Brand new? Read this first
Apple's UK on-sale date for the iPhone 18 Pro Max is 18 September 2026, so for its first year it is inside Apple's one-year warranty. That warranty covers manufacturing faults — dead pixels, a battery that will not hold charge, a camera that will not focus — and those are Apple's to fix for free. If that is what yours has, we will tell you so rather than charge you for it. The warranty does not cover accidental damage such as a cracked screen or liquid unless you have AppleCare+, and it excludes damage caused by anyone other than Apple or an Apple Authorised Service Provider, which is worth weighing before any independent repair on a phone this new. Independent parts for a just-released iPhone take time to appear, so call us before posting it and we will tell you honestly whether the part for yours exists yet.
Cracked screen
The iPhone 18 Pro Max has an OLED display, and this is where the trade cuts corners. Plenty of shops fit OLED iPhones with an "incell" LCD panel because it costs a fraction of the price. It works, but blacks look grey, colours wash out, the glass sits thicker, and battery life suffers because an LCD backlight is always lit. We tell you exactly which panel we are quoting for before you agree to anything. Apple pairs the display to the logic board, so we move the original calibration across to the new panel. Skip that step and the screen still works, but True Tone and auto-brightness stop behaving as they should.
Battery replacement
A iPhone 18 Pro Max battery should not need replacing for years. If yours drains unusually fast in its first weeks, that is usually a new phone still restoring apps and indexing photos, or a fault Apple's warranty covers, rather than a worn cell.
Face ID and your screen repair
Face ID on the iPhone 18 Pro Max lives in the sensor array at the top of the phone, not in the display, so a careful screen replacement leaves it working. What breaks it is carelessness: the flex cables carrying those sensors are fragile, and a damaged Face ID part cannot be swapped for a new one because it is paired to the logic board. We check Face ID before we start, so if the drop already broke it you hear that first.
Back glass
Rear damage on the iPhone 18 Pro Max is something we quote only after seeing the phone. It is a new design, and we would rather confirm on the bench how its rear panel comes away than guess from a spec sheet. If the back cracked in its first year, check your AppleCare+ status first — it can make this repair much cheaper through Apple.
Charging faults
Charging faults on the iPhone 18 Pro Max come through the USB-C port, and the port is usually the problem rather than the board. Ports wear with every cable pulled out at an angle, and pocket lint packs into the bottom until the plug can no longer seat. Often a careful clean fixes it; if not, it is a port repair rather than anything more serious. If it charges but more slowly than it used to, try a different charger first: USB-C fast charging depends on the charger and cable as much as the phone.
Liquid damage
Liquid damage on the iPhone 18 Pro Max is corrosion, not just water, and it keeps spreading after the phone feels dry. Its water-resistance rating is a factory figure that weakens with every drop and repair. Apple's warranty does not cover liquid damage on any iPhone. Turn it off, do not charge it, and skip the rice. We strip the phone, clean the board ultrasonically and test each part individually — and if it cannot be saved economically, we say so and put your data first.
Cameras, speakers and buttons
The iPhone 18 Pro Max's 48MP main camera has a physical variable aperture — real blades that move to change how much light gets in, which no earlier iPhone had. That makes it the most mechanically complex iPhone camera so far. Photos that come out consistently too bright or too dark, or a camera that will not focus, should be diagnosed rather than assumed to need a new module, and on a phone this new the diagnosis may send you to Apple instead.
