iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max Official: Modest Upgrade, €150 More Expensive
During yesterday's keynote, all the attention was on the new iPhone Duo. However, Apple also introduced two other iPhones: the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone 18 Pro Max. These two familiar yet more powerful phones stood out mainly due to the absence of the standard iPhone 18. The iPhone 18 Pro starts at €1,479 — €150 more than its predecessor — and will be available for order on September 12.
Actually, it was a strange keynote. This time, it wasn't Tim Cook but John Ternus who gave the presentation, and he surprised us with a One More Thing: the iPhone Duo, Apple's first foldable. This expansion of the line-up came at the expense of the iPhone 18. It was missing and may follow in early 2027.
And with that, we’d almost forget that two new powerful iPhones were announced: the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max. Both phones are fairly easy to summarise:
- Variable aperture
- More powerful performance
- Longer battery life
- New colours
Variable aperture
It’s clear from everything that the iPhone Pro models have reached a point of maturity. There wasn’t really much that was new. Altho Apple made it seem as if the new 48MP Fusion camera with variable aperture was something completely new. That may be true for Apple, but we’d already seen it on the Samsung Galaxy S9 from 2018.
Apple uses six blades for this, each thinner than a human hair. These set the aperture to four settings: f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8, and f/4.0. At f/1.48, this is the fastest lens Apple has ever put in an iPhone. By making the aperture toward the sensor larger or smaller, you have more control over the depth of field and the amount of light entering in the dark. In other words: you can take better photos in a variety of situations. And the best part is that it usually happens automatically, unless you adjust the settings yourself using Pro Controls.
A20 Pro chip
The iPhone Pro series has always consisted of the most powerful iPhones, and the A20 Pro chip delivers another significant speed boost. Apple promises a 20% faster CPU, a 40% faster GPU, and twice as fast AI processing. And thanks to a larger vapour chamber, the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max can perform at full power for up to 40% longer.
The more energy-efficient A20 Pro chip and the larger battery let you play video for six hours longer than with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, for up to 43 hours total. So you’ll be less likely to have to search for a power outlet. And if you do need to, a 15-minute charge will bring your battery back up to 50%.
New colours and a smaller Dynamic Island
The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are available in four different colours: Burgundy (dark red), Glacier (light blue), Silver, and Black. Storage options range from 256GB up to 2TB. The Dynamic Island has also been updated: it’s now smaller and can display up to three Live Activities at once.
€150 more expensive: what do you get for it?
The entry-level model of the iPhone 18 Pro costs €1479, which is €150 more than the iPhone 17 Pro was released at the time. The 2TB model comes at a hefty price: it costs €2979. We see the same price increase with the iPhone 18 Pro Max. Prices for that model start at €1629 for the 256GB model and go up to €3129 for the new 2TB model.
Apple’s own explanation: memory and storage chips have become so expensive due to demand from AI data centres that the company can no longer absorb those costs itself. That’s an explanation, not a trade-off. What you get for that extra €150 is an aperture that Samsung already had eight years ago, a faster chip, and a larger battery, in a body that otherwise remains unchanged. Opting for an older model won’t help much this time: Apple simultaneously raised the prices of the iPhone 16, iPhone 17, iPhone Air, and iPhone 17e by €100 and discontinued the iPhone 17 Pro. Anyone still interested in that model will need to act fast at stores that still have it in stock. Those primarily looking for a good camera and long battery life might be better off considering an Android flagship from Samsung or Google.
What you won’t get in Europe
Furthermore, part of the keynote doesn’t apply to us. The new Siri and other Apple Intelligence features in iOS 27 don’t work in the EU yet. That’s another factor to consider when deciding whether the premium price is justified.
Orders can be placed starting September 12 at 2:00 p.m., with deliveries beginning September 18.
