A new report says that the next flagship iPhone, iPhone 18 will be released in spring 2026, way sooner than has previously been thought. Could this be right? If so, the iPhone 18 is likely only a matter of weeks away.
Traditionally, Apple releases its iPhones in September — that’s been the case since 2011, with only two exceptions: the iPhone 4s in October 2011 and the iPhone 12 in October 2020, in that case because of the Covid pandemic.
“However, next year we’re expecting the iPhone 18 to launch in the spring – alongside the iPhone 17e – with the iPhone 18 Pro models sticking to the usual September timings,” 9to5Mac reported.
What’s intriguing about this report is that it chimes with multiple rumors in recent months that the regular iPhone (which would be iPhone 18 next) would be on a separate release schedule from the Pro and Pro Max. Or indeed, with a folding iPhone, predicted for 2026 or the next iPhone Air, thought to land in spring 2027.
But previous reports claimed that the regular iPhone would be delayed by six months, not brought forward by that time. In other words, the expectation had been that the iPhone 18 would be held until spring 2027, perhaps released alongside the iPhone 18e affordable phone.
The new intel comes from a report by a Weibo account called Fixed Focus Digital, which says, in machine translation, “After the New Year’s Day, the iPhone 18 series will be tested on the mass production line one after another, and will be put into production before the Spring Festival at the earliest.”
That festival falls in February, which would lead one to suspect that the onsale date would be soon after that, perhaps some time in March.
The iPhone 16e was released at the very end of February 2025, and I believe the 17e could land at around the same time, or early March 2026.
What I hadn’t expected was the iPhone 18 to be launched then, too.
While I’m excited about the iPhone 18 coming earlier, it raises a lot of questions. For a start, would Apple launch a next-generation model, presumably with the next processor on board, six months before it appeared in the iPhone 18 Pro, which is still expected to launch in fall 2026?
And since the iPhone 17 would be expected to drop in price when the iPhone 18 appeared, would that happen in just a few weeks’ time in spring 2026?
Plus, there’s something exciting about a new-gen iPhone. Would Apple want to squander that excitement by launching the iPhone 18 just six months after the iPhone 17?
While I’m not disputing the report’s sincerity, I wonder if it’s actually the iPhone 17e that has been discovered, and that’s what’s coming soon. If so, then that would mean that the iPhone 18 would launch the following spring, that is, in 2027, after the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max and possibly iPhone Fold in fall 2026.
That makes more sense to me as it would mean the iPhone 18 would launch alongside the iPhone 18e in spring 2027 with a version of the processor announced for the iPhone 18 Pro.
