Apple unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max on 9 September at its “Surprise and shine” event, alongside its first foldable handset, the iPhone Duo, and a lineup reshuffle that puts the iPhone 18 Pro price where the standard flagship used to sit. The keynote was also the first run by John Ternus as chief executive.
What’s new in the iPhone 18 Pro
The headline change is the A20 Pro, Apple’s first 2-nanometer chip in a phone. It carries dual neural engines and new CPU and GPU cores, the same architecture Apple used in the M6 chip it announced for the Mac Mini in August. The A20 Pro powers all three new phones, and it’s paired for the first time with Apple’s in-house C2 modem rather than a Qualcomm part.
Camera specs leaked hours before the keynote, when the AI support system of a major US carrier listed the new phones’ features early. Notebookcheck reported that the leak pointed to four camera upgrades, headlined by a brighter main sensor with a variable aperture. Apple also says this generation delivers the biggest jump in battery life in iPhone history, a figure that comes from the company itself rather than an independent runtime test, so it’s worth waiting for reviewers to put their own units on a bench.
iPhone 18 Pro price and how it compares to the iPhone Duo
In the US, the iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199, the Pro Max at $1,299, and the debut iPhone Duo at $1,999. By our arithmetic, that’s a $100 step from Pro to Pro Max but a $700 jump to reach the Duo, which lands 67% above the entry Pro, the widest spread Apple has put across a single launch in years.
Pre-orders for the 18 Pro and Pro Max open Saturday 12 September across a first wave of 65 countries, including the US, UK, Germany and China, with shipments starting 18 September; a second wave of 20 more countries follows on 25 September. The Duo won’t ship until later, with pre-orders opening 16 October. Buyers of any of the three phones can also redeem a three-month trial of Apple One.
iPhone Duo lands in a crowded foldable market
The Pro also comes in a new burgundy finish, alongside the existing black, white and titanium options, per TechCrunch’s coverage of the launch. Samsung didn’t hold back on the Duo itself, reportedly calling it “reheating our leftovers” in one response and comparing it to “a Sims sequel” in another, according to 9to5Google. The Duo now has to compete with existing foldables, including Xiaomi’s 18 Fold, which launched in China with a wider screen than the Fold 8.
We reported last month that the Pixel 11 Pro XL’s camera score was closing in on the iPhone 17 Pro on DxOMark. The 18 Pro’s new variable-aperture main sensor looks like Apple’s answer to that pressure, though it hasn’t been through an independent camera test yet.
Worth watching over the next few weeks: whether DxOMark or similar labs confirm the camera gains once review units ship on 18 September, and whether the Duo’s October pre-order date holds given it’s Apple’s first product in a category it entered years after its rivals.
Image: Ka Kit Pang via Openverse, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
