iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max are official: AED 5,099 in the UAE, variable aperture, and a 45-hour battery

Apple has announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, and the UAE prices are lower than almost anyone expected: AED 5,099 for the 18 Pro and AED 5,499 for the 18 Pro Max, both starting at 256GB. Pre-orders open on Saturday 12 September and the phones reach UAE stores on Friday 18 September, in four finishes — black, silver, glacier and a new burgundy.

Also announced on the night: AirPods 5 at AED 539, Apple Watch Series 12 at AED 1,599 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 at AED 3,199, all on sale the same day.

iPhone 18 Pro UAE price: AED 400 more, not AED 1,000

Analyst forecasts had the Pro Max landing anywhere from AED 5,950 to AED 6,350 after GF Securities’ Jeff Pu predicted a $250–$300 rise, and Tim Cook had warned on an earnings call that Apple expected to pay higher memory costs this September. The actual increase is AED 400 on each model, about 8 per cent.

Storage runs 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB. Apple Trade In offers AED 640 to AED 3,260 in instant credit for an iPhone 13 or later, which for most people is the difference between an upgrade this month and one next year. Our iPhone 18 UAE guide tracks pricing across every tier and retailer.

Variable aperture is the real upgrade

The 48MP Fusion Main camera gets a variable aperture, the first on an iPhone. Six laser-cut blades move between four aperture settings, adjusting automatically for depth of field and light, or manually through a new Pro controls panel that also exposes shutter speed, white balance and a histogram. Apple is opening an API so third-party camera apps can drive the aperture range themselves.

A new sensor and imaging pipeline sit behind it, with Photographic Styles gaining texture and grain controls. On video, Cinematic effects can now be applied after capture to footage shot at up to 60fps, Time-lapse records in 4K Dolby Vision HDR, and Audio Mix can isolate music as well as voices.

Apple Reference Image signs the pixels

The most consequential new feature is quieter. Shoot in the new Reference mode and the sensor cryptographically signs the data it captures; Private Cloud Compute then develops that into an unalterable reference image you can view in Photos next to the finished shot, like a digital negative, to see what was changed. Apple is also adding support for the SynthID standard in a software update later this year to flag AI-generated and AI-edited images.

It is opt-in, and it is not universal at launch: China does not get it for regulatory reasons, and in the EU, capture is unavailable at launch although reference images can still be developed and viewed. For newsrooms and anyone arguing about a photograph’s provenance, it is the most useful thing Apple shipped this year.

A20 Pro, 2nm, and a vapour chamber three times bigger

A20 Pro is built on a 2nm process: a 6-core CPU with integrated Neural Accelerators, a 7-core GPU up to 40 per cent faster than A19 Pro, 50 per cent more memory bandwidth, and a dual 16-core Neural Engine Apple says doubles AI processing.

Sustained performance is where the claim gets interesting. Apple has borrowed M-series packaging to sit the memory beside the die rather than in its thermal path, then attached the chip to a redesigned vapour chamber with three times the surface area of the iPhone 17 Pro’s. The result, Apple says, is up to 40 per cent better sustained performance. In a market where phones spend August in 45°C air and inside cars, that matters more than a peak benchmark.

Both models carry Apple’s N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread, and the new C2 modem, which Apple says uploads meaningfully faster than C1X while drawing 15 per cent less power.

45 hours of video, and the UAE gets the bigger battery

Apple quotes up to 36 hours of video playback on the iPhone 18 Pro and up to 45 hours on the Pro Max, the largest battery jump it has claimed for an iPhone. Both figures are for eSIM-only models, and the UAE is on the eSIM-only list alongside Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and the US — so the phones sold here are the ones with the extra battery capacity where the SIM tray used to be, worth about two hours of video.

Charging: 50 per cent in around 15 minutes wired on the 18 Pro, or 30 minutes wirelessly. On the Pro Max, Apple says five minutes on a cable buys roughly seven hours of video playback. eSIM is supported by e& and du locally, so activation is not the friction it was a few years ago.

A smaller Dynamic Island, and iOS 27 on 14 September

The Dynamic Island shrinks and gains room for three Live Activities at once, with Face ID intact — under-display Face ID did not arrive, as expected. iOS 27 ships as a free update on Monday 14 September, bringing refinements to Liquid Glass, stronger parental controls, and iPhone Handoff, which lets one number move between two iPhone models on supported carriers. Apple Intelligence arrives the same day, and Siri AI in beta, in English first.

Cases and straps

UAE accessory pricing: TechWoven Case with MagSafe AED 269, Clear Case AED 219, Silicone Case AED 219, FineWoven Wallet AED 269, Crossbody Strap AED 269, and a new Wrist Strap at AED 119 that also carries AirPods Pro 2 and 3.