Does the iPhone really need a variable aperture?
This is an idea that's already been and gone
After a fairly significant hardware upgrade in 2025, it’s sounding like things will be quieter for the iPhone this year. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported in a recent newsletter that the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max will “represent minor tweaks” from their predecessors and “won’t be a big update”. Much of the attention this year is expected to be on Apple’s first folding phone.
Gurman did, however, note that the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max will have “a new camera system with a variable aperture”, which caught my eye as a phone camera obsessive. There have been rumors about this for years, but I wasn’t expecting it to be perhaps the key feature of what are likely to be this year’s most popular models.
That’s because variable aperture is an idea that’s come and gone in smartphones several times in the past. Does Apple have a truly new take on the concept, or is it just late to the party?
