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iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are the latest flagship smartphones.
These handsets, which supersede the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max released in September last year, promise powerful new performance, the longest battery life in iPhone history, and improvements to the triple-camera system on the back, especially in low-light conditions.
From the outside, iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max look pretty similar to the aluminium unibody design introduced with its predecessor. It has the same "plateau" to house the triple-camera system, LED flash, and depth sensor.
However, the Dynamic Island — that's the pill-shaped cut-out at the top of the screen that shows real-time alerts, incoming notifications, and background activities — is smaller than on previous models.
This enables you to track up to three ongoing processes in the background for the first time. This was achieved by Apple moving some of the Face ID facial recognition components beneath the screen.
Unlike its predecessor, Apple has colour-matched the aluminium with the glass cut-out on the back of the iPhone, which is required to enable wireless charging via MagSafe. There are also new colours: Glacier, Burgundy, Black, and Silver.
Powering everything is the A20 Pro — the fastest CPU in every smartphone on the planet, Apple says. It's promising desktop PC-like performance from this custom-designed system-on-a-chip.
Apple has added a second Neural Engine, a dedicated part of the chipset focused on Artificial Intelligence, so you'll be able to run third-party LLMs on-device. A20 Pro also promises heavyweight performance with console-quality video games too.
This all-new silicon is so powerful, Apple's engineers were forced to go back to the drawing board to create a new way to manage the sheer amount of heat generated by all of that processing grunt. Inside iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, the vapour chamber now boasts 3x the surface area to effectively dissipate heat.
That work results in 40% more sustained performance compared to the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max.
Thanks to the efficiency of the A20 Pro system-on-a-chip, iPhone 18 Pro boasts 24-hours of charge. When it comes to video playback, Apple says you can expect 36-hours from a full charge before you'll need to find a plug.
iPhone 18 Pro Max has the largest increase in battery life of any iPhone, Apple tells us. Expect 36-hours of battery life on a single charge, rising to a whopping 45 hours when it comes to video playback.
For the first time, iPhone can change the aperture to adjust the amount of light that hits the sensor. This happens automatically, so there's no need to worry about the technicalities of f-stops ...unless you want to, thanks to a series of laser-cut blades thinner than a single human hair.
While it remains a 48-megapixel main camera, the variable aperture offers better photography in low-light scenarios. Night Mode photos will be faster too, Apple claims. Group shots are better with a narrower aperture, so that everyone remains in focus.
iPhone 18 Pro starts from £1,199 in the UK, while the larger iPhone 18 Pro Max starts from £1,299. Both of these prices are £100 more expensive than the previous models, likely due to the ongoing worldwide component shortages that already forced Apple to hike prices across its iPad and Mac lineup,
Preorders begin on Saturday 12. Your new iPhone will be delivered to your door, or available to pick-up in the nearest Apple Store from September 18, 2026.
