18th September 2026 – (Hong Kong) Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro Max went on sale across Hong Kong today, drawing overnight queues at the Canton Road flagship in Tsim Sha Tsui and brisk first-wave buyback premiums at Mong Kok’s Sin Tat Plaza, where the deep burgundy 256GB model led the early trade.
Outside the Canton Road store, pre-order customers were already lined up before opening, with mainland and overseas collectors joining local fans for the first handsets. Apple Watch Series 12 and AirPods 5 also went on sale, while the foldable iPhone Duo is not due until October – a gap several buyers said they were already watching.
Among those near the front was Perry, who had booked two 512GB Pro Max units for personal use. Still on an iPhone 17 Pro Max, he said the camera upgrades and finer imaging were why he stayed on the annual upgrade treadmill. Pre-order day meant constant refreshing of the app, but he completed his order within two minutes of the window opening. Higher sticker prices did not put him off, he added, so long as the phone fitted daily needs, and years of photos and files locked inside Apple’s Mac and iPad cloud made switching costly. He also plans to look at the Duo when it arrives, attracted by crease control and dual-screen interaction after years of carrying two phones.
Mr Chan, first in line for collection after arriving at midnight, was picking up a blue 512GB model for his wife. He has kept an older phone for nearly three years; she is on the previous generation. Beyond her preference for blue, he cited adjustable-aperture shooting and stronger portrait tools for photographing their children. Global rises in materials and components made the price climb unsurprising, he said, and while he remains cautious about new on-device artificial intelligence features, the family’s photos and documents already sit deep in Apple’s cloud – stickiness that keeps the household on the brand.
Thomas, a veteran of past launch-day queues, sat this Pro drop out. He argued the camera gains, while real, were not dramatic enough, and is saving for the Duo’s dual displays and folding craft. Mainland visitor Mr Li, in Hong Kong with his mother, bought two Pro Max handsets – one for himself and one for her.
At the shop door, grey-market buyers were already flashing cash. Offers cited for a red Pro Max 256GB ran about HK$2,000 above the HK$11,499 retail price, while 512GB drew roughly HK$2,600 over the HK$13,299 list. Red iPhone 18 Pro units were changing hands at a thinner premium of about HK$500 to HK$800.
Across the harbour in Mong Kok, Sin Tat Plaza’s first-wave buyback board put the hottest ticket on the burgundy – or deep red – Pro Max 256GB at HK$13,900, a mark-up of HK$2,401 on Apple’s retail price. Traders treated that colour-and-capacity mix as the morning’s clearest flip, echoing the same burgundy craze that has shadowed the launch online. Prices move by the hour on opening day, but the early picture was consistent: overnight queues for those keeping the phones, and four-figure premiums for those selling them on before lunch.