Apple, like most phone makers, puts a lot of effort into improving its cameras from one model to the next, and we now have an idea of what the next two generations of camera updates could look like.
Numerous leaks have already pointed to 48MP telephoto cameras for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, with the entire iPhone 17 line possibly getting 24MP front cameras. But with the iPhone 18 line, Apple might focus on aperture instead of megapixels.
This is what renowned analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says in his latest post Medium (via @Jukanlosreve) claimed that Apple will equip the main camera on the “high-end” iPhone 18 models with a variable aperture.
By high-end he probably means the iPhone 18 Pro Max and probably also the iPhone 18 Pro, but he does not mention the phones by name.
What Kuo does say is that this variable aperture would “significantly” improve the photography experience. The aperture (the size of the lens opening) is fixed on most cameras, and a variable aperture lets you control how much light reaches the sensor. This in turn gives you more control over exposure – for example, you can open the aperture to its widest position for better low-light shots – and it also allows you to create optical depth-of-field effects to blur backgrounds, rather than of relying on software processing.
So this sounds like it would be a worthwhile upgrade, and while we have to take Kuo’s reporting with a grain of salt for now — especially since this is a very early leak — he has an excellent track record in Apple intelligence.
Not the first phone with a variable aperture
If this claim is true, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max would not be the first smartphones with a variable aperture lens. Samsung equipped the Galaxy S9 series with variable aperture cameras back in 2018, and also used variable aperture cameras in the Samsung Galaxy S10 line.
We were quite impressed with the technology in our Samsung Galaxy S9 review, noting that it especially helped with low-light shots, but it wasn’t something Samsung stuck to outside of the S10 series, so it probably didn’t matter. to higher sales.
More recently, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra also features a variable aperture camera, which combined with a 1-inch sensor resulted in “fantastic low-light performance and unparalleled image quality” according to our Xiaomi 14 Ultra review.