Apple's event kicked off under its new CEO, John Ternus, unveiling the all-new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. The new iPhones are said to feature the most advanced camera system it has built into an iPhone, alongside the biggest jump in battery life and sustained performance in the line's history.
The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max come in four finishes, black, silver, glacier and an all-new burgundy, with storage options up to 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB. Let's dive in to the specs.
Camera
The 48-megapixel Fusion Main camera brings variable aperture to iPhone for the first time, using six laser-cut blades that adjust automatically for depth of field and lighting. There are four aperture settings, which can be manually controlled.
A new computational imaging pipeline sharpens detail, and upgraded Photographic Styles add texture and grain controls. Cinematic effects can now be applied after filming to footage shot at up to 60fps, timelapse mode supports 4K and Dolby Vision HDR, and Audio Mix can isolate music as well as voices.
A new 'Pro controls' interface lets users adjust aperture, shutter speed and white balance directly or check exposure with a histogram.
Apple has also introduced Apple Reference Image, which functions as a digital negative that lets users check whether a photo has been edited. Apple said image metadata and forthcoming support for the SynthID standard will further help flag AI-generated or AI-edited images, positioning the tools as significant for photojournalists specifically.
The redesigned Dynamic Island can now display three Live Activities at once, up from two, while continuing to handle Face ID authentication.
Performance
Built on a 2-nanometre process, the A20 Pro chip offers 50% more memory bandwidth than the A19 Pro. Its 6-core CPU includes integrated Neural Accelerators, and the 7-core GPU is up to 40% faster than its predecessor.
Apple paired the chip with a redesigned vapour chamber, three times larger than the one in the iPhone 17 Pro, which keeps memory out of the chip's thermal path. The company said this delivers up to a 40% gain in sustained performance, the highest in an iPhone to date.
Both models also feature Apple's N1 wireless chip, enabling Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread. The iPhone 18 Pro introduces Apple's C2 modem, which the company said delivers meaningfully faster uploads than the C1X while using 15% less energy.
Battery life
Apple says the eSIM-only models offer up to 36 hours of video playback on the iPhone 18 Pro and 45 hours on the Pro Max, an additional two hours over models with a physical SIM slot. Charging reaches 50% in around 15 minutes wired, or 30 minutes wirelessly.
On the Pro Max, five minutes of wired charging adds roughly seven hours of playback, and Apple said real-world usage modelling points to up to 30 hours of use per charge.
iOS 27, Siri AI and Apple Intelligence
The new models ship with iOS 27 and introduce Siri AI, rolling out in beta, a rebuilt version of Siri that Apple describes as more personal, capable and conversational, drawing on onscreen and personal context to search messages, emails and photos, and to take action based on what's on screen. A new Siri mode in the Camera app can identify and act on what a user is pointing at, and Siri can write text on request.
Apple Intelligence also adds Spatial Reframing, Extend and an upgraded Clean Up tool for adjusting photo composition after capture, plus photorealistic image generation in Image Playground.
The most convenient feature in iOS 27 is iPhone Handoff, which lets users switch between two iPhones on the same phone number.
Pricing and Availability
The iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199, with the iPhone 18 Pro Max starting at $1,299. Pre-orders open on 12 September, with devices going on sale from 18 September.
