It's been rumored that Apple could be planning to reduce the size of the iPhone’s dynamic island by around 50% for the iPhone 18 Pro, shrinking its width from 20.76mm down to 13.49mm. This would help enlarge the overall screen area of the iPhone's display, although even at this shrunken size, the island would still considerably wider than the tiny selfie camera punch holes now sported by the vast majority of Android phones. As for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max's other island - the camera island - that's expected to remain the same as on the iPhone 17 Pro, stretching the full width of the rear panel.
We’ve not yet had any compelling tips that suggest changes to the image sensors in the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. Instead, there have been persistent rumors that Apple could be planning to fit a variable aperture lens to the iPhone 18 Pro's primary camera. Sounds intriguing, but I remain sceptical that this will have a significant impact on image quality. Several Android phones have previously used variable aperture lenses, but they've yet to really make an impact. With a camera phone, you almost always want as much light as possible to reach the sensor, meaning the aperture will always be set at its widest. Narrowing the aperture does theoretically give you more depth of field, but the small 1/1.28" image sensor in the iPhone 17 Pro's primary camera already produces a large depth of field by virtue of being relatively small. There will be very few scenarios where you'd need to stop down the lens to increase depth of field still further, especially as this would also require longer shutter speeds and/or increased ISO sensitivity, and therefore more image noise.
Another report claims the next iPhone Pro and Pro Max could receive LPTO+ displays. These OLED panels utilize IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) transistors to help lower display power consumption, while also increasing refresh rates. The tech enables granular control over the current sent to each OLED pixel, so the display can better adapt its power consumption to on-screen content. It's also claimed that the iPhone 18 might be one of the first phones to feature Samsung's latest M16 OLED screen technology, which promise better brightness, power efficiency, and more accurate colors.
iOS 27 is expected to bring numerous improvements to Siri, including a new Siri AI mode for the Camera app, while Image Playground may be able to create wallpaper backgrounds based on your prompts.
The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are due to launch in September, assuming Apple follows its usual release schedule. Pricing is rumored to rise due to increasing costs in the component supply chain, most notably that of NAND flash memory, but it's also claimed that the cost of a variable aperture camera lens could be much as 50% higher than the fixed aperture glass used in current iPhones.
Story credit: Phone Arena
