The new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max bring a 48MP variable-aperture camera, longer battery life, new colours and Apple’s latest A20 Pro chip.
Apple has launched the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max at its “Surprise and Shine” event, with the company putting much of the focus on camera improvements, performance and battery life.
The new Pro models keep a familiar overall design but introduce a new camera system, Apple’s A20 Pro chip and four colour options.
The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are available in black, silver, glacier and burgundy, with the latter two being the newest additions to the lineup.
The phone giant is also introducing a smoother rear-glass design, while the Dynamic Island is smaller on the new Pro models.
iPhone 18 Pro gets Apple’s biggest camera upgrade in years
The biggest hardware change is the main camera.
Apple has added a 48MP main camera with a variable aperture, allowing the lens opening to adjust rather than remaining fixed. The system uses six thin blades and is designed to give users more control over light entering the camera.
That should be particularly useful in low-light photography and when users want greater control over depth of field.
The new Pro models also introduce Pro controls that give users more manual control over photography and video settings. The phones can also record 4K time-lapse video in Dolby Vision HDR.
Apple is retaining the three-camera setup, consisting of the main, ultra-wide and telephoto cameras.
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The camera improvements come as Apple continues to position the iPhone as a serious photography and video device rather than simply a smartphone camera.
A20 Pro, bigger cooling system and much longer battery life
Under the hood, both phones are powered by the phone maker’s new A20 Pro chip, built using a 2nm manufacturing process.
The chip has a six-core CPU and seven-core GPU, while Apple has also upgraded the Neural Engine for its AI features. The company says graphics performance is significantly faster, while memory bandwidth has also increased.
Apple has paired the chip with a redesigned vapour chamber cooling system. The new system has three times the surface area of the previous generation, helping the phones handle sustained workloads and heat more effectively.
Battery life is another major upgrade.
The iPhone 18 Pro supports up to 36 hours of video playback, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max reaches up to 45 hours.
Apple also says a 15-minute wired charge can provide up to six hours of video playback.
How much does the iPhone 18 Pro cost?
Apple’s US starting prices are being reported at:
- iPhone 18 Pro — $1,199
- iPhone 18 Pro Max — $1,299
That represents a $100 increase over the starting prices of last year’s iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max.
Higher-storage configurations are also expected to cost more, with reports putting the Pro at up to $2,099 for 2TB and the Pro Max at $2,199 for 2TB.
Apple has not yet published Nigerian pricing in the sources reviewed, so those US prices should not be treated as the final Nigerian retail prices.
Siri gets a major AI upgrade
Apple also used the launch to highlight its upgraded Siri.
The new Siri can understand more context from what is displayed on the screen, allowing it to respond more intelligently to what users are doing on their phones.
Apple says the upgraded Siri will launch in English beta with the iOS 27 rollout this month. Support for French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish is expected in October.
The company is also emphasising privacy, with more of its AI processing handled on-device and through Apple’s Private Cloud Compute infrastructure.
The iPhone 18 Pro therefore represents a relatively familiar-looking iPhone with a significant set of changes underneath it: a new variable-aperture camera, faster A20 Pro silicon, improved cooling, longer battery life and a more capable Siri.
Apple’s latest Pro phones are also arriving at an important moment for the company, marking the first major iPhone launch under John Ternus, who became Apple’s CEO on September 1 after Tim Cook moved into the role of executive chairman.
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