# Apple launches iPhone 18 Pro with 2nm A20 Pro chip and higher price > Source: > Published: 2026-09-09 17:32:20+00:00 **Apple is launching the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max featuring the A20 Pro, its first 2-nanometer chip, a main camera with a true variable aperture, and what Apple claims is the largest battery leap ever in an iPhone. The devices will be $100 more expensive, and the new Siri AI, the primary selling point of this generation, will initially be unavailable in the EU.** The iPhone 18 Pro is the first product Apple has launched under CEO John Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook on September 1. Cook remains on board as executive chairman of the board of directors. Ternus, formerly head of hardware engineering, opted for a classic Pro launch: no new design, but upgrades across the four pillars Apple identifies as camera, performance, battery, and ‘intelligence’. The device comes in four colors: black, silver, the new light gray “glacier,” and burgundy, with color-matched glass on the back. ## **A20 Pro: 2 nanometers** The A20 Pro is built on TSMC’s 2nm process node, the same generation as the M6 that Apple introduced in the Mac mini two weeks ago. The CPU features six cores: two “desktop-class” performance cores and four efficiency cores, with built-in Neural Accelerators. According to Apple, the new seven-core GPU is up to 40 percent faster than the A19 Pro’s. Memory bandwidth has increased by 50 percent. The most notable change is the Neural Engine: Apple has doubled it to two blocks of sixteen cores, totaling 32 NPU cores, which Apple claims provides double the AI computing power of the A19 Pro. This is no coincidence: the chip is designed to run Siri AI and the rest of Apple Intelligence locally, even though European buyers will not see these features for the time being (see below). Apple is packaging the chip differently than before. Inspired by the M-series, the memory is now located next to the chip instead of on top of it, allowing the A20 Pro to be directly attached to a new vapor chamber. This chamber has three times the surface area of the one in the [iPhone 17 Pro](https://itdaily.com/news/workplace/apple-iphone-17-series/). As a result, Apple claims up to 40 percent more sustained performance and refers to it as the “highest sustained performance ever in an iPhone.” Independent benchmarks will have to determine if this translates to less throttling during long gaming sessions or video exports. For connectivity, it features the N1 chip (Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread) and debuts the C2, Apple’s second-generation in-house 5G modem. It is said to upload faster than the C1X and consume 15 percent less energy. mmWave remains limited to the US. With the C2 in the Pro model, Apple is finally parting ways with Qualcomm in its flagship segment. ## Camera: een echt diafragma Apple calls it the “most advanced camera it has ever made”: the 48-megapixel Fusion main camera features a mechanically variable aperture with six laser-cut blades for the first time. The aperture opens to f/1.48 in low light and can be manually set to four positions, with an API available for developers. What competitors like Huawei and Xiaomi have offered for several years, Apple is now marketing as depth of field that no longer needs to be simulated by software. Around this, Apple is building new “Pro controls” in the Camera app: shutter speed, white balance, aperture, and a histogram. Photographic Styles gains texture and grain controls, Cinematic effects can be applied to 60fps video after the fact, time-lapse is available in 4K Dolby Vision, and Audio Mix can now isolate music. The press release says remarkably little about the telephoto and ultra-wide lenses: they appear to be unchanged from the 17 Pro. More interesting for the professional market is Apple Reference Image. The new sensor can cryptographically sign every pixel. In a separate Reference mode, the camera sends that signed sensor data to Private Cloud Compute, which turns it into an unalterable reference image—a “digital negative” that sits alongside the edited photo in Photos. Apple is opening the APIs on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS 27 to third parties and has promised support for Google’s SynthID watermark for AI-generated or edited images later this year. There is a European caveat here as well: at launch, iPhone 18 Pro users in the EU will not be able to capture reference images, only view them. In China, the feature is completely absent. Apple has provided no reason for the European restriction. ## **Battery: 36 to 45 hours of video** Apple claims “the biggest leap in battery life ever”: up to 36 hours of video playback for the 18 Pro and 45 hours for the 18 Pro Max, compared to 33 and 39 hours for the iPhone 17 Pro models. The footnote reveals that these figures apply to the eSIM-only variants, which utilize the space from the SIM card tray for a larger cell, providing an extra two hours. These eSIM-only models will only be available in the US, Canada, Japan, Mexico, and a handful of Gulf states. European devices will retain a physical SIM tray and will therefore score lower. Apple is also introducing a new metric, “usage time,” based on real-world usage data: up to 30 hours for the Pro Max. Via a wired connection, the 18 Pro charges to 50 percent in about fifteen minutes, and wirelessly in half an hour, provided a 60W AVS charger is used (sold separately). ## **Colors and design** The Dynamic Island is becoming smaller and will now display three Live Activities simultaneously. The devices run iOS 27, which will be released as a free update on Monday, September 14, featuring refinements to Liquid Glass, expanded parental controls, and iPhone Handoff, which allows you to switch between two iPhones using a single number. The latter feature will only work at launch with T-Mobile in the US and Deutsche Telekom in Germany. The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max come in four colors: deep black, silver, “glacier,” and burgundy, each with color-matched glass on the back. ## Siri AI is not coming to Europe Apple is positioning the iPhone 18 Pro as an “intelligent personal hub” centered around [Siri AI](https://itdaily.com/news/business/apple-siri-ai-dma/), the completely rebuilt assistant that understands personal context, sees what is on your screen, and answers questions via the Camera app about what you are filming. Siri AI will roll out as a beta on September 14, in English only; French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish will follow in October. Dutch is not on that list. For the European buyer, the footnote is devastating: “[Siri AI will initially not be available in the EU](https://itdaily.com/blogs/software/will-siri-ai-come-to-eu/) on iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS,” along with all features that rely on it. Apple reiterates that it is “working hard on a path forward that protects user privacy and security,” the same phrasing used in June when it pointed to the DMA as the culprit. The constructive talks with the European Commission this summer have therefore not yet yielded results. Anyone in Europe paying 1,300 euros or more is buying a chip with a double Neural Engine for an assistant they are not allowed to use. There is one silver lining: Apple Intelligence itself does support Dutch with iOS 27, alongside Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Turkish, among others. Writing Tools, summaries, Clean Up, and the new photorealistic Image Playground will therefore work in our language, but Siri AI will not. Another detail from the fine print: features running on Apple’s servers will have daily usage limits, and “expanded access” will be available later “for a fee.” In other words, Apple is preparing a paid AI subscription. ## **Price and availability** De iPhone 18 Pro start in de VS bij 1.199 dollar voor 256 GB, 100 dollar meer dan de 17 Pro vorig jaar. De 18 Pro Max begint bij 1.299 dollar, ook voor 256 GB, en het gamma loopt tot 2 TB. Apple noemt de prijsstijging niet bij naam; de aanhoudende schaarste aan DRAM en de 2nm-productie zijn de voor de hand liggende verklaringen. Pre-orders starten zaterdag 12 september om 14 uur CEST. Winkelbeschikbaarheid volgt op vrijdag 18 september. *This article is updated regularly. The live Apple event is currently still ongoing. European prices will follow shortly after Apple updates the online store.*