iPhone 18 Pro might have something for everyone

While the Cosmic Orange finish garnered much of the attention, the iPhone 17 Pro’s success was built on substantial hardware upgrades. Its camera plateau gave it a new look, and the bigger battery and the improved camera system gave further reason to buy it. If you thought Apple was going to get comfortable this year and deliver incremental upgrades, you are in for a surprise.

Five major changes on the horizon

According to a research note from analyst Jeff Pu, highlighted by MacRumors, the iPhone 18 Pro is slated for at least five new features.While Apple is not ready to move to a punch-hole cutout for the front camera just yet, it’s going to shrink the Dynamic Island by shifting the Face ID flood illuminator beneath the display.

The primary 48MP camera will have a variable aperture. Aperture is the opening in the camera lens through which light enters. A variable aperture will allow the iPhone 18 Pro to adjust the light intake dynamically for optimal shots in any environment. 

Powering the device will be the A20 Pro chip, which will be built on TSMC’s 2nm process. This will be a full process jump from the iPhone 17 Pro’s A19 Pro chip, and should result in notable performance and efficiency gains.

The iPhone 17 line and iPhone Air come with Apple’s N1 wireless networking chip, an in-house solution that enables Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread. The iPhone 18 Pro is rumored to come with the next-gen N2 chip. The N1 chip improved the performance and reliability of the Personal Hotspot and AirDrop features and boosted download and upload speeds. The N2 will likely bring improvements on that front.

The iPhone 18 Pro could be the first high-end model to embrace the in-house C-series modem that debuted on the iPhone 16e and later made its way to the iPhone Air. Apple credits the homebrewed solution for the iPhone Air‘s efficiency.

Tightening control

The use of in-house parts not only helps Apple save costs but also gives it greater control over performance and battery usage. The iPhone 18 Pro Max is also rumored to have a bigger battery. This, combined with efficiency improvements from the A20 Pro chip and iOS 27, should substantially improve endurance.

That’s about it

Apart from the changes listed in this leak, the iPhone 18 Pro may feature a three-layer stacked sensor from Samsung to make the camera more responsive, as well as a teleconverter for increasing the apparent focal length of the lens.

The latest report suggests that Apple will be improving just about every aspect of the iPhone 18 Pro, even if the changes aren’t drastic.