Update: Pakistan pricing is no longer unofficial. Mercantile, an Apple-authorized distributor in Pakistan, announced a starting price of Rs 605,000 for the iPhone 18 Pro Max after the article was first published. The distributor said the official units are PTA approved and sold through its preferred retail, telecom and banking partners.
Apple launched the iPhone 18 Pro Max in the United States at $1,299 for 256GB. Pakistan was not named in Apple's initial September 18 or September 25 availability lists, but authorized distribution followed in Pakistan later in the month.
Official starting prices in Pakistan
| Model | Pakistan starting price | US starting price |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone 18 Pro | Rs 565,000 | $1,199 |
| iPhone 18 Pro Max | Rs 605,000 | $1,299 |
The Pakistan prices were published in a Mercantile announcement carried as branded content by Dawn. It says the official devices are PTA approved and advertises a two-year warranty plus a protection plan whose stated eligible benefits include one repair for front-screen damage, back-glass damage or liquid damage.
Mercantile's separate product page says Apple products bought through the distributor come with 12 months of Apple official warranty. Because the public materials describe different warranty periods, buyers should obtain written confirmation of what is covered in the first and second years and check the protection plan's activation and eligibility terms.
Why a dollar conversion is not the Pakistan retail price
The September 9 exchange-rate bulletin reported a dollar conversion rate of Rs 277.3455. At that rate, $1,299 converts to about Rs 360,272. The official Pakistan starting price is about Rs 244,728 higher than that arithmetic conversion.
That difference should not be labelled as a PTA tax figure. The distributor's announcement does not publish an itemized breakdown separating device-registration taxes, import costs, distribution costs, warranty coverage and retail margin. Apple also notes that its US list prices do not include applicable sales taxes. The two headline prices are therefore not like-for-like totals.
For an individually imported phone, the official registration process is separate. Under the Federal Board of Revenue's DIRBS procedure, a local applicant submits a CNIC and the device IMEI, receives a payment slip ID for the assessed duties and taxes, and the device is white-listed after payment is confirmed. The exact assessment should come from that official process; the earlier article's estimated Rs 195,000 to Rs 250,000 range is not retained as a current official figure.
What the iPhone 18 Pro Max adds
According to Apple's launch announcement, the phone uses the A20 Pro chip, introduces a variable-aperture 48-megapixel main camera and offers 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB storage options. Apple rates the Pro Max for up to 45 hours of video playback. These are manufacturer claims and actual battery life varies with use, settings and network conditions.
The launch was also John Ternus's first iPhone keynote after becoming Apple chief executive on September 1, with Tim Cook moving to executive chairman. Apple introduced the foldable iPhone Duo at the same event.
What Pakistani buyers should compare
An official Pakistan set and an individually imported set carry different cost and support considerations. The official distributor describes its Pakistan units as PTA approved, with physical SIM and eSIM support and local warranty coverage. Apple's US technical page describes US iPhone 18 Pro models as eSIM-only, showing why buyers should verify the exact regional model rather than assume every imported unit has the same SIM configuration.
Before comparing offers, buyers need the complete payable price, PTA registration status, storage capacity, regional model, SIM configuration, seller identity and written warranty terms. A low sticker price for an unregistered imported phone is not directly comparable with the Rs 605,000 starting price for an official PTA-approved device.
