A leaker has jumped on a pair of rumors discussing a change in release schedule and a variable-aperture camera system for the iPhone 18 lineup.
After the launch of a new iPhone range, the rumor mill eventually turns its attention to next year's releases. In one leaker's posting on Monday, they are making up for lost time by discussing two rumors in one post.
The Weibo-based "Digital Chat Station" claims to have "supply chain information" about the iPhone 18 series, with changes being made to the Pro range. Chiefly, this will mean the iPhone 18 Pro Max will have "variable aperture materials."
It is also claimed that the 48MP Telephoto lens, which uses a periscope lens system, will also gain a larger aperture.
The aperture is the opening that lets light pass through to the sensor, and can affect things like the depth of field of a photograph. A typical smartphone camera system uses a fixed aperture, due to severe space limitations preventing mechanisms to change the size of the aperture.
Adding a variable aperture enables for depth of field effects to be performed in-camera, instead of being faked like the current computational photography-based system for iPhone Portraits.
This is not a new rumor, as it has been brought up a few times in the past. The iPhone 17 was rumored to get it in one mid-2024 report, followed by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo discussing it later in the same year for the iPhone 18 line.
Following the launch of the iPhone 17 without any variable aperture tech, ETNews revived the rumor on October 15.
Schedule shifts
Digital Chat Station also discusses the release schedule for the iPhone 18 lineup, in that it will be split into two sections. The leaker says that the iPhone 18 Pro series and an updated iPhone Air, as well as the long-rumored iPhone Fold, will arrive in September 2026 as per the usual timeline.
However, the standard iPhone 18 will be delayed to release in the first half of 2027, alongside an iPhone 18e update.
Again, this is not a new rumor at all, and reprises previous comments on the topic. A report from May 2025 brought up the possibility of Apple performing such a split, albeit without mentioning the iPhone Air at the time.
The sentiment was also mentioned by Ming-Chi Kuo earlier in 2025, and by another Weibo leaker, "Instant Digital," in July. ETNews also mentioned the schedule change possibility in August.
While the number of reports for each rumor are a good indication that they may happen, there's still no guarantee that they actually will. More evidence and reporting is really needed to make them credible.
Weibo-based leakers also have the reputation of being an aggregator of rumors sourced from elsewhere, as well as regurgitating previously rumored stories, all to continue a high rate of posting. This tends to lead to such accounts being less reliable and more inaccurate for Apple rumors than other traditional sources.
