The ‘vanilla’ iPhone 18 has long been rumored to miss its traditional September launch window this year. Instead it is said to arrive alongside the iPhone 18e next spring, with only the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and iPhone Fold (or is that the iPhone Ultra?) to be unveiled at Apple’s annual event in September.
Now, a leaker from China claims that the iPhone 18 will not only launch alongside the iPhone 18e, but it will be more similar to the affordable model than you might expect. This is because Apple is reportedly going to make some cost cuts on the iPhone 18, we assume due to rapidly rising chip prices.
iPhone 17
The iPhone 18 will apparently have a downgraded manufacturing process for its chipset, downgraded chip specifications, and downgraded memory (which could mean lower memory amounts or slower types of memory). Thus, the ‘Vanilla’ model will be closer to the ‘E’ affordable iPhone in specifications than ever before.
Unfortunately, the source of this rumor hasn’t detailed what the downgrade is compared to – but it’s apparently either the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, or the iPhone 17. In the case of the former, this is less of an issue, but if these are downgrades compared to the iPhone 17, that device certainly looks like an even better deal now than it did when it launched – provided, of course, this rumor is accurate.
apple iphone 17
Source (in Chinese)
