The variable aperture lens of the shiny new iPhone 18 Pro goes almost one stop wider than the fixed aperture lens in its predecessor: up from f/1.78 in the iPhone 17 Pro to f/1.48 (a smaller number is wider).
The second approach is Macro mode, which will be automatically enabled when you get extremely close to something. With this engaged, the iPhone selects the wide-angle camera, which can focus at extremely close distances. In this mode, only a few centimetres will be in focus, with everything beyond it increasingly blurred. As you might notice from the example below, you should be prepared to spend a lot of time dusting and cleaning before attempting to photograph anything using this mode! You’ll know the mode is active when you see the yellow flower symbol in the bottom right of the display. You can also achieve a similar result with the standard camera by getting very close to the subject. But if background blur is your goal, there are other ways to achieve the same thing.
For example: The wider and variable aperture lens is only one of the new camera features of the iPhone 18 Pro, so you may still want to upgrade if photography is a key application of your phone.
