iPhone 18 Pro leak summary: Apple’s first under-screen Face ID

There is still one month before the release of the iPhone 17 series. As usual, Apple will most likely hold a press conference on September 9.

At present, the various appearances and configurations of the iPhone 17 series have been almost leaked, basically from famous brands, so let us take a look at what improvements will be in next year’s iPhone 18 series.

MacRumors has compiled some of the most credible configuration information, focusing mainly on screen and image quality:

Screen

As early as April 2023, display industry analyst Ross Young shared a roadmap showing that the iPhone 17 Pro models will be equipped with under-screen Face ID. However, in May 2024, he confirmed that the configuration had been postponed to 2026.

This means that under-screen Face ID may debut on next year’s iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.

Thanks to this, the size of the Smart Island of the iPhone 18 Pro series is expected to shrink, and even become a single centered hole, completely bidding farewell to the pill-shaped irregular screen and aligning with the Android camp.

image

The main camera will be upgraded to a 48-megapixel Fusion camera with variable aperture support.

Users can manually control the amount of light entering, which can better control the depth of field compared to the fixed ƒ/1.78 aperture of the iPhone 14 Pro to iPhone 16 Pro series. However, due to the size of the iPhone sensor, the actual improvement effect remains to be seen.

Currently, the image sensors of the iPhone are all supplied by Sony. It is revealed that at least one camera in the iPhone 18 Pro series will use a three-layer stacked image sensor made by Samsung, which is expected to improve the camera response speed, reduce photo noise, increase the dynamic range, etc.

Samsung expects to start supplying 48-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera sensors to Apple as early as 2026, and these sensors will be manufactured in the United States.

Core Configuration

The iPhone 18 Pro is expected to be equipped with the 2nm Apple A20 Pro chip, there is nothing much to say about it.

But it is worth noting that the news said that the phone will also be equipped with Apple’s self-developed C2 modem, and its signal and network speed performance may be comparable to Qualcomm and MediaTek.