Breaking Update: Here’s a clear explanation of the latest developments related to Breaking News:Will the iPhone 18 Pro look the same as the iPhone 17 Pro?– What Just Happened and why it matters right now.
The iPhone 18 Pro is expected to deliver many improvements, but not change its appearance.
A leaker with only a mixed track record is doubling down on the rumor that the iPhone 18 Pro is not getting a major redesign, but now says it’s because the iPhone 17 Pro was so successful.
Back in December 2025, leaker “Fixed Focus Digital” said that the iPhone 18 Pro wouldn’t see visible changes “as large as everyone thought.” Now he or she is back on Chinese social media site Weibo to say exactly the same thing, but with one qualification.
In translation, the leaker describes the iPhone 17 has having been enough of a hit for Apple to be celebrating with champagne. Then Fixed Focus Detail that the iPhone 18 series will not change much.
He or she does then go on to say that the A20 and A20 Pro processors expected to be in the iPhone 18 range will be significant. Or at least that they will be the most significant part of the update.
That may well be true, although Apple prefers to talk up changes to cameras a little more than processors. It’s also possible that there will be minimal change to the design of the iPhone 18 Pro, despite other rumors.
If the claims are not a misreading of machine translation, the reasoning about the iPhone 18 Pro’s external appearance is nonsense. By the time Apple knew that the iPhone 17 range was an enormous success, the iPhone 18 range will have been long designed.
It’s even likely that the iPhone 19 and iPhone 20 ranges are well under way.
But it might well be that the success of the iPhone 17 Pro could prompt Apple to move some of its features to other models sooner than planned. So conceivably more models will get, for instance, vapor chamber cooling.
The claim that it is only the chipset that will be of note in the new iPhone 18 Pro does, though, back up recent rumors listing specifications of the device.
Other leaks from sources with sporadic accuracy, claim that the iPhone 18 Pro will gain under-display Face ID. Others say that the range will drop the current model’s two-tone colors.
At present, it’s expected that Apple will split its 2026 iPhone launch. The iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max and possibly the iPhone Fold will launch in September, with the rest of the range following in Spring 2027.