iPhone 18 Pro Max rumors and leaks: Everything we know so far

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The launch of the iPhone 18 Pro Max is imminent, with just days until Apple's "surprise and shine" September fall hardware event , it's bound to spill all the details about Apple's next giant phone. The release of the iPhone Ultra makes this year's release a little different, but that doesn't make the Pro Max model any less important. Especially not when it's expected to cost roughly half the price of Apple's first foldable.

But what are we expecting from the iPhone 18 Pro Max? The iPhone 17 Pro Max offered a bunch of major changes, including a fresh new design, and that left some very big boots for the 18 Pro Max to fill. Thankfully plenty of rumors and leaks have given us an idea of what to expect.

The iPhone 18 Pro Max won't be the only thing Apple could reveal, with leaks hinting at the smaller iPhone 18 Pro also making its debut. If you're debating between an iPhone 18 Pro Max or iPhone 18 Pro , we break down all the differences ahead of Apple's September 9 event .

Here's everything you need to know about the iPhone 18 Pro Max so far.

iPhone 18 Pro Max: Specifications

iPhone 18 Pro Max: Possible release date and price rumors

The interesting thing about the iPhone 18 Pro Max launch isn't the addition of the iPhone Ultra. Apple's changing up the way it releases phones, and that means the standard iPhone 18 isn't expected to arrive until early 2027 — alongside iPhone Air 2 and iPhone 18e. So the pressure is on for the Pro models to do well.

The official date for Apple's announcement is slated for Wednesday, September 9, dubbed "surprise and shine" based on invitations. Pre-orders should open later that week, with reports suggesting that Apple will forgo the usual Friday pre-order release to avoid the anniversary of 9/11 and open orders on Saturday September 12. Official release should follow a week later, on September 18.

Sadly pricing is likely to be a sensitive topic, thanks to the skyrocketing prices of RAM and storage as a result of the AI boom. We've already seen Apple increase the prices of various devices, including Macs and iPads , but so far the iPhones have been saved from that fate. Unfortunately they may be on borrowed time .

Analysts have predicted that Apple will increase the price of all its iPhones, in an attempt to offset the riding costs associated with phone production. Those predictions range from $100 to $200 , depending on who you ask, and if they come true it means we could be paying anything from $1,299 to $1,399 for the iPhone 18 Pro Max's cheapest 256GB storage configuration. Expect to pay a lot more for higher levels of storage.

iPhone 18 Pro Max: Design and display

The iPhone 17 Pro Max came with a pretty extensive redesign, and that means we're not likely to see any huge changes happening to the iPhone 18 Pro Max. There is word of "softening" the two-tone style that debuted last year to some controversy, though it's unclear how much this might change the look of the phone.

The physical shape, complete with raised camera bar and a blend of metal and glass materials, should stay more of less the same.

Interestingly reports suggest that the iPhone 18 Pro Max may be heavier, weighing as much as 240g/8.47oz . It's not clear why this might be the case, but rumors of a larger battery could explain part of that weight gain, as could reports of a more advanced camera array.

Personally, I'm hoping that some of the extra mass comes from a slightly tougher aluminum alloy — because the last thing we need is another scratchgate . Don't expect titanium to make a reappearance, that's apparently being saved for special devices like the iPhone Air 2 and iPhone Ultra.

The colors that are rumored to be on sale this year aren't quite as extravagant as the Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Pro Max, but they are still pretty interesting. A Dark Cherry is expected to be Apple's hero color for the year, and it's expected to be joined by Black, Silver and lighter blue color similar to iPhone 17's Mist Blue option.

The screen is expected to remain 6.9-inches again, and there have been rumors of a possible under-display Face ID system. Whether this will actually arrive this year, or if we'll have to wait until the release of iPhone 20 isn't clear.

In an unboxing clip recently published by Unboxed Therapy , we get our closest look at Apple's upcoming iPhones, including the iPhone 18 Pro Max. Not surprisingly, it looks very similar to the current iPhone 17 Pro Max, but host Lewis Hilsenteger also shows us the new paint job in a dark cherry hue.

iPhone 18 Pro Max: Performance

New iPhones means new chips, and the iPhone 18 Pro Max should come running the new A20 Pro. This is expected to be the first Apple chip built running TSMC's 2nm process , which improves chip density — aiding performance and efficiency in the process.

The A19 Pro is already one of the best mobile chips on the market, and it's pretty likely that the A20 Pro will take that performance to a new level. It's not entirely clear how much of an improvement we can expect, but the standard A20 chip is rumored to offer a 15% boost in performance and 20% boost to efficiency . If the Pro can match that, then it's going to be good news for the 18 Pro Max.

The one thing I would like is for Apple to boost the graphical performance, since that's historically been one of the places A-series chips fall behind on. Especially compared to Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon chips.

Other performance enhancements expected include 12GB of RAM, which will power the latest and best Siri AI features — including dictation and expressive voices . It's also speculated that Apple could swap the usual Qualcomm modem for its own connectivity chip, the C2 . That's never happened on a Pro iPhone before, so it'll be interesting to see what difference that makes to connectivity and power consumption compared to the C1.

iPhone 18 Pro Max: Cameras

We're not expecting any huge changes to the iPhone 18 Pro Max's trio of camera lenses this year. That means you can expect to see the same 48MP lenses, with 4x optical zoom for another year. However the Pro Max may be coming with a notable upgrade that's been rumored for a while: variable aperture .

Variable aperture isn't new by any means, but it's not found on a lot of devices. The idea is that you can adjust how much light enters the lens, rather than sticking with the fixed aperture Apple has set up on the production line. This allows more experienced camera users to adapt the camera to the conditions, and could potentially see enhancements to low-light performance or improved depth of field in Portrait Mode.

Crucially variable aperture is expected to be exclusive to the iPhone 18 Pro Max, and may not arrive on iPhone 18 Pro. It's unclear if there's a specific reason for this, or if Apple is simply adding extra features to make the largest iPhone more appealing. The Pro Max's size means there is room for lot more hardware, and we already saw how that can be beneficial with the introduction of the tetraprism lens on iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Other rumors suggest that we may see changes to the Camera Control button , though the specifics are still debated. Some suggest that the button will be converted from a capacitive sensor to a a mechanical switch, while others believe it will be removed entirely. We'll have to wait and see how that plays out.

iPhone 18 Pro Max: Battery

Battery size is rarely something that Apple focuses on, but things could change with the iPhone 18 Pro Max. In fact, depending on who you ask, there could be a massive increase in capacity this time round.

Rumors vary on how much extra battery to expect in the Pro Max, with reports offering figures between 5,321 mAh and 5,567 mAh . That's a lot considering the eSIM variant of the iPhone 17 Pro Max only came with 5,088 mAh.

Considering efficiency has been high on Apple's list of priorities, and the new 2nm A20 pro chipset, this should see a huge increase in battery life. So long as the extra power doesn't get used up elsewhere, such as the C2 modem. Early leaks suggest the A20 Pro could slash power consumption by up to 30% compared to the A19 Pro.

Given how the iPhone 17 Pro Max held up on a 3nm node, reaching 20 hours on our benchmark test should be well within the iPhone 18 Pro Max's grasp. Hitting that 20-hour threshold requires an 11.7% improvement over the current iPhone 17 Pro Max result — essentially the baseline expectation I have for this hardware jump. But if Apple pushes the silicon's efficiency performance closer to 30%, which I've seen in previous generations, the calculations would put the runtime past the 23-hour mark.

We obviously can't predict how much battery life the 18 Pro Max will have. But considering what Apple has done over the past few years and the new rumored upgrades, we are pretty optimistic at this early stage.

iPhone 18 Pro Max: Outlook

While there don't seem to be a great many changes coming to the iPhone 18 Pro Max, it seems Apple does have some interesting upgrades in store for us. Though we'll have to wait and see how the phone actually performs before we can actually make a definitive decision on how good the phone actually is.

There are reasons to be excited, though. The new A20 Pro chip should offer a major boost to performance and efficiency, and paired with the larger battery we could see some of the best iPhone battery life to date. Whether it will be enough to compete with some of the longest lasting phones isn't clear, but it should still land a place on our best phone battery life list.

Variable aperture is also likely to appeal to camera enthusiasts, even if the overall camera hardware isn't changing all that much. All of which suggests there's a lot to look forward to when the Apple September event arrives — and not just because we're going to see a foldable try and steal the iPhone 18 Pro Max's thunder.

More from Tom's Guide

• iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 18 Pro Max vs iPhone Ultra: Which upcoming iPhone is right for you?

• New report reveals what early testers love most about iPhone Ultra — here's what I think

• iPhone 18 Pro Max — I asked pro photographers what they really think of a variable aperture camera