iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max teardown results are in, and they settle a few of the rumors we followed all year. iFixit confirmed the leaked battery sizes down to the last mAh, but getting to that battery turned out to be riskier than anyone expected.
iFixit confirms the leaked iPhone 18 Pro battery sizes
iFixit, the repair company that has been taking apart new iPhones in their launch week for well over a decade, opened four of the new phones for its full teardown. Here's what it found inside:
Battery capacity: the eSIM-only US iPhone 18 Pro carries a 4,288 mAh cell and the Pro Max a 5,567 mAh one, matching the certification leak we covered in July exactly.
Battery tray: Apple kept last year's screwed-in metal tray, so there's no stubborn adhesive to fight on the way out.
Display frame: the plastic frame around the screen cracked or pulled away on three of the four phones iFixit opened.
Main camera: the variable aperture runs on six blades, each about as thin as a human hair, and iFixit calls it as close to unrepairable as it gets.
Repairability: both phones score a provisional 7 out of 10, and the frame damage hasn't been counted against them yet.
The iPhone 18 Pro battery (left) next to the larger iPhone 18 Pro Max battery (right). | Image by iFixit
The tray is the part I'd celebrate, since a glued-in battery is what turns a simple swap into a long job. Getting to it is still the problem, though, because the only way in is through the glued-down screen.
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A screwed-in battery is worth celebrating, but we'd like to get to it without sacrificing the screen around it.
iFixit, in its iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max teardown, September 20, 2026
It should be noted that four phones are too few to call this a failure rate, and one of the screens did come off cleanly.
Under-display Face ID and the C2 modem only half came true
Not every rumor held up as well as the battery leak. For months, the reports we rounded up last year claimed Apple would move Face ID under the screen, but only the infrared camera made the trip, while the dot projector still sits in the Dynamic Island next to the selfie camera.
The C2 modem story had a catch too. Apple's own modem is in every version except the US iPhone 18 Pro Max, which still uses a Qualcomm chip, and it appears that comes down to an old agreement with Qualcomm that runs through 2026.
When your iPhone 18 Pro battery wears out, where is it going?
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The variable aperture did arrive as promised, though iFixit doubts it will change your photos much, and the reason is size. An f-stop is a ratio between the lens's focal length and the width of its opening, not a fixed measurement, so the same number can mean very different openings on different cameras.
At f/1.48, the iPhone's opening is just 4.6 mm across, while a regular camera with a 50 mm lens opens to 33.8 mm at that same setting. So while the widest setting lets in about 7.3 times more light than f/4.0, the background still stays fairly sharp, which means it helps more in a dim room than it does for that heavy, blurry-background look.
Of course, Samsung has been down this road before. Its Galaxy S9 and S10 phones had a dual aperture, and some Galaxy S10 owners on Reddit ran into apertures getting stuck. iFixit points out that Samsung eventually dropped the feature over its limited benefit on a phone-sized camera.
If you own a Galaxy S26 Ultra, this doesn't change much for you, since Samsung's current flagships don't have a moving aperture to break. When we compared the two flagships, the iPhone 18 Pro Max widened its lead in most areas, but a fussier camera repair is one headache Galaxy owners get to skip.
What the iPhone 18 Pro teardown means for battery swaps
For most of us, the battery is the part we'll replace first, since it wears down with normal use. Apple now charges $129 for that swap, $10 more than last year, and with the screen frame at risk, I'd leave this job to Apple or AppleCare+ rather than a DIY kit.
A battery tray this good deserves an easier way in
I'm hoping more teardowns show those cracked frames were just bad luck. And next year, I'd personally love to see Apple give us a way to the battery that doesn't go through the screen at all.
Johanna Romero is a Senior News Writer at PhoneArena, covering mobile technology news across Android, iOS, wearables, and the Google ecosystem she knows best. Drawing on 15 years in IT and tech support from 2007 to 2022, she brings a user-friendly eye for the practical features and lesser-known tricks readers care about. Google named her an official #TeamPixel member in 2022, and she also reviews the latest devices on her YouTube channel, JoJo the Techie.
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