Apple finally pulled the sheet off the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max on September 9, and if you were hoping this would be the year prices calmed down, brace yourself. They didn't. Both phones cost more than last year's models everywhere they're sold, and the gap between the cheapest and most expensive place to buy one is wide enough to fund a decent vacation.
It was John Ternus's first keynote as Apple's chief executive, just over a week after Tim Cook stepped back into an executive chairman role. Apple used the moment to skip the base iPhone 18 entirely this time around, that model, along with the budget iPhone 18e, has been pushed to spring 2027. September belonged to three phones only: the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max, and Apple's first-ever foldable, unofficially dubbed the iPhone Duo. We're focusing on the two Pro models here, since that's what most upgraders are actually choosing between.
