iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Ultra: What to Expect

Last updated: 7 September 2026iPhone 18 Pro

By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance

Nobody outside Apple knows whether a phone called the iPhone 18 Pro exists. What Apple has confirmed is a date. Wednesday 9 September, 6pm UK time, at an event it is calling Surprise and shine. Everything else you have read this week, including the name in that first sentence, is reporting rather than fact, so I have kept the two apart all the way down this page.

This article contains affiliate or referral links. If you click through and sign up I may earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. It does not affect my editorial view.

This is not financial or buying advice. Prices and launch dates change, and most of the product detail below is unconfirmed reporting, so check Apple's own pages before you spend anything.

Thinking of buying the outgoing model instead?

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Below: what Apple has actually said, why the first keynote of the Ternus era is the more interesting story, and the price problem Apple warned everyone about back in June.

Section 01 / The official record

What Apple has actually confirmed

One date, one time and four words of marketing copy.

Apple's events page says a special event streams on 9 September at 6pm UK time, on apple.com and in the Apple TV app. The tagline is "Surprise and shine". There is no product name, no price and no spec sheet. Apple has not used the words iPhone 18 anywhere on its own site.

The second confirmed fact is the bigger one. John Ternus became Apple's chief executive on 1 September, so this is the first keynote of his tenure. Apple announced the handover on 20 April. Tim Cook moved to executive chairman on the same day, Arthur Levinson became lead independent director, and Ternus joined the board.

Claim	Status	Who says so
Event on 9 September, 6pm UK	Confirmed	apple.com
Ternus is CEO from 1 September	Confirmed	Apple press release, 20 April 2026
Three phones, two Pros and a foldable	Reported	Mark Gurman, Bloomberg
No standard iPhone 18 until spring 2027	Reported	Mark Gurman, Bloomberg
Pre-orders 12 September, on sale 18 September	Reported, and contested	MacRumors, disputed by AppleInsider
Foldable supply tight, may slip	Reported	Ming-Chi Kuo
Any price, in any currency	Not announced	nobody has one

Section 02 / The new boss

The first keynote of the Ternus era

Cook came up through operations. Ternus came up through hardware engineering.

Ternus joined Apple's product design team in 2001, became a vice president of hardware engineering in 2013 and joined the executive team in 2021. Apple's own leadership page credits him with the introduction of iPad and AirPods, and with the work on reliability, recycled aluminium and repairability that has quietly made Apple products last longer. He holds a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and before Apple he worked as a mechanical engineer at a company called Virtual Research Systems.

Cook, by contrast, came up through operations. He was the supply chain man, and by Apple's own accounting the company's market value went from around 350 billion dollars when he took over to 4 trillion. Announcing his successor, Cook said Ternus "has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and with honour". Ternus, in the same release, said he had "been lucky to have worked under Steve Jobs and to have had Tim Cook as my mentor".

So the interesting question on Wednesday is not really which phones appear. It is what a company run by its hardware chief chooses to spend forty minutes talking about. Cook's keynotes leaned on services, health outcomes and installed base. An engineer might spend that time on the hinge.

Section 03 / The foldable

The phone he did not commission

A folding iPhone takes years. Whatever appears on Wednesday was signed off long before Ternus had the job.

That matters for how you read it. Ternus ran the hardware team that built the thing, so it is his work in the sense that counts most. But the decision to make a foldable at all, and to price it wherever it lands, belongs to the previous era. His first keynote is therefore a strange one to judge him on, because almost nothing on the stage will be a decision he took as chief executive.

What it does tell you is which problems his team thinks are solved. Samsung has sold folding phones since 2019, and Apple sat the whole thing out. If Apple is finally shipping one, the interesting detail is not the screen. It is the hinge, the crease and how many times it opens before it stops feeling new, which happen to be exactly the durability questions Ternus has spent a decade on.

Section 04 / The reporting

What the iPhone 18 Pro rumours say, and who is saying them

None of this is confirmed. Some of it is contradicted by other reporting.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has reported that Apple is splitting the line-up in two. On that account the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max arrive this autumn alongside a first foldable, while the standard iPhone 18, an iPhone 18e and a second-generation iPhone Air wait until spring 2027. Everything downstream of that report, including most of the coverage you have seen, rests on it.

On dates, MacRumors reports pre-orders opening on Saturday 12 September, with phones in hands on Friday 18 September. The Saturday is not arbitrary: Apple has previously shifted pre-orders off 11 September, as it did in 2015. AppleInsider, meanwhile, spoke to a US carrier and concluded the timing is not settled at all, adding that the same source has been wrong before. Two respectable outlets, one week apart, disagree about a date.

The foldable is shakier still. Ming-Chi Kuo, the supply chain analyst with the best record on Apple manufacturing, has said production constraints could push it past the Pro models, possibly to the fourth quarter. Reported specifications cluster around a 5.5 inch outer screen, a 7.8 inch inner one, Touch ID rather than Face ID, and two 48 megapixel cameras with no telephoto. Analysts have floated 2,000 to 2,500 US dollars. Nobody has floated a pound figure, and I am not going to invent one.

Section 05 / The look

What the iPhone 18 Pro will probably look like

Much like the iPhone 17 Pro sitting in the shop window today.

The back of a silver iPhone 17 Pro showing the aluminium body and the raised camera plateau with three lenses

Nothing reported so far points to a redesign. MacRumors' round-up of the leaks has the iPhone 18 Pro carrying over the iPhone 17 Pro's shape, its anodised aluminium body and the camera plateau running across the top of the back, which is the panel in the picture above. That is as close to an answer as anyone has about what Wednesday's phone looks like.

The reported changes are small and specific. Dummy models shared in April suggested the plateau grows to 11.54mm on the Pro Max, up from 11.23mm, so it gets a little chunkier rather than moving. Apple has also reportedly reworked the rear glass to tone down the two-tone finish on the current Pro. Meanwhile the display is expected to move to LTPO+, which is a power efficiency change you would never see. A deep red is reported as the special colour of the year, and Macworld describes it as closer to dark cherry than to a bright red.

Two things people keep asking about are reportedly not happening yet. Under-display Face ID is said not to be ready. A smaller Dynamic Island, around 35 per cent smaller, is reported by some leakers and pushed to a later phone by others, so the honest answer on both is that nobody knows.

Section 06 / The money

Apple already told you prices were going up

Apple put its position in writing in June, and it was not ambiguous.

On 25 June Apple raised UK prices across Macs and iPads, and issued a statement explaining why. MacBook Air went from £1,099 to £1,299. MacBook Pro went from £1,699 to £1,999. iPad Air went from £599 to £749. Those are still the prices on Apple's UK store today. CNN reported the statement in full, and the reason was memory.

We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly.

Apple, 25 June 2026

The rest of the statement went further. Apple blamed the expansion of AI data centres, which it said had created "an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage". It added that it had shielded customers so far. Then came the line that matters for Wednesday: Apple had "now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products".

Apple does not write loosely. It said begin, it said a number of products, and iPhones were not on the June list. Every phone carries flash storage and memory, so the same shortage applies to them. The honest expectation for Wednesday is therefore that whatever appears costs more than the thing it replaces.

Section 07 / The bottom rung

What an all-Pro autumn does to the cheapest iPhone

If the reporting is right, the cheapest new iPhone this autumn is last year's phone.

Bar chart of Apple UK iPhone prices in September 2026, from iPhone 17e at 599 pounds to iPhone 17 Pro at 1,099 pounds, with the iPhone 18 Pro shown as an empty bar marked price not announced

Here is where Apple's ladder sits today. The iPhone 17e starts at £599, the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus at £699, the iPhone 17 at £799, the iPhone Air at £999 and the iPhone 17 Pro at £1,099. Take away the base model this autumn and none of those rungs gets refreshed. They simply stay where they are, ageing, until spring.

For most people that is fine, because the iPhone 17 does not get any worse the day a newer Pro launches. My iPhone 17 versus 17e comparison goes through where the cheaper model actually gives something up. But it does mean that if you want the newest iPhone made, the entry fee this year is Pro money, and there is no cheaper new option arriving to argue you out of it.

Section 08 / The honest bit

How much of this should you believe

Two facts came from Apple. The rest came from journalists and analysts.

Only two things on this page came from Apple: the event details and the change of chief executive. Everything about products, names, dates and prices came from journalists and analysts working from supply chain sources, and those sources are frequently right about the shape of a product and wrong about its timing. Kuo and Gurman both have strong records. Neither has a perfect one.

The name is the clearest example. "iPhone Ultra" is what several outlets report Apple calls the foldable internally. MacRumors hedges by calling it the iPhone Fold. Apple has said nothing, and Apple has changed a product name late in the day before, so treat iPhone Ultra as the best available guess rather than a fact.

I will come back to this page after the keynote and mark up whatever the rumours got wrong.

Section 09 / What to do

Who it suits: wait, buy now, or buy refurbished

Waiting, buying now and buying refurbished all make sense, for different people.

Wait, if your phone still works

Wednesday costs you nothing, and a price rise is easier to judge once you have seen what it buys. If the foldable does slip to the fourth quarter, as Kuo suggests, waiting costs you very little either.

Buy now, if you had already settled on an iPhone 17

Current prices rarely fall on launch day. Apple's trade-in scheme also offers £155 to £680 towards an iPhone 17, iPhone Air or iPhone 17 Pro when you hand over an iPhone 13 or newer. Values depend on model and condition, and not every device qualifies.

Buy refurbished, if the launch has made you notice the price

Last year's flagship is where the money is. That gap widens every September, because sellers clear stock ahead of the announcement. On Back Market's UK site on 4 September 2026, a refurbished iPhone 16 started at £479, against £699 for the same phone new from Apple. An iPhone 15 started at £339, an iPhone 14 at £239 and an iPhone 13 at £202. Those figures move daily, so treat them as the shape of the discount rather than a quote.

That is a £220 difference on the iPhone 16, for what is functionally the same phone. My guide to the best refurbished phones in the UK covers which grades are worth paying up for and which sellers to avoid. My best phone for every budget then puts the refurbished options next to the new ones at each price. If you go that way, my Back Market discount code page has the current code, the minimum spend and the warranty terms.

See the Back Market code and terms

One more data point on Ternus, since his team shipped it. The MacBook Neo is the cheapest laptop Apple has made. It is also the clearest existing evidence of what he does when asked to hit a price.

iPhone 18 Pro FAQs

When is the iPhone 18 Pro being announced?

Apple has confirmed a special event on Wednesday 9 September 2026 at 6pm UK time, streaming on apple.com and the Apple TV app. Apple has not confirmed what it will announce there, so the iPhone 18 Pro name is reporting rather than fact.

Is Apple really not making a standard iPhone 18 this year?

That is what Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has reported. On his account the Pro models and a foldable arrive this autumn, while the standard iPhone 18, an 18e and a second iPhone Air follow in spring 2027. Apple has said nothing either way.

How much will the foldable iPhone cost in the UK?

No UK price exists yet. Analysts including Ming-Chi Kuo have suggested 2,000 to 2,500 US dollars, though converting that into pounds ignores UK VAT and Apple's own regional pricing, so wait for Apple's figure.

Will iPhone prices go up this year?

Apple raised Mac and iPad prices in June 2026 and said it needed "to begin raising prices on a number of products". It has not said iPhones are next. Given that the shortage is in memory and storage, which every phone needs, a rise would not be a surprise.

Should I buy an iPhone 17 now or wait for the keynote?

If you want the newest phone Apple makes, wait two days and see it. If you had already settled on an iPhone 17, buying now is reasonable, because current models rarely get cheaper on launch day and Apple's trade-in credit is already available.

Is a refurbished iPhone a better deal than a new one?

Often, yes, on price alone. A refurbished iPhone 16 started at £479 on Back Market on 4 September 2026 against £699 new from Apple. In exchange you accept cosmetic wear, a battery with some life used and a shorter warranty, so check the grade and the cover before you buy.

More from CoolCuration

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A good mobile phone case. climate-positive, made in Sweden, and it will outlive the phone inside it.
1Blocker. block ads across iPhone and Mac, which does more for battery life than most upgrades.
Gifts for techies. for the person who has already pre-ordered whatever this turns out to be.

Everything on this page was checked on 4 September 2026. Apple event details and prices come from apple.com/uk; refurbished prices come from backmarket.co.uk. Product names, specifications, dates and prices for unannounced hardware are reporting by third parties and may be wrong. This is not financial or buying advice. This article contains affiliate or referral links. If you click through and sign up I may earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. It does not affect my editorial view. Featured photograph of the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park by Justin Ormont, cropped, used under CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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