Apple’s online store went dark early on Saturday, September 12, with a message to waiting customers: “We love that early energy. Almost ready for you. Pre-order begins at 5:00 a.m. PT.” When it came back, buyers in more than 65 countries and regions could order the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
Apple had unveiled both phones on September 9. In the US the Pro starts at $1,199 and the Pro Max at $1,299. Both come in black, silver, glacier and a new burgundy, in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB sizes, and the 2TB option reaches the smaller Pro for the first time. They go on sale Friday, September 18. The first pre-orders began shipping the day before, and customers saw their status change to “shipped”.
A variable-aperture camera
The headline change is the 48MP Fusion Main camera, which brings aperture control to the iPhone for the first time. Six laser-cut blades move between apertures to adjust depth of field and light automatically. Apple says the result is better low-light shots and crisper detail at the back of group photos. Pros can set any of four aperture values by hand in the Camera app, and developers get an API for the same control.
A new Pro controls panel also exposes shutter speed, white balance and a histogram. Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said the company “didn’t just make incremental improvements in these areas, we took huge leaps forward.”
Apple Reference Image is the more unusual addition. The new sensor signs every pixel it captures, and Private Cloud Compute turns that signed data into an unalterable reference image. People can view it beside the finished photo, like a digital negative, to see whether anything was edited.
Chip, battery and the Island
The A20 Pro is built on a 2-nanometer process. Apple claims 50 percent more memory bandwidth than the A19 Pro and a 7-core GPU up to 40 percent faster. A new vapor chamber with three times the surface area of the iPhone 17 Pro’s is meant to hold that speed under load, for up to a 40 percent gain in sustained performance.
Battery life is where the Pro Max gets its biggest claim. Apple says the eSIM-only model plays up to 45 hours of video, against 36 hours for the Pro. Five minutes of wired charging on the Pro Max gives around seven hours of video playback. The Dynamic Island shrinks and can now show three Live Activities at once.
The phones run iOS 27 and Siri AI, which rolls out in beta. Apple describes it as a new version of Siri that can draw on personal context across messages, email and photos and act on what is on screen.
Apple said a separate device, iPhone Duo, opens for pre-order on October 16 and arrives October 23.
Sources
- Apple debuts iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max
- Apple Store Down Ahead of iPhone 18 Pro Pre-Orders
- First iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders begin shipping ahead of Friday launch
