I’ve spent this past week wandering the halls of IFA in Berlin, half looking at robot vacuums and half refreshing Apple rumour sites on my phone, because as of Wednesday the tech world’s attention swings squarely back to Cupertino.
Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro price in Ireland gets confirmed this Wednesday, 9 September, when the company holds its Surprise and shine event at 10am Pacific, which lands at 6pm Irish time. You’ll be able to watch it on Apple’s events page, on YouTube or through the Apple TV app, and it’s also the first keynote for new chief executive John Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook on 1 September. On the bill are the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max, and, if the rumour mill has it right, Apple’s first ever folding phone.
The short version is that whichever of those you’re eyeing, you’ll pay more for it than you did last year, and if you were hoping for a straightforward, reasonably priced iPhone 18, that’s not happening until spring 2027. I’ll get into the numbers below, and why nearly every foldable phone launched this year suddenly looks like it could double as a travel document.
What’s actually launching this Wednesday, and what isn’t
Apple is breaking from its usual habit of launching the entire iPhone range in one go. This September brings the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max and the foldable model only. The standard iPhone 18, along with a new iPhone 18e and a second generation iPhone Air, isn’t expected until spring 2027. So if you were picturing a nice, mid range iPhone 18 sitting on shelves next week, that phone simply won’t exist yet. This year, if you want a new iPhone, you’re choosing from the premium end only.
How much more the iPhone 18 Pro will cost in Ireland
Expect somewhere between an extra €100 and an extra €300 on top of what the iPhone 17 Pro costs, depending on the storage tier and which analyst’s spreadsheet you trust most. Right now, the iPhone 17 Pro starts at €1,339 for the 256GB model, with the Pro Max starting from €1,489. Supply chain analysts have been fairly consistent that the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max will see the steepest Pro pricing jump in years, largely down to the cost of the new 2 nanometre A20 Pro chip and a genuine spike in memory prices.
Some, like Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, have pointed to a more modest bump nearer the smaller end of that range, while others reckon the jump could land closer to €250 or €300 once storage upgrades are factored in. None of it is locked in until Apple actually says the numbers out loud on Wednesday, but the direction of travel is not in question.
Apple’s first foldable iPhone, and the price tag to match
If the rumours hold, Apple’s foldable will start above €2,000 in Ireland, and could climb a good deal higher on the biggest storage option. Did I already get hands on?
It’s widely expected to be called the iPhone Ultra, though a few reports are still holding out for iPhone Fold, and it’s shaping up as a book style device with a cover screen around 5.5 inches and an inner display somewhere between 7.6 and 7.8 inches that opens out into something closer to a small tablet.
Touch ID rather than Face ID has been a consistent thread in the leaks, and there’s a real chance Apple drops the telephoto lens entirely to keep the hinge as thin as possible. US estimates for the starting price have ranged from around $2,000 right up past $2,500, with the top storage configuration tipped to clear $3,000. For an Irish comparison point, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, the closest thing on the market today, launched here at €2,259, and I went through the full lineup in our look at Samsung’s Fold8 launch. Apple has form for pricing above Samsung’s top foldable rather than matching it, so a similar or higher Irish starting price seems the safer bet, though again, nothing is official until Wednesday evening.
Why every new foldable suddenly looks like a passport?
Here’s the bit I find genuinely interesting rather than just expensive. Samsung reshaped its entire Fold line back in July, swapping the old tall, narrow shape for something shorter and wider that looks a lot like a passport when it’s closed. Xiaomi showed off its own version of the same idea at IFA here in Berlin just days before Apple’s event, and Huawei has already been selling something similar in China.
The logic is simple enough. A tall, narrow cover screen paired with a square inner display means video gets letterboxed no matter which screen you’re using, and a shorter, wider phone fixes that without needing a bigger hinge. If Apple’s foldable lands in the same shorter, wider shape as the leaks suggest, that puts the three biggest phone makers on the planet behind the exact same idea within a matter of months. I think passport-style foldable is going to become the term people reach for this generation, rather than the older book-style label, simply because it describes what you’re actually holding when the thing is shut.
What it means if you’re upgrading in Ireland this year
If you’re due an upgrade this September, you’re choosing between a pricier iPhone 18 Pro or Pro Max, or a first generation foldable that will likely cost more than any iPhone Apple has ever sold here. If you were specifically waiting on a standard iPhone 18, you’re waiting until spring 2027 regardless of what happens on Wednesday. Being totally transparent, none of the euro figures above are confirmed until Apple says them on stage, but given how consistent the leaks have been over the past few months, I wouldn’t bank on a pleasant surprise on the wallet front. I’ll have the confirmed Irish pricing and full breakdown up as soon as the keynote wraps.
