Next year's iPhone 18 lineup could feature a new kind of camera that would be a first for the iPhone. The handsets are reportedly going to be equipped with a variable aperture camera, which allows you to adjust the amount of light entering the lens.
The iPhone 18 camera rumor comes courtesy of the Korean publication ETNews. The article claims that Apple has finalized its plans and will include the system in next year's Pro and Pro Max models.
Apple includes a trio of lenses on its Pro models, including a wide, ultrawide, and telephoto ones. ETNews asserts that the variable aperture will be introduced on the main wide camera.
This isn't the first time that we've seen this rumor. In December of 2024, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also claimed that the iPhone 18 lineup would feature a variable aperture lens.
Why variable aperture matters?
Going back to at least the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple's high-end models have featured fixed aperture lenses of f/1.78 on the main camera. With a variable aperture, photographers can open the aperture wider to capture more light or narrow it to avoid an overexposed image.
This can enable more bokeh effects, leading to sharply focused subjects with blurred backgrounds that are especially popular when it comes to portrait shots.
Apple won't be the first phone maker to introduce variable aperture as the Xiaomi 14 Ultra features the adjustable lens. For an older device, you might recall the Samsung Galaxy S9 from 2018.
Many phones today attempt to emulate variable aperture through software solutions, but this is not the same as capturing actual physical images.
At this point, megapixels have reached a similar level across most smartphones, and it appears Apple is looking for other ways to differentiate its Pro models with physical features like a new lens or last year's Camera Control, which could go away in future models, according to some reports.
The iPhone 17 family just arrived in September, and if Apple keeps to its usual schedule we won't see the iPhone 18 Pro models under September of 2026.
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