Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max at its “Surprise and shine” event at Apple Park today, with prices starting at $1,199 and $1,299. Both phones get the A20 Pro, Apple’s first 2-nanometer chip, a 48MP main camera with a variable aperture, a smaller Dynamic Island and up to 45 hours of video playback on the Pro Max.
It was John Ternus’s first keynote as CEO, eight days after he succeeded Tim Cook, who is now executive chairman. The starting prices are $100 higher than the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max, which launched at $1,099 and $1,199. You can catch up on everything else Apple showed in our Apple event live blog.
iPhone 18 Pro price, storage and release date
The 6.3-inch iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 with 256GB, or $49.95 a month for 24 months. The 6.9-inch iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299 with 256GB, or $54.12 a month.
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Storage goes up to 512GB, 1TB and, for the first time on an iPhone, 2TB. Apple has not published prices for the higher tiers in its press release.
| Model | Display | Starting price (256GB) | Monthly (24 months) |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 18 Pro | 6.3-inch | $1,199 | $49.95 |
| iPhone 18 Pro Max | 6.9-inch | $1,299 | $54.12 |
Pre-orders open Saturday, September 12 at 5 a.m. PT. The phones ship Friday, September 18 in more than 65 countries and regions, with 20 more countries following on Friday, September 25.
A20 Pro chip, variable aperture camera and battery
The A20 Pro is built on a 2nm process and pairs a 6-core CPU with a 7-core GPU that Apple says is up to 40 percent faster than the A19 Pro. A dual 16-core Neural Engine doubles the AI processing of last year’s chip, and a next-generation vapor chamber attached directly to the chip delivers about three times the cooling performance of the prior design.
The headline camera change is a 48MP Fusion main camera with a variable aperture that moves between f/1.48 and f/4 using six laser-cut blades. The Camera app adds manual aperture and shutter speed controls, and Apple did not announce changes to the Ultra Wide or front camera.
Apple rates the eSIM-only iPhone 18 Pro at up to 36 hours of video playback and the Pro Max at up to 45 hours, which it describes as up to 30 hours of use on a full charge. Wired charging reaches 50 percent in about 15 minutes.
Every other new iPhone 18 Pro feature
- Colors: Black, Silver, Glacier and Burgundy. Black returns after the 17 Pro skipped it, and Cosmic Orange is gone.
- A smaller Dynamic Island that shows up to three Live Activities at once, with Face ID retained.
- N1 wireless chip with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread, plus a C2 modem that uses 15 percent less energy than the C1X and supports mmWave 5G in the US.
- Smart Focus subject tracking, faster Night mode, Cinematic effects up to 60 fps and 4K Dolby Vision HDR time-lapse.
- Apple Reference Image, which stores an untouched original with verification metadata so a photo can be shown to come from a real capture rather than AI.
- eSIM-only in the US, Canada, Japan, Mexico and eight other markets.
- 40 percent recycled content overall, with 100 percent recycled cobalt in the battery.
Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said in the press release: “With iPhone 18 Pro, we’ve made advancements to the areas our users care about most: camera, performance, battery, and intelligence.”
iOS 27 arrives as a free update on Monday, September 14, ahead of the September 18 launch. There is no standard iPhone 18 this year, and we explain why Apple skipped the base model in a separate piece.
