everything we think we know about Apple’s new base model

In September the new iPhone 18 Pro and it will be the debut of John Ternus as the new CEO of Apple. And… that’s it. Maybe we’ll see the rumored foldable iPhonebut the iPhone 18 will have to wait. Breaking with the tradition of their releases, the basic iPhone 18 will have to wait until sometime in the spring of next year.

However, that does not mean that the wheel of rumors and leaks is not working. Next, we tell you everything we think we know about that iPhone 18 which, according to those rumors, will not be a revolution, but it will have a couple of features that will make it more interesting than the current ones. iPhone 17 and iPhone 17e: new camera and RAM memory.

Let’s go to trouble.

What to expect from the iPhone 18?

• Design: two aspects in the leaks with a design maintained in the most conservative leak and an island that will follow the design of the Pro models, but with two cameras instead of three to further differentiate this iPhone 18 from the iPhone 17 and iPhone 16.
• Screen: 6.3-inch diagonal with LTPO refresh rate up to 120 Hz with a Dynamic Island that will maintain the size of the one we had until now. On the iPhone 18 Pro we are supposed to have a smaller Dynamic Island.
• SoC: Apple A20 with reduced features in GPU and cores compared to the A20 Pro that the iPhone 18 Pro will carry.
• RAM: 12 GB integrated on the chip wafer to allow good performance of the new Siri AI and Apple Intelligence.
• Cameras: dual camera configuration with a wide angle that will be brighter and so on, but that will pale in comparison to a new main sensor that will also be in a camera with a variable aperture.
• Connectivity: The new C2 chip would be the heart of the networks of the new iPhone 18.
• Price: It is expected to remain around what we already have with the iPhone 17, without exceeding 1,000 euros in the basic 256 GB version. Another story will be the version with 512 GB, which may suffer due to the increase in the price of components.
• Launch: Obviously, without anything confirmed, but all the leaks for a long time point to a launch in spring 2027.

When would the iPhone 18 come out?

The forecast is that Apple, for the first time, will break its classic release cycle. Instead of launching the two iPhone 18s in September, the one that will arrive first will be the iPhone 18 Pro, while the iPhone 18 will be released sometime in spring next year.

In fact, this late launch would imply that in the September keynote Apple will not present the iPhone 18 in depth. It should mention it so that the user is clear that it will arrive, but leaving all the details for a later presentation closer to the launch in spring.

What design will the iPhone 18 have?

The leaks point to a conservative design, as usually happens. Apple has already created a visual identity for the Pro with a giant side-to-side rear camera island, while the basic iPhone 18 has the cameras separately and vertically.

There may be some changes such as cameras next to each other or with a similar design to the Pro’s island, but keeping only two cameras. At the moment, there is only speculation here, but if the trend continues, it is easy to see that change on the back because, if not, Apple would repeat the design of the iPhone 16 for the third year. And that is not something that Apple people usually do.

What will the screens of the new iPhone 18 be like?

On the front, the iPhone 18 Pro is expected to feature a smaller dynamic island, but right now there are no leaks about that element of the iPhone 18. There have been reported some problems when carrying out this miniaturization, which would raise the price of the device and is something that, for the ‘cheaper’ iPhone 18, Apple would not want to allow itself.

For the rest, the leaks point to an LTPO screen with a refresh rate up to 120 Hz and a diagonal of 6.3 inches. There are fewer leaked details (in general) than for the iPhone 18 Pro, something logical due to this supposed time lapse between one model or another, and it’s not like we have too much information on the screen either.

The easiest? That the Pros do have that smaller Dynamic Island, but that with the iPhone 18 Apple maintains the size.

What processor will the iPhone 18 have?

Here what we can expect is a A20but with some cores and frequencies cut compared to the A20 Pro that, supposedly, will mount the iPhone 18 Pro. It will be a 2 nanometer chip manufactured by TSMC and, beyond the expected increase in power thanks to the new SoC, perhaps the most notable thing is the issue of RAM.

From 8 GB, we would go to 12 GB of memory. They are the same ones that already have the iPhone 17 Prohe iPhone Air and those expected to mount the iPhone 18 Pro and the explanation when it comes to matching the amount of RAM is marked by the company’s ambition with the new Siri AI.

The iPhone 18 will be mobile phones launched with the new Siri and Apple Intelligence in place and, to perform some actions locally, a considerable amount of RAM is necessary.

The iPhone 17’s 8GB is adequate for certain tasks, but not for the more advanced Siri AI tasks (as Apple itself has detailed) and going up to 12 GB would be ideal to maintain parity in that experience with that AI that they are going to push so much from now on.

What battery will the iPhone 18 have?

The 2 nanometers of the TSMC A20 will help the mobile consume a little less and it is expected that the Pro models will increase the battery capacity a little, but about the iPhone 18, there are no leaks powerful enough for us to echo them for the moment.

What operating system will the iPhone 18 have?

There are no doubts here: iOS 27 It will be the operating system of the iPhone 18. Apple has shared all the details of this new version of the system at WWDC 2026 and my colleague Guille from Applesfera has already been able to test Beta 1 and, as we say, it will be the system that the new generation of Apple will mount as standard.

Something curious is that, arriving later than the Pro model, the iPhone 18 will surely have a better operating system than the iPhone 18 Pro in September. We are referring to those Apple Intelligence options and the classic optimizations of the updates that are released for the system weeks after the traditional launch in September.

What changes to the camera will the iPhone 18 have?

Returning to the rear, no new developments are expected in the iPhone 18 cameras in terms of the number of lenses, but there are in the main camera. It has been leaked that Apple is working on a new main camera that has, in addition to a larger sensor, a diaphragm that allows changing the aperture.

It’s something that he already used Xiaomi 13 Ultra in his day, but also the Samsung Galaxy S9. This is a mechanism that physically moves the diaphragm to allow us to change the amount of light that enters the sensor. In this way, the more light that enters, the more natural background blur and the less light, the more defined the photograph in general.

This is useful for taking a photo of a monument or landscape and for the image to have a higher ‘series’ sharpness, which would imply less processing and a smaller amount of artificial sharpness that the system’s algorithm must add.

Anyway, as I say, this has already been tried and abandoned, so it will be interesting to see what Apple’s approach is.

What would be the price of the iPhone 18?

The million dollar question, and even more so with the one that is falling. Low mobile phones are rising in price and, above all, it is the cheap mobile phones that are the most suffering from the crisis of RAM and components. It is logical because it is where manufacturers have lower margins and the prices were already sufficiently adjusted.

In the premium range it is different because the margins are higher, but with the price of the iPhone 18 something curious can happen. While the iPhone 18 Pro can increase in price, the iPhone 18, which will be the ‘cheap’ entry to Apple’s new family, could maintain the 959 euros starting price in the model with 256 GB of RAM.

Another story will be more ambitious options with 512 GB, but an iPhone 18 for more than 1,000 euros would be difficult to justify taking into account the current competition. But, again, it is too early to talk about the price of the iPhone 18 and, in any case, we will be here to update this article with the news that is revealed about these iPhone 18.

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