Latest iPhone 18 news, leaks, and rumors: Release date, colors, and pricing

At a look:

• Launch date: We’re anticipating the iPhone 18 Professional and iPhone 18 Professional Max to reach in fall 2026, however rumor has it the iPhone 18 might not arrive till early 2027.

• Colours: Doable leaks level to 4 primary colour choices for the Professional fashions this yr: gentle blue, silver, darkish grey, and darkish cherry.

• Key upgrades: Apart from iOS 27 and the Siri AI beta, we’re anticipating greater batteries, digital camera enhancements (together with variable aperture for the principle digital camera), and probably a smaller Dynamic Island.

• Pricing: Most new telephones are arriving with worth will increase, and we expect a beginning worth enhance may be very doubtless for the brand new iPhone 18 lineup, sadly.

Apple’s flagship smartphone hasn’t taken a yr off from its updates since 2007, and barring an enormous shock, 2026 will not be totally different — however there shall be a twist.

The Cupertino-based tech big is broadly anticipated to launch a brand new lineup of iPhones later this yr, together with the iPhone 18 Professional, 18 Professional Max, and the rumored iPhone Ultra, the corporate’s first-ever foldable. The common iPhone 18, the 18e, and the brand new iPhone Air are prone to arrive early subsequent yr.

We requested you to foretell what Apple will do subsequent. See the results and find out how to get a shot at winning an Apple Watch!

As we await the iPhone 18 — and its up to date working system, iOS 27 — rumors proceed to trickle out. The tempo of leaks on the iPhone 18 Professional and Professional Max, particularly, is prone to enhance after a massive hack exposed thousands of Apple’s internal documents, reportedly together with iPhone 18 Professional suppliers and assessments.

We can’t see any of the brand new Apple telephones within the wild for a pair extra months, however we will carry you all the newest iPhone 18 rumors and the most probably updates in a single place.

iPhone 18 lineup pricing

In case you’re out there for a brand new iPhone, you must circle September in your calendar. That is when Apple sometimes holds its massive iPhone launch occasion, and there is no purpose to consider Apple will change that for the iPhone 18. The primary week of September is most probably, probably Wednesday, Sept. 9, to present attendees sufficient time to journey after Labor Day (Sept. 7).

Count on to see new Apple CEO John Ternus take the stage, as his time period of workplace formally begins Sept. 1. What he’ll be introducing, alas, might put extra of a dent in your pockets.

Due to the continued RAM shortage caused by the AI industry (also called RAMageddon), tons of smartphones, laptops, and gaming consoles are seeing enormous worth hikes. Consultants who’ve spoken to Mashable say that pattern is not going to cease anytime quickly.

As the world’s number-one smartphone maker, Apple has benefits over its rivals, however a worth enhance may be very doubtless. Apple lately raised prices on a variety of its products, and outgoing Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner even took the weird step of preparing us for a pricier iPhone.

“Value will increase are unavoidable,” Prepare dinner informed the Wall Street Journal in a June interview. The Journal quoted an evaluation displaying that the reminiscence chip elements within the iPhone 18 Professional will value Apple $150 greater than these within the iPhone 17 Professional.

So do you have to count on the telephones to value simply $150 greater than their predecessors (check the iPhone 17 prices for reference)? You want. There’s the pesky undeniable fact that Apple is a for-profit firm, and the iPhone is the #1 smartphone in the world for a purpose, despite the fact that it is already pricier than Samsung’s.

How a lot of a rise will Apple followers bear? We could also be about to search out out, however the Journal estimated the iPhone 18 Professional at $1,399 ($300 greater than final yr). Apple analysts are coming to related conclusions; one research note seen by 9to5Mac predicted $250 to $300 worth will increase.

iPhone 18, 18 Professional, and 18 Extremely launch dates

The iPhone 18 Professional Max smartphones finally yr’s iPhone launch occasion.
Credit score: CNET

Barring an enormous flip underneath Ternus, Apple will launch the iPhone 18 Professional, the iPhone 18 Professional Max, and the foldable iPhone Extremely in early September. Apple’s first foldable iPhone is the largest headline right here, however the Professional fashions can even carry quite a few enhancements.

The iPhone 18, nonetheless, alongside the cheaper iPhone 18e, and the next-gen iPhone Air, are rumored to return subsequent yr, doubtless in March 2027.

iPhone 18 and iPhone 18 Professional design

Once more, Apple has not launched any official teasers or different imagery for the iPhone 18 lineup but, so something reported so far could possibly be incorrect. Nonetheless, from the sum complete of all experiences, it seems like Apple is not actually reinventing the wheel, design-wise. However Ternus, a {hardware} man, is reportedly bringing the corporate’s industrial design group into the middle of the Apple fold.

Wanting additional into the long run, the iPhone 20 is said to bring big changes, together with a curved waterfall show.

Per our pals at CNET (Mashable and CNET are each owned by Ziff Davis), the show sizes shall be roughly the identical as final yr:

In August, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman shared on X that standard cellphone case maker Otterbox is already promoting iPhone 18 Professional instances, despite the fact that the cellphone hasn’t been introduced but. That is noteworthy as a result of the case’s packaging signifies that each the 17 Professional and 18 Professional slot in the identical case, suggesting the 2 telephones are about the identical dimension, as CNET steered.

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Nonetheless, the show high quality is likely to be somewhat totally different this yr. Outstanding leaker Instant Digital shared on Chinese language social media that Apple’s brightness calls for are unusually excessive this yr, so it will be affordable to count on a lot brighter shows than in earlier years.

Some iPhone 18 fashions might even have a smaller digital camera bump in comparison with earlier fashions. There are experiences of a slightly redesigned Dynamic Island on the display screen itself, with the pill-shaped notification hub doubtlessly being made smaller within the iPhone 18 Professional fashions. One alleged leaked picture purports to point out an iPhone 18 Professional with a downsized Dynamic Island cutout.

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iPhone 18: rumored {hardware} options

So we all know the software program the iPhone 18 will run: iOS 27, introduced at WWDC 2026. Time to start out speaking about a few of the inner {hardware} adjustments Apple is reportedly making to the iPhone 18 lineup.

For starters, it sounds just like the lineup may have a standardized 12GB RAM rely throughout the board. In earlier years, the Professional fashions had 12GB of RAM, whereas the bottom mannequin had solely 8GB. Based on Korean outlet The Bell, Apple shall be upgrading the bottom mannequin to the Professional fashions in that regard. It is also broadly anticipated that Apple will undertake new A20 and A20 Professional chips for the bottom and Professional fashions, respectively.

It is also anticipated that the brand new iPhones may have a brand new C2 modem for improved mobile connectivity, and so they may also have 5G satellite support. Additionally reported: a brand new N2 chip for higher WiFi efficiency.

As for the battery, leaker Digital Chat Station on Weibo reported that the batteries will lastly be upgraded to five,000mAh, which might be a giant enchancment over the iPhone 17 Professional. This yr, 5,000mAh has turn into the brand new commonplace for flagship telephones, together with in Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Extremely.

Instant Digital posted in a separate Weibo leak that the again glass of the iPhone 18 Professional has been altered, leading to a brand new unified look, versus the two-tone look of the iPhone 17 Professional. Whether or not that change will have an effect on sturdiness (or if it is simply an aesthetic distinction) stays to be seen. Different doable upgrades embody an improved LTPO+ show, Apple’s new C2 modem, 5G through satellite tv for pc connectivity, and the improved N2 chip, which ought to enhance hotspot and AirDrop reliability.

Essentially the most colourful iPhone 18 Professional rumors

Courtesy of leakers, we may already know the iPhone 18 Pro colors. If that is the case, the must-see equal of the iPhone 17’s unforgettable “cosmic orange” shade is alleged to be a wine-like “darkish cherry,” which we might count on to promote like scorching… cherry pies?

Primarily based on quite a few leaks, the most probably colour lineup for the iPhone 18 Professional shall be silver, darkish grey, gentle blue, and the aforementioned “darkish cherry.”

Sadly, we expect fans of black iPhones are out of luck, although the rumored darkish grey colour appears black in supposed dummy items shared by leakers like Sonny Dickson.

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What concerning the iPhone 18 Professional Max?

A number of experiences out of China say that as a result of the iPhone 18 Pro Max will have a much larger battery, it might be a little bit of a chunky boy.

We’re not speaking about an enormous enhance in weight and width: 1 / 4 of a millimeter in thickness and seven grams extra, respectively. Nonetheless, each gram counts on the heftiest iPhone mannequin you will get — so iPhone 17 Professional Max upgraders might wish to examine that their pocket linings can bear the majority of a bigger iPhone 18 Professional Max.

The iPhone 17 Professional has helped Apple break gross sales information in 2026.
Credit score: Stan Schroeder / Mashable

iPhone 18 digital camera rumors

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, a supply of many spot-on iPhone experiences, says the iPhone 18 Professional, particularly, may have “some of the biggest camera hardware upgrades in the lineup’s history.”

Why? First, the telephoto digital camera has a bigger aperture. However extra necessary is the variable aperture.

First reported by Digital Chat Station on Weibo, variable aperture is a big deal. It might let the iPhone 18 Professional digital camera seize various quantities of sunshine in numerous conditions — doubtlessly resulting in an enormous leap in picture high quality if you realize what you are doing.

For example, the bokeh impact famously related to portrait mode on iPhones can be doable in-camera fairly than by software program processing, leading to extra pure and customarily better-looking photographs.

Whereas all of that sounds nice, leaker Ice Universe poured some water on the hearth by claiming that variable aperture can be unique to the iPhone 18 Professional Max. That is the primary indication, so far as we will inform, that the common Professional will not have a variable aperture. That would definitely be disappointing to individuals who need the characteristic however do not desire a gigantic cellphone, however maybe the Professional Max’s dimension offers it a bonus by way of together with the know-how.

Additionally, maybe Ice Universe is incorrect. We’ll discover out quickly.

What about Siri AI?

After all, one of many first issues many customers will wish to know concerning the iPhone 18 after they get their arms on one: what’s the new, revamped, AI-upgraded Siri expertise like?

In case you’re feeling adventurous, you possibly can strive it your self by putting in the iOS 27 beta.

The brand new options embody Siri turning into an precise chatbot with its personal app. It may possibly additionally perceive what’s in your display screen and aid you write, create photographs, and edit images.

For an summary, check out our guides to iOS 27 and Siri AI’s top features.