iPhone 18 Pro series unveiled with smarter Siri, variable aperture camera
Another year, another iPhone—but it looks like the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max have plenty of new tricks up their sleeve.
The company unveiled its latest Pro models on Sept. 10 (Philippine time), showing off a new variable-aperture 48MP Fusion main camera, a new A20 Pro chip, improved thermal management, and longer battery life.
The new models also bring a more capable Siri powered by Apple Intelligence, along with a smaller, more useful Dynamic Island.
Here's a look at what Apple has packed into its latest Pro models:
A fresh look, including a new burgundy color
The iPhone 18 Pro gets a refined design with color-matched aluminum in the back glass for a more cohesive look.
It comes in four stunning colors: deep black, silver, glacier, and a new burgundy finish.
Apple is also giving the Dynamic Island a makeover. It's now smaller while making room for more information at a glance, with support for up to three live activities at once, like your flight status with Flighty, navigating with Maps, or simply checking your timer.
A20 Pro chip gets a major boost
Under the hood, the iPhone 18 Pro is powered by Apple's new A20 Pro chip, built using 2-nanometer technology.
The chip features a six-core CPU with two new performance-focused "super cores" that Apple says are up to 20% faster, alongside four efficiency cores. Its seven-core GPU delivers up to a 40% performance increase, while a new 32-core Neural Engine provides twice the compute power for on-device AI tasks.
The A20 Pro also gets a 50% increase in memory bandwidth, which the tech giant touts will help power everything from demanding games to running large language models directly on the iPhone.
To keep all that power from getting too hot, the iPhone 18 Pro comes with a next-generation vapor chamber with three times the surface area of the one in the iPhone 17 Pro. Together, the new thermal system and chip deliver up to 40% better sustained performance compared to its predecessor.
The camera gets variable aperture
One of the biggest upgrades comes to the main camera.
The iPhone 18 Pro features a new 48MP Fusion main camera with a variable aperture—a first for the iPhone lineup that gives users more control over how much light enters the lens and how much of a scene stays in focus.
The aperture can automatically open in darker environments to let in around 50% more light, while narrowing it can provide greater depth of field for shots such as group photos.
For those who want more control, the new Pro Controls let users manually adjust settings including aperture, shutter speed, white balance, and exposure through a histogram.
The camera also gains smart focus tracking, which uses on-device AI to keep subjects in focus even when they move around or leave and re-enter the frame.
On the video side, users can now apply cinematic effects after recording regular video, while time-lapse gets 4K Dolby Vision HDR support. AudioMix also gets updated algorithms for improved voice recording and now supports music.
Apple Intelligence gets a smarter Siri
The iPhone 18 Pro is also built around Apple's latest Apple Intelligence features, including the new Siri AI.
The updated assistant can understand personal context from information in apps such as Mail and Messages, answer questions based on what's on your screen, and take actions across apps—including third-party apps.
According to Apple, Siri AI works with more than 300,000 apps, allowing users to do things like send messages, search for files, draft emails, or add items to a grocery list using natural-language commands.
Apple Intelligence also brings new image-generation and editing tools, including an upgraded Cleanup tool, Extend for expanding images, and Spatial Reframe for changing an image's perspective after it's been taken.
Longer battery life and faster charging
Battery life gets another boost too.
Despite its smaller size at 6.3 inches, Apple highlighted that the iPhone 18 Pro offers the same all-day battery life as the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Meanwhile, the iPhone 18 Pro Max, coming in at 6.9 inches, gets what the company calls its biggest battery-life increase ever on an iPhone.
For eSIM-only models, the iPhone 18 Pro can last up to 36 hours of video playback and the Pro Max for up to 45 hours.
Wired charging is also faster, with the iPhone 18 Pro able to reach 50% charge in around 15 minutes. Additionally, five minutes of charging can provide around six hours of video playback.
Price and availability
The iPhone 18 Pro starts at P94,990 for the 256GB model, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at P99,990 for the same storage capacity.
Both models are available in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations
Here's the full price list:
- iPhone 18 Pro 256GB - P94,990
- iPhone 18 Pro 512GB - P110,990
- iPhone 18 Pro 1TB - P142,990
- iPhone 18 Pro 2TB - P189,990
- iPhone 18 Pro Max 256GB - P99,990
- iPhone 18 Pro Max 512GB - P115,990
- iPhone 18 Pro Max 1TB - P147,990
- iPhone 18 Pro Max 2TB - P194,990
As of writing, Apple has yet to give pre-order details for the Philippines.