Two camera features that Samsung and Xiaomi walked away from are back on the iPhone. The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max have a variable aperture on the 48MP Fusion Main camera, and the iPhone Duo hides its FaceTime camera under the 7.6-inch inner display.
Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro features four aperture settings from f/1.48 to f/4.0, and the iPhone Duo gets an under-display FaceTime camera for 1080p video. Pre-orders for the iPhone Duo open on October 16, with deliveries starting October 23. Both features have already run their course on Android phones, and that history shows what Apple has to get right.
Samsung and Xiaomi Both Dropped Variable Aperture After a Short Run
Samsung introduced a two-step aperture on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ in 2018, switching between f/1.5 and f/2.4. It carried over to the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10, then disappeared with the Galaxy S20 in 2020.
Xiaomi’s version came later, with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra running its main camera aperture from f/1.63 to f/4.0 in 2024 before the Xiaomi 15 Ultra went back to a fixed f/1.63 in 2025. Reviews of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra noted the loss, but pointed to its new 200MP periscope telephoto camera as the upgrade that made up for it.
Neither company published a clear reason, so the explanations come from reviewers and industry reporting. Cost and complexity come up most. A moving blade assembly adds thickness to an already crowded camera module, and it costs more to produce than a fixed aperture. Many reviewers also treated the Galaxy S9’s two-step aperture as a gimmick, since the change in depth of field on a phone sensor is small.
The mechanical risk is still there on the iPhone 18 Pro. The iPhone 18 Pro teardown found six blades that are each about as thin as a human hair, and the realistic repair for a failed aperture is a new camera module. Earlier this year, Samsung was reportedly asking camera module suppliers for new variable aperture samples, with the Galaxy S27 series as the likely target.
Samsung Gave Up on Under-Display Cameras After Four Galaxy Z Fold Generations
ZTE shipped the first commercial phone with an under-display selfie camera, the Axon 20 5G, in September 2020, and reviewers found the photos poor. Samsung followed with the Galaxy Z Fold 3 in 2021 and kept a 4MP under-display camera through the Galaxy Z Fold 6. The Xiaomi Mix 4 arrived the same year with a 20MP camera behind a panel designed to hide it, and reviewers still rated it below a regular selfie camera.
The display panel sits directly over the lens, which cuts the light reaching the sensor and scatters what does arrive. The result is noisy, soft photos with more flare than a camera in a punch-hole cutout. Samsung dropped the under-display camera on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 in 2025 and returned to a punch-hole on the inner display. A side-by-side test found the Galaxy Z Fold 6 under-display camera much noisier than the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s new camera, which also added portrait mode. Samsung gave no official reason for the change.
Apple Split the Two Features Between the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone Duo
The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max put the variable aperture on the 48MP Fusion Main camera and keep an 18MP Center Stage front camera in a smaller Dynamic Island that relies on a Face ID infrared camera under the display. The iPhone Duo has no aperture options on its 48MP Dual Fusion rear cameras, a gap that shows up in the iPhone Duo vs iPhone 18 Pro comparison, and its inner display hides the FaceTime camera.
Apple’s aperture has four stops, twice what the Galaxy S9 offered. The Camera app adjusts it automatically for light and depth of field, and aperture, shutter speed, and a histogram can be added as manual Pro controls. Apple describes the stops this way.
- f/1.48 is the maximum light setting, with around 50 percent better low-light performance than the previous generation.
- f/1.8 is the default, balancing low light and depth.
- f/2.8 gives more depth, so more detail farther back in the scene is captured.
- f/4.0 gives maximum depth, and works for effects like a starburst from a bright light.
Pro apps are already on board. Final Cut Camera 2.4 lets video shooters pick apertures from f/1.48 to f/4.0, and Blackmagic Camera 3.5 and Moment Pro Camera II have added aperture control too. Launch reviews were enthusiastic about the camera.
The iPhone Duo’s under-display camera supports 1080p video, while the 12MP Center Stage camera on the outer display sits in a standard cutout. Hands-on videos from the September event showed the under-display camera is easier to spot than Apple’s renders suggested, because it does not share the matte finish of the inner display.
Our Take
Apple tends to stay with hardware that other companies drop, and its own history shows how it treats a rough first version. Here’s a short history lesson:
- Portrait mode reached the iPhone 7 Plus in 2016 as a beta, with Apple saying at the time to expect enhancements in future iOS updates.
- Cinematic mode on the iPhone 13 was limited to 1080p at 30 fps, the iPhone 14 raised it to 4K, and Apple still lists Cinematic mode effects on both the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone Duo.
- Face ID arrived on the iPhone X in 2017, and its infrared camera now sits under the display on the iPhone 18 Pro.
Apple does cut features, and 3D Touch is the example, since it debuted on the iPhone 6s in 2015 and was gone from the iPhone 11 lineup in 2019. The camera and sensor features above were kept and refined instead. I expect the variable aperture to follow that path, and I would like to see it reach the Fusion Telephoto camera and come with a cheaper repair path than a full module swap.
The under-display camera has more to prove. Samsung gave up after four generations, so Apple needs sharper video than 1080p and a finish that matches the inner display to make this work.
