An iPhone 18 Pro now starts at ₹1,64,900 in India. The Pro Max begins at ₹1,79,900. Apple announced both on stage at its “Surprise and shine” event, and for Indian buyers the number to compare is the American one: $1,199 for the Pro and $1,299 for the Pro Max, according to CNBC TV18.
The US price is where the real story sits. Ahead of the launch, The Wall Street Journal had reported in June that the phone could start near $1,399, and Tim Cook, then Apple’s chief executive, had said the company was not immune to soaring memory chip costs. Analysts guessed wildly. J.P. Morgan said any increase would stay under $50. IDC thought $200. GF Securities analyst Jeff Pu went further, expecting $200 to $300 and downgrading Apple stock to “hold” on the view that a dearer phone with modest hardware upgrades could weaken demand. After Bloomberg put the rise at $100, 9to5Mac called it smaller than many analysts had projected.
What Apple is selling
The Pro and Pro Max have 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch OLED screens, and both run on the new A20 Pro chip, which Apple says is up to 40% faster than last year’s A19 Pro. The Dynamic Island cutout shrinks. Apple quotes up to 36 hours of battery life on the Pro and up to 45 hours on the Pro Max, and says the Pro can reach 50 percent charge in 15 minutes.
The camera is the headline. These are the first iPhones with a physical, variable aperture, and the cameras can also produce cryptographically signed reference images meant to prove a photo has not been altered. Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said the company had made “huge leaps forward” in camera, performance, battery and intelligence. CEO John Ternus, speaking at the same event, talked up artificial intelligence and said the road ahead is “filled with enormous discovery and transformation.”
Both phones come in four colours: Black, Silver, Glacier and Burgundy. They ship with iOS 27. Apple also added leasing options in the US.
Dates and early verdicts
The phones were unveiled on September 9, 2026 at Apple Park in Cupertino. Pre-orders opened on September 12 and sales began on September 18.
Reviewers liked the camera most. Engadget gave the Pro 9 out of 10 and called its camera the best on any iPhone, though it still rated Google’s Pixel ahead in portrait and night shots. Tom’s Guide scored it 4.5 out of 5. On value, MacRumors was cooler: no compelling reason to leave an iPhone 17 Pro or 16 Pro, but worth it for anyone holding an iPhone 14 Pro or older.
Some early owners reported Face ID failures and freezes, and Apple issued iOS 27.0.1 on September 28 to fix them. Some Pro Max owners in the United States also lost their AT&T connection. On October 3, Apple said that problem was hardware-related and that affected phones cannot be repaired, only replaced.
Sources
- iPhone 18 Pro – Wikipedia
- Apple launches iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max in four colours: Check India price – CNBC TV18
