Apple's update to the iPhone 18 Pro Max could make it thicker and the heaviest iPhone ever, if a Weibo leaker is to be believed.
While Apple does prefer to make major design changes to products on a periodic basis, it does often make smaller tweaks to the design. If a Wednesday post by a well-known leaker is true, we could end up with the heaviest iPhone Apple has ever produced.
According to Instant Digital on Weibo, Apple won't be making the next iteration of the iPhone 18 Pro Max any lighter, following its iPhone 17 Pro Max redesign. Instead, it will be going in the opposite direction.
This allegedly includes increasing the thickness marginally from its current 8.75mm (0.34-inch) depth. The leaker doesn't say by how much the thickness will change, but it will probably be for a very marginal amount.
Heavier handheld
What could make more of a difference is the overall weight of the 2026 supersized model. The change could see a 10-gram swing to the heavier, making the iPhone 18 Pro Max around 243 grams (8.57 ounces).
If true, this would make the iPhone 18 Pro Max the heaviest model ever produced. The current heavyweight iPhone is the iPhone 14 Pro Max at 240 grams, while the iPhone 17 Pro Max is 233 grams.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 16 Pro Max were much lighter at 221 grams and 227 grams respectively, but they were aided by the use of titanium for the chassis. Models before and after those two generations used aluminum instead.
Again, the leaker doesn't explain what could cause the weight difference in the post. While this could easily be attributed to the casing if it's a little bit thicker, it could also stem from internal components, such as a physical battery capacity increase.
This is not the only recent leak from Instant Digital about the 2026 iPhone 18 Pro lineup. On Tuesday, it was claimed that Apple would make a greater effort to match the coloring of the rear glass panel with the rest of the enclosure.
Instant Digital has a reasonable track record for accuracy with the account's iPhone rumors, including the use of frosted glass on the iPhone 15 and the introduction of Camera Control. However, Weibo leakers do have a tendency to regurgitate rumors from other sources, which affects overall accuracy levels.
