Apple's iPhone 18 Pro adds variable camera aperture and a more powerful chip

Back to the hardware: Apple also put an emphasis on improved thermals with this release, which, if effective, ought to help with those situations where your phone gets too hot—like when driving on a hot day without A/C in the car.

The 18 Pro and Pro Max are slightly smaller than their predecessors, but Apple says they offer similar battery life, in part thanks to a new battery usage model based on data about how people use their phones. The Dynamic Island—the little black oval at the top that expands or shrinks with notifications and that houses the front-facing camera and Face ID—has been redesigned to be a bit smaller, too.

The 48-megapixel main camera’s flagship new feature is a variable aperture. The aperture will adjust based on the scene, offering more precisely tailored settings for varying levels of light in the room. There’s also an emphasis on giving the user more manual control over the settings when taking a photo: Users can manually adjust the aperture, set a specific shutter speed, and so on.

As is the custom for many iPhone launches, there’s a new color: burgundy. The phone starts at $1,199, and the Max size starts at $1,299. Storage can be upgraded to as much as 2 terabytes. Preorders start September 12, and the phone ships September 18.