iPhone 18 Pro's main camera could have a variable aperture lens

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that the iPhone 18 Pro's main camera will come with a variable aperture lens.

His industry survey suggests that Largan Precision will be the main supplier of these variable aperture lenses, while Sunny Optical will be the second. Incidentally, Sunny Optical is also an existing "tier one" supplier of camera lenses for the iPhone and iPad.

So what benefits does variable aperture bring to the table compared to the fixed f/1.78 aperture of recent iPhone cameras? Well, it allows you to control the amount of light reaching the camera sensor which comes in handy in different lighting conditions. In addition, you have better depth of field control.

It is important to note that variable aperture lenses are not new in the world of smartphone photography. Samsung introduced variable aperture lenses in the Galaxy S9 series back in 2018. This was followed by the Oppo R17 Pro in the same year.

Since then, variable aperture lenses have improved significantly on smartphone cameras. While the Galaxy S9 and S9+ allow the user to switch between f/1.5 and f/2.4 apertures, recent Android flagship phones such as the Xiaomi 14 Ultra boast a 50MP main camera with f/1.63 to f/4.0 "step-less" variable aperture. 

Though Apple is not the first, it would be interesting to see what new tricks the iPhone maker can bring to the table with the iPhone 18 Pro in 2026.

Source: Ming-Chi Kuo via 9to5Mac

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