All of the hype ahead of Apple’s September launch event is about its first foldable, currently named the iPhone Ultra. But let’s not forget other products are coming at this event, including the iPhone 18 Pro Max, which Ice Universe says will have an exclusive feature: a variable aperture.
This has been rumored a few times already, and many thought it would be saved for next year’s release. But it looks like it could come on the iPhone 18 Pro Max. Apple does this a lot, bringing new camera hardware to the larger ‘Pro’ model, and then bringing it to the smaller one the year after.
Apple has never used a variable aperture on the iPhone, but it has used a pretty wide aperture since the iPhone 14 Pro, at f/1.78. However, other companies have used it, including Huawei most recently. Samsung also had a variable aperture for a couple of years on the Galaxy S9 and S10 series. Samsung is rumored to be bringing it back for the Galaxy S27, likely because of the rumors about Apple adding it.
What is a variable aperture?
A variable aperture is an important feature we will likely see in many more phones moving forward. So what actually is it? Well, an aperture is the physical opening inside a camera lens that controls how much light passes through to the image sensor. DSLRs and mirrorless cameras have had adjustable apertures for decades, but most smartphones use fixed apertures, mostly because of space constraints.
This variable aperture will help because you’ll want a wider opening in low light and for portraits, but in brighter scenarios or landscapes, you’ll want a smaller opening. So instead of using software, this physical variable aperture can do it on its own, based on the scenario.
With Huawei’s Pura lineup, you can physically see the aperture move when you change it, and we’d expect the same thing for the iPhone.
The post iPhone 18 Pro Max Could Get a Camera Upgrade That Samsung Had and Abandoned Years Ago appeared first on Android Headlines.
​Â
