Apple Announces iPhone 18 Pro With Variable Aperture Camera
A mechanical aperture on the main lens puts manual exposure control in a phone camera, a step beyond software bokeh, and Apple added it to the smaller Pro rather than reserving it for the Pro Max.
Key Facts
- Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max on September 9, with pre-orders opening September 12 at 21:00 and release on September 18.
- The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max add a variable aperture mechanism on the 48-megapixel main camera, selectable at F1.48, F1.8, F2.8, and F4.
- Japan pricing for the iPhone 18 Pro starts at 219,800 yen for the 256GB model and 239,800 yen for the 256GB iPhone 18 Pro Max, a 25,000 yen increase.
- The A20 Pro chip in the iPhone 18 Pro series is built on a 2nm process with a 6-core CPU, a 7-core GPU, and two 16-core Neural Engines.
- Apple rates the iPhone 18 Pro at up to 36 hours of video playback and the iPhone 18 Pro Max at up to 45 hours, which Apple says is the largest increase ever for an iPhone.
Reporting from 3 sources: ASCII.jp, GIGAZINE, GameBusiness.jp.
Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max on September 9, with pre-orders opening September 12 at 21:00 and release on September 18. Both phones carry the camera change: a variable aperture mechanism on the 48-megapixel main wide lens, selectable across four steps at F1.48, F1.8, F2.8, and F4, built from six laser-cut blades. The A20 Pro chip inside is Apple's first iPhone SoC on a 2nm process, with a 6-core CPU, a 7-core GPU, and two 16-core Neural Engines. Apple puts sustained performance at up to 40 percent above the iPhone 17 Pro. Video playback runs up to 36 hours for the Pro and up to 45 hours for the Pro Max, which Apple says is the largest increase ever for an iPhone. Colors are Black, Silver, Glacier, and Burgundy. Japan pricing starts at 219,800 yen for the 256GB iPhone 18 Pro and 239,800 yen for the 256GB iPhone 18 Pro Max, a 25,000 yen increase over the previous generation.
The variable aperture sits on the main 48-megapixel Fusion camera and adjusts automatically by scene, opening wider in dark environments to take in about 50 percent more light. The blades are made from a special polymer composite thinner than a human hair.
Pro-oriented controls expand alongside it. Shutter speed and white balance can be set manually, and the display adds a histogram for checking exposure bias. Cinematic mode now supports 60fps, time-lapse shoots in 4K Dolby Vision HDR, and Audio Mix adds processing for isolating voices and separating music.
Other reported changes:
- Cooling: the vapor chamber's surface area is about three times that of the iPhone 17 Pro, with the SoC and memory placed side by side; Apple puts sustained performance up to 40 percent higher.
- Charging: roughly 15 minutes wired or 30 minutes wirelessly to 50 percent, and about 7 hours of video playback from a 5-minute charge on the Pro Max.
- Dynamic Island: smaller, and it can display three Live Activities at once.
- Wireless: the N1 chip supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6; the in-house C2 modem uses 15 percent less power than the C1X, and eSIM covers more than 500 carriers. The Japan model does not support mmWave.
- Materials: the body uses 40 percent recycled material, battery cobalt is 100 percent recycled, and exterior aluminum is 85 percent recycled.
- Software: iOS 27 ships on the devices, with distribution for existing models from September 14; the rebuilt Siri arrives as a beta, English-only at launch with Japanese planned for October.
- Provenance: Apple Reference Image signs sensor data at capture to create a non-rewritable reference image, and SynthID support comes in a later update.
Apple's officially stated CPU gain was 20 percent over the previous generation, but a Geekbench 6 result found by Longhorn puts the A20 Pro at 4719 single-core and 12677 multi-core, roughly 25 percent above the A19 Pro's 3808 and 9822, with the clock at 4.93GHz against 4.26GHz. The same leak shows a GPU score of 64069, an increase of about 39 percent. Geekbench measures short bursts, so the figures are not a direct read on games or video editing.
Written with AI by Yomimono from the 3 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited. See our editorial policy.