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Apple’s September event has arrived, and for once the rumor mill leading up to it has been unusually accurate. Reports point to three new devices taking the stage: the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max, and a long awaited foldable iPhone that leakers have been calling the iPhone Ultra. Between chip upgrades, camera changes, new colors, and a price hike that has been debated for months, this is shaping up to be one of the more significant iPhone launches in recent memory.
What to expect from the iPhone 18 Pro
The design story for the iPhone 18 Pro is one of refinement rather than reinvention. Leaked CAD drawings and supply chain reports suggest the phone will look broadly similar to the iPhone 17 Pro, with the same triple lens rear camera system and camera plateau carrying over. The most visible change is expected to be a smaller Dynamic Island, freeing up a bit more usable screen space at the top of the display. Multiple leakers, including well known tipster Ice Universe, have suggested this shrunken cutout could extend across the entire iPhone 18 lineup rather than staying exclusive to the Pro models.
Under the hood, the headline upgrade is Apple’s A20 Pro chip, reportedly built on an advanced 2 nanometer manufacturing process. That shift is expected to bring meaningful gains in both performance and power efficiency, translating into smoother multitasking and potentially longer battery life. Apple is also rumored to be introducing its own C2 modem with mmWave 5G support, which would mark another step in the company’s push to reduce its reliance on third party chip suppliers.
Camera wise, the most talked about addition is a variable aperture lens for the 48 megapixel main camera, a feature that would let users manually control how much light hits the sensor. That kind of mechanical control has typically been reserved for dedicated cameras, and some reports suggest Apple may initially limit it to the Pro Max rather than offering it across both Pro models. There is also talk of a redesigned Camera Control button that shifts from a touch sensing layer to a pressure sensing mechanism, a change reportedly aimed at cutting cost and complexity while improving reliability. Front facing camera rumors are mixed, with some reports pointing to a jump from 18 megapixels to 24 megapixels, though this detail remains less certain than the rest of the leaks.
Different color version
Apple’s color lineup for the iPhone 18 Pro has been one of the more consistent threads across multiple leak sources this year. The standout addition appears to be a deep, wine toned shade that different reports have referred to as Dark Cherry, Burgundy, or dark red, with Macworld sources reportedly matching it to Pantone 6076. This color is expected to replace the Cosmic Orange option that shipped with the iPhone 17 Pro. Alongside it, a Light Blue shade resembling the current Mist Blue tone, tied to Pantone 2121 in leaked documentation, is expected to return in a slightly refreshed form.
Beyond those two, reports have floated additional options including purple and a coffee brown tone, though not every leak agrees on the final lineup, and some sources now suggest silver may be dropped entirely from the Pro color range this year. Apple is also said to be adjusting how the back glass and aluminum frame are finished, aiming to minimize the two tone look that has defined recent Pro models in favor of a more unified, single color appearance.
The foldable iPhone, meanwhile, is expected to arrive in its own distinct palette. Leaks point to a classic silver and white option alongside a dark Indigo finish similar to the Deep Blue color Apple introduced on the iPhone 17 Pro. Given the foldable’s premium positioning, Apple appears to be keeping its color choices deliberately understated rather than experimenting the way it has with the standard Pro lineup.
What the price range
Pricing is where this year’s lineup gets genuinely interesting. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, both the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are expected to carry a $100 price increase over their predecessors, pushing the smaller Pro model to a $1,199 starting price and the Pro Max to $1,299. That would mark the first time the standard Pro model has moved past the $1,099 mark, a price point Apple held even through a summer of Mac and iPad price hikes tied to rising memory costs.
Context matters here. Earlier in the year, some analysts had warned of far steeper increases, with predictions ranging as high as $200 to $300 driven by surging DRAM and NAND prices along with the cost of Apple’s newer chip and camera hardware. Compared to those worst case estimates, a $100 bump looks relatively restrained, and it lines up closely with the roughly $100 increases Samsung and Google have already applied to their own flagship lineups this year with the Galaxy S26 and Pixel 11 families.
The foldable iPhone sits in an entirely different price bracket. Estimates from research firm TrendForce point to a starting price between $2,099 and $2,299 for the base configuration, with some analysts, including longtime Apple watcher Ming Chi Kuo, suggesting the range could stretch as high as $2,500 depending on storage. Higher capacity models are widely expected to surpass $3,000. For comparison, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 starts at $1,899.99, with the more comparable Z Fold 8 Ultra priced at $2,099.99, giving Apple a rough benchmark to price against as it enters the foldable category for the first time.
Specs leaked so far suggest the foldable will feature a 7.76 inch inner display and a roughly 5.49 inch outer display, dual 48 megapixel rear cameras rather than the triple lens setup found on the Pro models, and a titanium frame paired with ultra thin glass designed to minimize the visible crease that has affected competing foldables. Notably, the device is expected to skip Face ID entirely in favor of a Touch ID enabled power button, a tradeoff Apple appears willing to make in order to keep the folded design as thin as possible.
Pre-orders for the Pro lineup are expected to open shortly after the event, with the foldable likely following on a slightly staggered schedule given its complexity. Whatever the final numbers turn out to be, this year’s lineup represents one of the more ambitious moves Apple has made in years, balancing a familiar, refined Pro update against a genuinely new foldable category. Readers looking for continued coverage of major tech launches and how they affect consumers can find more analysis at Business Tech, and full official specifications will be published on Apple’s website once the event concludes.
