iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders enter their second full day

Apple's iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are now in their second full day of pre-orders after ordering opened September 12. The phones are scheduled to reach customers and retail stores on September 18. Apple's newest Pro models sit alongside the much more experimental iPhone Duo foldable but remain the company's conventional flagship option.

The launch is important for mobile gaming because Apple's Pro chips increasingly compete with dedicated handheld hardware in raw processing capability, while improved thermal design determines how long that performance can be sustained. Modern games can push a phone at maximum load for extended periods, making heat management just as important as benchmark peaks. The September 18 release also gives developers a fresh high-end performance target for the coming year.

Although foldables are attracting much of the publicity, conventional slab phones will still account for vastly more premium-device volume, making the 18 Pro line the more commercially important platform for most app and game developers.