More than six months before the alleged launch of the iPhone 18 Pro next September, it seems quite clear how the iPhone 18 Pro generation will differ from the current flagship models, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. An analyst has now summarized the expected changes and upgrades.
Perhaps the most significant change won’t be the iPhone 18 Pro or the missing base iPhone 18 model, but rather the first foldable iPhone ever, which may be called the iPhone Fold. However, the direct successors to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max will also get some upgrades, and more than six months before the expected launch in September, at least five of them look fairly certain.
These upgrades have now been identified by well-known analyst Jeff Poe. Some of these changes may be familiar, as they have already appeared in other leaks and rumors revolving around the iPhone 18 Pro series. The fact that there now appears to be an industry-wide agreement indicates the plausibility of these rumors and leaks.
Dynamic Island
Probably the most noticeable change is the smaller screen cutout in the new iPhone 18 Pro, as it appears that Apple will hide some of the Face ID components under the screen. This is just an intermediate step on the way to an iPhone screen that doesn’t have any cutouts at all. This feature could arrive with the anniversary iPhone in 2027.
Variable Aperture
The second new feature should be particularly welcome to photographers, as the variable aperture will bring a creative tool from traditional cameras to the upcoming 48MP iPhone camera. This feature will allow better control of light input and depth of field, and effects such as starbursts are easier to achieve with a variable aperture. This feature has been available on leading Android phones for some time, although some manufacturers such as Honor and Xiaomi have recently chosen not to use it, while Huawei currently continues to use variable apertures across its flagship lineup.
Apple A20 Pro chip
For the first time in years, the Apple A20 Pro chip is expected to be significantly more efficient thanks to a new 2nm manufacturing process. This time, Apple is not expected to be first, as the Samsung Exynos 2600 could be the first 2nm chipset and debut with the Galaxy S26 generation in late February. Qualcomm is also expected to introduce the 2nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 this fall, which will be manufactured by TSMC in Taiwan.
Apple N2 chip
The fourth update is also a chip from Apple. The successor to the Apple N1, which powers WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6 connectivity in the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air. It is not known what upgrades the Apple N2 will receive.
Apple C2 modem
Finally, a second version of Apple’s in-house 5G modem is also expected to appear and will likely outperform Qualcomm’s modems in terms of performance. The first Apple C1 modem in the iPhone 16e was more efficient than competing modems but still fell behind in speed. The C1X chip in the iPhone Air was an intermediate step, as it was already twice as fast as the C1 according to Apple.
