A flagship is as good as its camera setup is and the iPhone 18 Pro Max won't be an exception to the rule.
It's now less than three hours until the latest and greatest flagship handset by Apple is unveiled. To further crank up the hype frenzy, John Ternus—Apple's incoming new CEO—posted a mini teaser that reveals a thing or two.
You're probably wondering what (the hell) is even that. There's no captions, no words, no sound, almost "no nothing"; just some lights and reflections in this dark (and short) 14-second clip.
Tim Cook's successor doesn't want to spoil the surprise, though: that's why he's constrained and can't lay out in words what Apple has in store for us later today.
The 14-second clip starts in complete darkness. Two seconds later, we're hit with a bright light aimed straight at us. Then, the light source changes its position and takes the upper center stage. Is this a projector and stage innuendo? I don't think so.
Let's take a closer look at the light source:
This is as clear as a hint can get. | Image by Jorn Ternus on X
Notice the shape of the light. It's coming through a hexagon. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what an aperture in a lens looks like. Some apertures are, of course, highly sophisticated and have so many blades they appear circular:
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Some photo lenses have an almost-circular aperture. | Image by John Seaman on photo.net
It's moving, too
What makes me almost 100% certain that we're dealing with a variable aperture is the fact that such a camera upgrade has been rumored to land on the iPhone 18 Pro Max on numerous occasions.
The smaller-sized iPhone 18 Pro probably won't get a variable aperture because of the limited space, but we'll have to wait for Apple to confirm or deny this.
What's more, in John Ternus' teaser above, the hexagon-shaped light actually moves and gets wider—just like a proper variable aperture.
OK, but why would you need a variable aperture in your phone in the first place?
A gimmick or not?
Personally, I've never come to the conclusion that I absolutely need a variable aperture, and I'm a dedicated mobile photographer.
A variable aperture can certainly be useful, but I don't expect it to suddenly make iPhone photos look dramatically "better". Smartphone sensors are still relatively small, which means a large portion of the scene is naturally in focus even with a wide aperture, limiting the difference between different aperture settings.
Still, I can understand why Apple would want to install one in its flagship: even if the practical gains are modest, having a "variable aperture" sounds like a cool camera upgrade and gives the marketing team a new piece of hardware to talk about. And when you're selling a $1,200+ flagship, having something new always helps.
Why are you excited about the iPhone 18 Pro event?
513 Votes
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Sebastian is one of PhoneArena’s senior opinionators. A veteran news writer with almost 20 years of experience in media and technology, he not only covers all the hot news about Galaxies and iPhones, but often provides hot takes on industry trends. He’s fascinated with camera-focused flagships from the likes of Oppo and Vivo, as well as foldable phones.
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