In less than a week, Apple's "Surprise and shine" event will officially reveal the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, as well as the foldable iPhone Ultra. The latter is the company's first attempt to make one of the best foldable phones, and the price is one of the biggest questions still left to answer.
There's no doubt the iPhone Ultra is going to be a premium device, and two recent leaks seem to back up the idea that it'll start at $1,999. That's what Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman predicted when he spoke exclusively to Tom's Guide, and it's less than the $2,500 (or even $3,000) price some analysts were predicting earlier this year.
Both leaks come from the network carrier Vodafone, which shared pricing for the iPhone Ultra in Egypt (pictured below) before hastily removing the listing.
In Egypt, the starting price is 155,750 Egyptian pounds — which translates to just over $3,000. Meanwhile, the Australian pricing was also leaked by Vodafone (h/t @ev_downunder on X) and lists the base model at AU$3,699, which converts to roughly $2,666.
In both cases, the direct comparison with US pricing isn't important — instead, let's look at the percentage increase in both countries over the iPhone 17 Pro. In Egypt, it's about 75% (the iPhone 17 Pro is 88,799 Egyptian pounds), whereas in Australia it's 85% more expensive than last year's Pro (AU$1,999). Applying that same idea to the USA, then if the iPhone Ultra is 80% more expensive than last year's iPhone 17 Pro, the starting price would be about $1,999.
Leaks suggest the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will have a 10% and 11% price increase, respectively, in Egypt. If we apply that to the US, we could expect a $100 price bump for both phones.
Analyst predictions
Market research firm TrendForce also released new analysis on the price of Apple's upcoming devices yesterday, and it paints a slightly more negative picture. According to the analysts, the iPhone 18 series and the iPhone Fold could see price rises of up to 20%.
"Given the weak global macroeconomic environment, more cautious consumer spending, and Apple’s strategy of continuing to expand its market presence, TrendForce expects the company to adopt a relatively moderate pricing approach," the researchers wrote.
"Prices for the new models are projected to rise by around 10–20%, with Apple absorbing some of the higher costs to help preserve market share.
"For the highly anticipated iPhone 18 Fold, improvements in crease reduction will be a key technological highlight, while its position as Apple’s first foldable will also make its pricing an important benchmark for future generations. TrendForce estimates that the device will carry a starting price of US$2,099–2,299, while top-end configurations could exceed $3,000."
Final thoughts
Taking both the leaks and the latest research into account, I think Apple will attempt to bring the iPhone Ultra in at the $1,999 price for the starting configuration. It will allow the marketing team to pitch the device as "sub-$2,000," and then Apple will push the pricing up for the higher storage configurations.
Here's my own estimate of what the pricing for the new iPhones will be. We can see how close I came after the September 9 event:
Storage |
iPhone 18 Pro |
iPhone 18 Pro Max |
iPhone Ultra |
256GB |
$1,199 / £1,199 |
$1,299 / £1,299 |
$1,999 / £1,999 |
512GB |
$1,399 / £1,399 |
$1,499 / £1,499 |
$2,399 / £2,399 |
1TB |
$1,599 / £1,599 |
$1,699 / £1,699 |
$2,699 / £2,699 |
2TB |
N/A |
$2,099 / £2,099 |
$3,099 / £3,099 |
As you'll see, once you start to scale up the storage, the iPhone Ultra becomes eye-wateringly expensive. But the reason for that is simple: this is not meant to be a mass-market device. It's the same as the Apple Vision Pro, which also launched with an astronomically high price.
The TrendForce research mentioned above also estimates that foldables will account for only around 2% of the global smartphone market in 2026. It's true that the market will expand — but for now, only a very small proportion of Apple fans and tech enthusiasts will buy the iPhone Ultra.
If you've got your own thoughts on the iPhone Ultra or the new Pro phones, I'd love to hear about them in the comments below. Will you be making an upgrade this year? How much are you willing to spend? Let me know!
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