iPhone 18 Pro's f/1.48 Main Camera Lens May Be Its Most Popular Upgrade

The report said the iPhone 18 Pro includes several camera upgrades, with variable aperture as the tentpole addition. But it pointed to The Verge’s Antonio G. Di Benedetto, who called the f/1.48 maximum aperture the real star feature because people love bokeh. Di Benedetto wrote that last year’s Pro iPhones had an f/1.7 aperture. He said the shift to f/1.48 should help in low light and produce a slightly shallower depth of field. The difference in bokeh from f/1.7 will probably not be huge, he wrote, likely just a smidge shallower, but that is the look people often like.

Di Benedetto added that he usually shoots on full-frame cameras and often uses a 50mm lens with an f/1.2 maximum aperture. That fast lens and its shallow depth of field create a unique look that is easy to overuse, he wrote, but people often swoon when he takes their portrait with it because the blurry, dreamy blur isolates them from the background. The iPhone 18 Pro’s f/1.48 obviously will not compare to an f/1.2 on full-frame, he said, but that is the look people often want to emulate, and it is why Portrait Modes on smartphones came into being.

The 9to5Mac article’s author said he has no photography training beyond one Today at Apple class he took years ago, but he loves taking photos with his iPhone. Many of the iPhone 18 Pro’s manual Pro controls intimidate him, and he does not expect to use them. Even the variable aperture feature feels a bit over his head, he wrote, though he is glad it can work automatically.

He wrote that most iPhone 18 Pro buyers will likely never touch the custom manual controls. If their everyday photos offer more natural, dreamy bokeh, even just a little, then the iPhone 18 Pro camera could be beloved for that reason alone.

The report also noted that the iPhone Duo foldable, while impressive, lacks a telephoto camera and misses the main camera improvements coming to the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max.