Apple's Base iPhone 18 Faces Potential Price Increase Alongside 2nm Chip Upgrade
Supply chain reports indicate rising memory costs and component shortages could lift retail pricing when the delayed entry model debuts in early 2027.
Apple is preparing to raise the starting price of its base iPhone 18 when the delayed handset arrives early next year, according to supply chain reporting from The Verge (https://www.theverge.com/tech/1025748/apple-iphone-18-rumors-price-hike-battery).
The standard model will reportedly incorporate a larger battery and Apple's new 2-nanometer A20 processor, according to details shared on Weibo by hardware leaker Digital Chat Station and initially spotted by 9to5Mac. However, the base device is not expected to receive the smaller Dynamic Island cutout introduced on the higher-tier iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max lines.
The leaker did not specify an exact dollar figure for the anticipated increase. Any adjustment would extend a broader trend of price revisions across the consumer hardware market. In September, Apple added $100 to the prices of its older handsets, including the iPhone 17 and iPhone 16, while rivals Samsung and Google instituted equivalent $100 increases over the preceding year in response to escalating costs for RAM and related components.
Apple broke from its standard fall launch schedule this September by omitting the base iPhone 18 from its annual hardware event, choosing instead to focus its release window on the premium iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and the foldable iPhone Duo. That decision aligned with earlier disclosures from manufacturing partner Pegatron, whose executives noted during an earnings call that memory and chip constraints were pushing shipping timelines into the first quarter of next year as vendors prioritized higher-margin devices.
The base iPhone 18 is expected to debut in the first quarter of 2027 alongside a second-generation iPhone Air and an entry-level iPhone 18e. Despite the higher prices introduced across Apple's hardware catalog this autumn, the company recently reported record-breaking iPhone sales, positioning the upcoming spring cycle as a critical gauge of whether consumer demand will hold against continued hardware price increases.
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