The iPhone 18 Pro Max went on sale on 18 September 2026 and starts at €1,599 in Germany for the 256GB model, rising to €3,099 for 2TB. The smaller iPhone 18 Pro starts at €1,449, with its own ladder of €1,699 for 512GB, €2,199 for 1TB and €2,949 for 2TB. Both come in four finishes — burgundy, polar, silver and black — and the Max is the 6.9-inch model, against 6.3 inches for the Pro.
Those are the numbers most people typing the model name on launch day are actually after. The more interesting question is what the extra money buys, and why there is more of it to pay this year.
What Apple Changed
Apple introduced both Pro models at its Surprise and Shine event on 9 September, with German availability following nine days later. The headline changes are the A20 Pro processor, a 48-megapixel Pro Fusion camera system with a variable aperture, a smaller Dynamic Island cutout and longer battery life. The handsets ship on iOS 27 with Ceramic Shield 2 on the front.
The variable aperture is the one worth understanding, because it is the first genuinely optical upgrade the line has had in several generations. Previous iPhone cameras had a fixed opening and simulated shallow depth of field in software. A variable aperture physically changes how much light reaches the sensor, which means depth of field becomes a real optical property of the shot rather than an effect applied afterwards. Whether that matters to you depends entirely on whether you have ever been annoyed by the edges of a Portrait Mode photo.
The smaller Dynamic Island is a smaller change than the marketing suggests but a visible one — it returns screen area at the top of a display that has been interrupted since 2022.
Why It Costs More
The price rise is not really about the phone. TrendForce, the research firm, estimated ahead of the launch that the Pro Max would land between $1,349 and $1,399 in the United States, against $1,199 for last year’s iPhone 17 Pro Max — an increase it put at 10 to 20 per cent.
Its explanation was memory. By TrendForce’s accounting the cost of a 256GB memory chip rose close to 400 per cent year on year, and the total bill of materials for a 256GB Pro model rose around 38 per cent over the same period. The driver is demand from AI datacentre construction, which has been consuming memory production capacity and pushing prices up across the entire electronics industry.
That is worth knowing before you read the increase as Apple testing what the market will bear. Every manufacturer buying the same memory is facing the same bill, and phones with large storage tiers are the most exposed. It also explains the shape of the German price ladder: the jump from 1TB to 2TB on the Pro is €750, which is far more than the raw silicon would have cost two years ago.
Should You Upgrade?
If you are coming from an iPhone 17 Pro Max, the honest answer is probably not. A processor generation and a camera refinement do not usually justify replacing a one-year-old phone, and the price has moved against you.
From an iPhone 15 Pro or older, the case is much stronger — you are collecting three generations of processor, camera and battery improvement at once, and Ceramic Shield 2 on a phone that has spent two years accumulating scratches is a real difference.
The storage decision is where most of the money is won or lost. The gap between 256GB and 2TB on the Max is €1,500, which is more than the entire base phone. Most people do not need 2TB in a device they will replace within three years, and cloud storage is considerably cheaper per gigabyte. Buy the tier you actually fill.
There is one timing consideration. Apple has not announced a standard iPhone 18, an 18e or an Air 2 alongside the Pro models, and reporting points to a spring 2027 window for those. A foldable — the iPhone Duo — is expected in October. If you want a new iPhone but not a Pro, this launch was not aimed at you, and waiting is a real option.
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What Does the iPhone 18 Pro Max Cost and Include?
How much does the iPhone 18 Pro Max cost in Germany?
It starts at €1,599 for the 256GB model and runs to €3,099 for 2TB, according to Apple’s German store. The smaller iPhone 18 Pro starts at €1,449 for 256GB, with €1,699, €2,199 and €2,949 for 512GB, 1TB and 2TB respectively. Both models are sold in burgundy, polar, silver and black.
What is the difference between the iPhone 18 Pro and the Pro Max?
Size is the main one: the Pro Max has a 6.9-inch display and the Pro a 6.3-inch, and the larger body carries a larger battery. Both share the A20 Pro processor, the 48-megapixel Pro Fusion camera with variable aperture, Ceramic Shield 2 and iOS 27, so the Max is not a higher specification so much as a bigger version of the same phone. In Germany it costs €150 more at the 256GB tier.