhone 16 Pro Slightly Outperforms iPhone 17 for Macro Photos,” 6 October 2025). This year, the lack of a plain iPhone 18 and the desire for better performance will send me back to the iPhone 18 Pro. Maybe it will take better macro photos, too?
Dynamic Island
The Dynamic Island is a great example of Apple turning lemons (a dead space for the Face ID sensors) into lemonade (a dedicated spot for Live Activity updates). With the iPhone 18 Pro, Apple managed to cram the necessary sensors into a smaller area, so it can occupy less space in the status bar. At the same time, Apple redesigned it to display up to three Live Activities at once: one on each side and a third that straddles the dead zone.
I suspect few people will consciously notice the Dynamic Island improvements, possibly at all, and certainly not after living with it for a while, but they should subtly improve the iPhone experience.
Better Battery Life
It’s always hard to gauge Apple’s promised battery-life improvements because they’re conveyed through the utterly useless metrics of video playback and video playback (streamed). What does it mean that the iPhone 17 Pro can play back video for up to 33 hours, while the iPhone 18 Pro can do so for up to 36 hours? The Pro Max sees a larger jump, from 39 hours to 45 hours of video playback. And how should we interpret the shorter streamed video playback numbers, apart from acknowledging that networking consumes power?
Happily, this year, Apple added a “typical use” category that promises that the iPhone 18 Pro will get up to 24 hours of battery life, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max will last up to 30 hours. Who knows how Apple’s “typical use” compares to yours, and the company didn’t backfill specs for previous generations, but it seems safe to say that the iPhone 18 Pro models will offer better battery life than previous generations.
If the battery does give up on you during the day, fast charging may be faster than before. The iPhone 17 Pro models could charge up to 50% in 20 minutes with a 40W or higher adapter connected via USB-C, or in 30 minutes with a 30W adapter and a MagSafe Charger. The iPhone 18 Pro drops USB-C charge time to 15 minutes, but only with a 60W or higher adapter with adjustable voltage supply; MagSafe charge time remains 30 minutes with a 35W or higher adapter. In other words, your charging mileage may vary.
Increased Pricing and Ordering Details
Apple avoided increasing iPhone prices alongside Macs and iPads earlier this year (see “Apple Raises Prices for Many Products,” 26 June 2026), but amid sharply rising memory costs, the iPhone has now succumbed to the memory crisis. Both iPhone 18 Pro models are $100 more than their iPhone 17 Pro counterparts, starting at $1199 and $1299, respectively. Those who want to boost storage capacity will pay even more: the jump from 512 GB to 1 TB has doubled from $200 to $400, and going from 1 TB to 2 TB increases from $400 to $600 (2 TB was available only for the iPhone 17 Pro Max last year).
Previous models still available for sale have also gone up by $100 across the board. The iPhone 17e is now $699, the iPhone 16 is $799, the iPhone 17 is $899, and the iPhone Air is $1099.
Pre-ordering for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max opens on Saturday, 12 September 2026 at 5 AM Pacific, with availability beginning Friday, 18 September 2026.