Six petals thinner than a human hair make the iPhone 18 Pro's camera nearly unrepairable

Apple has equipped iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max with a variable aperture, a feature mobile photography fans have wanted for a while.

The mechanism helps control depth of field more precisely in portraits and gather more light in dark scenes. The downside of the new feature is that the module is nearly impossible to repair.

iFixit specialists took apart both models and got a look at the new lens with its six overlapping blades. Each blade is roughly as thick as a human hair, and the assembly leaves no room for even the smallest mistake.

The team called the design a feat of precision engineering, but noted that there's no room for error.

According to iFixit, taking apart and correctly reassembling the variable aperture mechanism is theoretically possible, but in practice it's close to impossible. It would require specialized tools, experience with micromechanics, and an understanding of how the glue joints inside the unit behave.

Very few repair enthusiasts on this planet will have the tools, techniques, or knowledge to get this variable aperture mechanism apart in a way that allows it to go back together. The tolerances are tight, the glues are gummy.

If something inside the unit fails, owners will most likely need to swap out the whole camera rather than fix a single part. Replacing that module will cost more than a standard iPhone camera, since the design has grown far more complex.

Apple's smartphone cameras have never been easy to service on your own, but the variable aperture adds fresh points of failure.

Similar mechanisms have shown up in smartphones before – Samsung built a variable aperture into the Galaxy S9 back in 2018. The image quality gains didn't justify the added complexity at the time, and Samsung later dropped the feature. iFixit showed the entire teardown process of the current models in a YouTube video.