An insider has revealed one of the first big camera upgrades for the iPhone 18 Pro, a wide lens with a variable aperture camera.
Artificial intelligence might be the main selling point of smartphones this year, including the iPhone 16 series, but the camera experience will continue to be a big factor in choosing one model over the other. Apple has continuously improved the hardware and software of its iPhone cameras, but it did it at its own pace.
Apple never bumped camera resolution to keep up with rivals, nor did it add a periscope camera to the iPhone before it had the right tech in place for the technology. That’s probably why we’ve never had iPhone cameras with variable apertures, but that’s about to change in the coming years.
According to Ming-Chi Kup, the “2026 high-end iPhone 18” will get a wide camera lens with a variable aperture camera, “significantly enhancing the user photography experience.”
The insider, known for his generally accurate predictions about unreleased iPhones, probably refers to the iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max. Apple has introduced new camera features with the iPhone Pro Max model before making them available to other models.
The sensor-shift optical stabilization system for the wide camera is one example. Introduced with the iPhone 12 Pro Max, it was then made available to all iPhones in the following years.
