Apple introduced the new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max at its September launch event.
The 18 Pro line also gets some new colours, which include deep black, a refined silver, a new “Glacier” blue, and what the company refers to as a “sophisticated and unique new colour.”
The 18 Pro series gets a big upgrade under the hood. The 18 Pro series is getting equipped with a 2nm, 7-core A20 chip. The chip also includes two neural engines that have 32 cores, and a 50 per cent increase in memory bandwidth.
The 18 Pro also gets new thermal upgrades in order to improve performance, which the company notes is a 40 per cent gain compared to the iPhone 17 Pro.
All of this is being powered by a major battery increase, which has been described as the “largest increase in battery life ever on iPhone.” The iPhone 18 Pro gets 24 hours of battery life per charge, while the 18 Pro Max offers 30 hours per charge. The company also noted that both devices can get a 50 per cent charge in 15 mins. The Dynamic Island also got a boost and can now show three different live events at once (directions, etc.).
Also new to the 18 Pro is DSLR-like variable aperture. Essentially, the variable aperture lets you adjust the amount of light that comes into the shot, which can also give you a cinematic-like change in depth of field.
There are also changes to the camera software, named “Pro Controls.” These new Pro Controls allow you to adjust the shutter speed, change the white balance, view a histogram, and manually adjust the aperture, for what the company calls “truly unique shots that weren’t possible before on iPhone.” These Pro Controls can work for both photo and video. Focus tracking has also been added, which uses on-device AI models to lock onto a subject and maintain detail, even if the subject leaves the field of view and comes back.
Interestingly, there is also a new Digital Reference Image, which will let you prove the authenticity of a photo taken on an iPhone 18 Pro. Essentially, the main camera signs photo data at the pixel level at the time of capture, and private cloud compute then turns it into an unalterable photo that lives in the Photos app. Essentially, this is like having a raw or negative version of the image, except it’s digital.
The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max will be available in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2 TB. The 18 Pro starts at C$1749 (or C$72.87/mo), with the 18 Pro Max starting at C$1899/mo (or C$79.12/mo for 24 months).
Check out all our coverage of the 2026 iPhone event here.
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