Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro includes a new variable aperture feature for the camera, which promises a hardware-based way to determine how much light makes it into the sensor. However, fixing it would be another matter altogether.
The feature, which is common on traditional camera lenses, offers a means to control things like background blur or expose the scene to more light without relying on the software-based ISO settings.
Apple has gone to great lengths in the engineering department to make this feature a reality, as it relies on six wafer-thin blades that are each thinner than a human hair. They re controlled by a tiny rotor. Furthermore, Apple has had to redesign the lens to create this feature.
So it’s no surprise that, should any of this complex engineering go kaput, the chances of fixing it without replacing the entire camera assembly are between slim and none. The word comes from the teardown specialists at iFixit who said fixing the variable aperture mechanism it dubs “a feat of precision engineering” is “about as close as it gets” to impossible.
In a YouTube video debuting the teardown of the iPhone 18 Pro, iFixit explains that the additional hardware complexity means that there’s a greater opportunity for something to go wrong. And, because the likelihood is the need to replace the camera module entirely if something breaks, it could be a more expensive repair than we’ve seen.
Generally speaking, Apple doesn’t get into the nitty gritty of repairing broken or malfunctioning camera modules. If it’s just the rear glass covering the lens then that’s an easy enough fix. Any rear camera damage commands an estimated service cost of $249/£249.
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