In a major update to the camera system, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says the iPhone 18 Pro's wide angle lens will be upgraded to have a variable aperture.
Apple may update the iPhone's wide-angle lens to give it a variable aperture
Rumors concerning the cameras in the forthcoming iPhone 17 range and later have previously varied from saying they will get better bokeh, to how the front camera's resolution will double to 24MP. Now analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims to have specific information that the iPhone 18 Pro will gain this variable aperture update.
In a blog post that he says is based on his own industry sources, Kuo says that this update will "significantly improve the user's photography experience."
That's no exaggeration either, as one thing it means is that the iPhone camera will be able to adjust itself to the current lighting conditions. So before a shot is taken, and before any computational photography calculations are applied, the camera will control the amount of light hitting its sensor.
Then, too, a variable aperture lens should be able to improve focus and depth of field. It would also give photographers more bokeh or sharp focus options.
iPhone 18 rumors
Separately, the iPhone 18 Pro is expected to use a 2nm processor. Kuo said in September 2024 that because of cost, the 2nm processors may be constricted, possibly even to the point where it is only in the iPhone 18 Pro Max.
That processor is expected to be called the A20, and there have been claims that it will feature a revision to what's called chip packaging. Rather than the current system of putting everything -- the cores plus RAM, for instance -- onto a single chip, Apple could break it out into several items.
This doesn't have any end-user benefit to speak of. It may enhance Apple's ability to reduce how many motherboard variants it needs to make, and add RAM modules with different densities as it sees fit for demand needs.
One more feature that may now wait until the iPhone 18 Pro is under-screen Face ID. Whenever it comes, this would eliminate the need for the notch, which first appeared with the iPhone X in 2017.