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Testing by Bilibili channel Homolab found that the 1TB iPhone 18 Pro Max, which uses QLC NAND, suffers major performance drops compared to the 512GB TLC-based iPhone 18 Pro. Once its SLC and secondary TLC caches are exhausted, sustained writes fall to about 79.4 MB/s and can dip as low as 25.6 MB/s, worsening to just 1.1 MB/s once the drive is 60% full.
Apple's official refurbished store is now selling the entry-level 2026 Studio Display with a Tilt-adjustable stand for $1,359, down $240 from its $1,599 list price, though supplies appear limited. The deal arrives alongside other launch-week discounts, including AirPods Pro 3 at $50 off timed to iPhone 18 Pro delivery day, early markdowns on the new Apple Watch Ultra 4 and M6 Mac mini, and a $50 discount on the upcoming 2026 Mac Studio ahead of its release.
Some iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max users are reporting that their phones freeze and reboot when a Face ID scan fails while unlocking app-level protections like Passwords or private Safari tabs. 9to5Mac says it reproduced the issue on a European unit, though the bug doesn't appear to affect every device or trigger from the standard lock screen.
iFixit tore down Apple's new iPhone 18 Pro and awarded it a 7/10 repairability rating, matching the iPhone 17 Pro's score. The teardown found the camera and battery assemblies relatively easy to remove, though the phone's new variable aperture lens—its first in an iPhone—uses tiny rotating blades that iFixit says are nearly impossible to repair individually.
Reports suggest Apple's next major iPhone Pro overhaul, timed to the device's 20th anniversary, will bring more dramatic design changes than the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro lineup. The rumored foldable iPhone Duo is expected to arrive first, but industry chatter points to the following year's Pro model as the more significant leap.
iFixit tore down Apple's new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max to examine the variable aperture camera, which uses six overlapping blades roughly as thin as a human hair. The team called the mechanism a precision engineering feat but warned it leaves almost no margin for error during repairs, likely requiring full module replacement if damaged.
iFixit's teardown of the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max found Apple's first variable aperture camera, using six hair-thin blades that slide with high precision to control light intake. The report also revealed a new chip packaging layout that places the A20 Pro processor beside its memory rather than stacked, separating memory from the chip's heat path, and noted that three of four test units cracked their display frames during battery removal.
Apple's iPhone 18 Pro Max ships with a battery-firmware lock that caps capacity below the 20Wh threshold that triggers international shipping restrictions on single-cell batteries. Once a customer activates the phone for the first time, the lock lifts automatically, restoring the battery to its full rated capacity of roughly 21-22Wh depending on the model. A 'Prepare to Ship' setting can reimpose the cap, limiting charging to 80 percent over 14 days, for anyone sending the device in for repair or resale.
Apple has built a 'Prepare to Ship' firmware feature into the iPhone 18 Pro Max that temporarily caps its battery below the 20Wh transport limit enforced in the US, EU and other regions. Once the device is activated by a customer, the cap lifts and the phone's full 5,391mAh capacity becomes available. The same toggle can be re-enabled manually when shipping a device for repair, trade-in or resale.
iFixit's teardown of the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max exposes the new variable aperture lens, which uses six overlapping blades thinner than a human hair to control light via a magnetic mechanism. The site praises the engineering that fits this system into the same camera footprint as last year's model, but warns the mechanism is essentially impossible to repair if it fails.
iFixIt disassembled four units of the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max and found that the plastic frame behind the display broke on three of them during removal. Since Apple doesn't sell that frame as a standalone part, a cracked one means replacing the entire display module. Separately, YouTuber Zach Nelson's own teardown didn't encounter the same issue and he rated the phone favorably for repairability.
iFixit's teardown of the iPhone 18 Pro examined the new variable aperture system, an under-display Face ID infrared camera, and a larger vapor chamber. During disassembly, a tiny aperture blade popped loose, suggesting that any malfunction in the mechanism would likely force a full replacement of the main camera assembly rather than a simple fix.