Overview
- Apple unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max on Sept. 9, opened preorders Sept. 12, and set retail availability to begin Sept. 18 with the foldable iPhone Duo shipping in October.
- The Pro models introduce a 48MP main camera with a physical variable aperture, a 2nm A20 Pro chip for faster sustained performance, and revised battery and vapor‑chamber cooling to support on‑device AI.
- Strong preorder demand and limited high‑end components have pushed many carrier and Apple Store ship estimates into late September, October and, for some top configurations, November.
- Carriers and Apple are offering steep trade‑in credits and longer financing to offset higher base prices, with promotions such as T‑Mobile’s up to $1,200 trade‑in value and Indian bank cashback lowering local effective prices.
- Early reviews praise the camera and on‑device AI but call the update iterative for recent Pro owners, and independent tests from Tom’s Guide show real‑world battery runtimes far below Apple’s video‑playback claims (about 16:17 for the Pro and 18:27 for the Pro Max in Tom’s Guide testing).