Apple iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max launch with a familiar design, new A20 Pro SoC, and aperture-controlled camera

Apple unveils the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, both featuring a familiar design but sporting several new technological advancements. The star of the show is a groundbreaking camera equipped with the first-ever aperture controls on an iPhone. This feature allows users to manually adjust the aperture between ƒ/1.48, ƒ/1.8, ƒ/2.8, and ƒ/4.0, enabling precise control over lighting, depth of field, and low-light photography. The new sensor and six blades enhance image quality and versatility.

The A20 Pro chip, powered by TSMC's cutting-edge 2-nanometer process, delivers a 50% boost in memory bandwidth and a 40% performance increase over the A19 Pro. This processor, combined with a new dual 16-core Neural Engine, significantly enhances both photography and AI capabilities. The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max can record videos at up to 60fps and offer Dolby Vision HDR recording in time-lapse mode.

Apple's commitment to combating AI-edited images is evident with the introduction of the Apple Reference Image. This feature creates a duplicate of each new photo with signed sensor data, allowing users to compare it with the original to detect any alterations. Additionally, the feature makes reference images accessible to third-party apps, though its effectiveness against evolving AI tools remains to be seen.

Other notable upgrades include a new vapor chamber that improves thermal performance by 40%, and a redesigned battery that extends maximum battery life to 36 hours for the standard model and 45 hours for the Pro Max. Wireless charging is now faster, taking only 30 minutes to reach 50% capacity. Storage options range from 256GB to a new 2TB capacity, and the iPhone 18 Pro Max comes in burgundy, glacier, silver, and black.