No Base iPhone 18 This September, Per New Leaks
No Base iPhone 18 This September, Per New Leaks
https://the-gadgeteer.com/2026/05/22/no-base-iphone-18-this-september-per-new-leaks/
Publish Date: 2026-05-22 13:07:00
Source Domain: the-gadgeteer.com
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The biggest shift in this cycle isn’t a new color or a thinner chassis. It’s the rumored removal of the entry-level iPhone 18 from the fall slate, with multiple reliable leakers now pointing to a spring 2027 window.
In its place this September, buyers would choose from an iPhone 18 Pro, an iPhone 18 Pro Max, and Apple’s foldable, which most leakers are calling the iPhone Fold (and which some reports also refer to as iPhone Ultra). The base iPhone 18, a new iPhone 18e, and the second-generation iPhone Air are all expected to slip to spring 2027 instead.
For anyone who’s used to walking into a store and grabbing the cheapest current-year iPhone, that option simply wouldn’t exist in September. The cheapest 2026 iPhone you can buy at launch would be the Pro, which sits well above the old base price band.
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What the iPhone 18 Pro’s A20 Pro chip and C2 modem mean for you
The A20 Pro is rumored to be Apple’s first 2nm iPhone chip, which is where most of the battery talk is coming from. Smaller transistors typically mean the same workloads draw less power, so day-to-day screen time should climb even if the battery cell itself doesn’t grow much. The non-Pro A20 process node hasn’t been pinned down yet.
iPhone 18 | AI-Generated Image
The A20 Pro is also expected to ship with 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM standardized across the Pro, Pro Max, and Fold, up from the current ceiling, per a recent investor note from GF Securities analyst Jeff Pu. That matters because Apple Intelligence features have leaned hard on RAM headroom, and the jump to 12GB is part of why more on-device AI tasks should stop punting to the cloud.
The C2 modem is the other piece. It’s Apple’s second-generation in-house cellular silicon, and supply-chain reports say it’s…
