Apple's base iPhone 18 is expected to arrive early next year, and a new leak suggests buyers will pay more for it than they did for its predecessor. The claim comes from leaker Digital Chat Station, which says the standard model will not escape the RAM price increases affecting Apple. The device was absent from Apple's fall iPhone launch event, but the early-2026 timing matches what previous reports have indicated.
Digital Chat Station also says the iPhone 18 will launch alongside a second-generation iPhone Air and the iPhone 18e. The leaker did not say how large the iPhone 18's price increase might be compared with the prior model.
The wider phone market has already moved upward. All of Apple's older models, including the iPhone 17, rose by $100 in September. Google and Samsung have also raised prices by the same $100 amount over the past year.
Those increases have been driven by shortages of RAM and other components. The dynamic matters for US buyers, who have seen the same upward pressure on handset pricing across Apple, Google and Samsung devices over the past year.
Apple reported record-breaking iPhone sales earlier this week despite the higher prices. That result suggests demand has held up even as the cost of the company's handsets has climbed.
For now, the iPhone 18 details remain unconfirmed by Apple, and Digital Chat Station's claims cover only the existence and timing of the base model, the companion devices and the expectation of a price increase. The leaker offered no figure for how much more the iPhone 18 might cost.
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