Intro
Apple has just wrapped up Surprise and Shine, the big fall announcement event. We got new iPhones, Apple Watches, and (non-pro) AirPods. And yes, the rumors were finally true: one of the new iPhones is a folding one. AirPods have some new tricks, the new Apple Watch has some very nice improvements, and even the normal iPhones are worth checking out. Let’s get into it.
iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo
All of the iPhones announced today share a few features, so we’ll start there.
At the heart of each new iPhone is the A20 Pro, a system on a chip (SoC) that’s better than anything Apple has ever made. So said the presenters, anyway. This is Apple’s first 2NM chip, which basically means they shrunk the parts so they can fit more into the same amount of space, all while using less power and producing less heat. The A20 Pro comes with four efficiency cores and two cores meant to do serious work, which is the same distribution as last year (six cores, with four efficiency and two powerful ones). The big change here is that the two workhorse cores, called super cores, are beefed up considerably. Apple claims they have desktop performance. The graphics chip has also been upgraded, with seven cores and faster access to the phone’s RAM; Apple says graphics run up to 40% faster than the A19 Pro.
It’s 2026, so we can’t not talk about AI, specifically large language models. The A20 Pro has neural accelerators to boost AI performance for the CPU and GPU cores, but the star of the show is the neural engine. Or rather, the engines, plural. Each A20 Pro has two of them, not just one, giving the chip 32 neural cores to work with. Combined with the A20’s increased access to memory, Apple said that this is the best chip for mobile AI tasks.
All of this performance is going to produce a lot of heat, so Apple took the vapor chamber from iPhone 17 Pro and made some improvements. The way the chip’s components transfer heat to the chamber is more efficient now, the materials have been updated, and the design has been altered. The new design has three times the space and is made from a combination of titanium and a special copper alloy. It transfers 40% more heat than the system on iPhone 17 Pro, letting the phone do more work for longer before it has to slow itself down to keep from overheating.
Remember Siri AI, a version of Siri that is aware of your locations, messages, and other details? It was announced back in June. If you don’t follow Apple news as obsessively as I do, the short version is that Siri is far more aware and capable than before. You can ask for “that recipe Jake sent me a couple months ago”, you can issue more natural commands, and you can get much more accurate results with dictation. All of this is kept in a new Siri app, so you can check on past conversations. Oh, and Siri’s voice is better than ever.
Anyway, Siri AI is fully supported by all the new phones, and Apple spent some time reminding us of what all is going to be possible. There are some extra goodies for Apple Watch Series 12 owners who have Siri AI devices, too, but we’ll get to those later.
iPhone 18 Pro
As has become customary, Apple is offering this year’s pro phones
in standard and Max variants. The Max has the most battery life of any iPhone ever, while the smaller phone has battery life equivalent to what iPhone 17 Pro Max offers. This seems to be the main difference; both have the same chip, camera, design, and everything else, so I’ll just talk about iPhone 18 Pro from here on out. Everything also applies to iPhone 18 Pro Max unless I say otherwise.
The stand-out feature of the camera system this year is variable aperture. Specially-designed, tiny pieces in the camera can move to let in more or less light, which also changes the field depth. The aperture widens in low light, closes some in bright light, and can be manually adjusted to change the feel of a picture. I guess professional photographers will be jumping for joy.
The A20 Pro’s AI capabilities also allow Apple to add more camera enhancements, some of which we knew about already from the iOS 27 announcement at WWDC back in June. What is unique to iPhone 18 Pro, though, is a new set of manual camera controls, called pro controls. These let you change the aperture, white balance, and other settings whose purpose I can only guess at. You can even use AI to keep video locked on a subject. But you’re not here for camera details, so let’s get on with it.
There are a few other, smaller changes compared to iPhone 17 Pro. The new phone can charge faster when plugged in (as opposed to using wireless charging). The Dynamic Island is also smaller and now supports up to three live activities at once.
Surprisingly, that’s about it. The battery life improvements are great, the A20 Pro sounds like an impressive chip, and the colors have changed (silver, black, glacier, and burgundy). Aside from that, faster wired charging, and the camera improvements, everything seems to be the same. Apple didn’t mention the screen, body material, any new or changed buttons, speakers, wifi performance, or anything else. It seems iPhone 18 Pro is, physically, the same as iPhone 17 Pro, just with a new chip and camera.
You can pre-order iPhone 18 Pro starting September 12, and it will start shipping on September 18. The Pro starts at $1,199, $1,299 for the Pro Max. This gives you 256GB of storage, just like last year. You can upgrade all the way up to 2TB of storage, the first time any iPhone has offered such a large internal drive. Just know that it won’t be cheap. You can also check out the new array of colors for Apple’s official cases, cross-body straps, and (new this year) wrist straps.
iPhone Duo
Apple’s first entry into the world of foldable phones is called iPhone Duo.
It has a 5.4-inch outer display and unfolds to show a 7.6-inch screen. Both screens have full Apple Pencil support, and the outer screen has Ceramic Shield 2. The frame is high-grade titanium, colored either white or night sky. The side button acts how you expect, but also sports a Touch ID sensor–the phone lacks Face ID. You can add multiple fingers, so that no matter how you happen to hold the phone, the finger resting on the button can unlock it. You can also unlock your phone with your watch. Also, despite being foldable, iPhone Duo has an IP68 rating. That means dust and water will have a hard time getting into it, but you shouldn’t take it swimming.
Each half of iPhone Duo is very, very thin–after all, the whole package has to be comfortably thin when folded. Apple says that each half is the thinnest iPhone ever produced, which suggests that the halves are thinner than an iPhone Air. Despite this, iPhone Duo has good battery life (30 hours of video playback on the internal screen, 44 when using the outer one) and supports fast wired charging. It also, as mentioned earlier, has the same A20 Pro chip and vapor chamber cooling as iPhone 18 Pro. It even has Apple’s custom cellular modem, the C2, giving it millimeter wave 5G support (U.S. only for now) and faster and more efficient cellular communications overall.
The camera situation is interesting. iPhone Duo sports the same camera system as iPhone 18 Pro, though without the variable aperture feature. When unfolded, an under-screen selfie camera is available, while a more capable camera lives just above the outer screen. This enables some neat options, such as letting both the photographer and the subject see the camera feed (one person on the inner screen, the other on the outer one) before a picture is taken. If you are taking pictures of children, iOS lets you enable animations designed to draw attention and get the kids’ eyes looking toward the lens. When making FaceTime calls, someone can use the inner camera and screen, while someone else can use the outer set, letting two people use the same phone but with different camera feeds. Thanks to its design, you can fold iPhone Duo in such a way that the camera stays pointed where you want without being held. You can let iOS monitor the feed, and take the picture when it thinks you’re ready.
As to the screen, Apple spent a lot of time talking up the engineering that went into minimizing the crease, getting the under-finger feel right, and more. A special coating makes the screen feel closer to glass than the plasticky feel some folding phones have, while also cutting glare and reflections. Nano-scale layers of lenses help the screen stay bright and readable, while reducing the wear of all the folding and unfolding it will undergo during its life.
That’s not all the engineering that went into iPhone Duo, either. The frame is not only made of titanium, but reinforced at key points with custom materials for added strength. The hinge is weighted, balanced, and carefully structured to fully support the screen at every point of the folding process. You can set the two halves at any angle (up to 180 degrees) and they will stay there. Use it like a small iPad, set one screen at an angle like a laptop while you type on the other one, or make a tent shape, using the phone like a stand while you watch the outer display. The phone will react how you expect, even going so far as to constantly balance the audio coming from its dual speakers based on how the two halves are configured.
iOS 27 has been designed to take full advantage of this phone’s unique abilities. You can do a lot of the multi-tasking tricks that you can on iPad, such as opening two apps side by side, quickly moving between on-screen apps, showing a list of emails and an open message at once, and more. You can see two home screen pages at once, and your dock is now vertical. Video controls now appear on the side of the screen, rather than the bottom, so videos have more space and so your thumb can reach the controls. The status bar is smaller and now stays in a corner, again, to give apps more room. Apps have new APIs available, letting them, for example, show a list of options on one half of the screen and a preview of the selected option on the other half. iOS will even detect how the phone is being used and move content toward the edge, so it is easier to tap or see.
I realize that much of this section has been about cameras, on-screen layouts, and other things that a lot of you reading this won’t care about. That’s because that was the focus of the presentation. For now, iPhone Duo feels like a device that will be amazing for plenty of sighted users, but will have less appeal to those of us who use VoiceOver. Low vision folks may love the larger screen, but not being such a person myself, I can’t really comment on that. Personally, I’m going to see how things go with this phone, play with one in person once my local stores have some, and not worry about getting my own just yet. I don’t know if there will be enough advantage for VoiceOver to justify the cost. Of course, it would be nice to have Touch ID again.
iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 for the 256GB model. As with iPhone 18 Pro, you can increase this all the way to 2TB. Preorders open on October 16, with deliveries and in-store availability starting on October 23.
AirPods 5
Today brought us a new AirPods model: AirPods 5.
Like the previous generation, they come in two variants, one more expensive than the other. With AirPods 4, the cheaper model lacked active noise cancelation and wireless charging. That’s not the case anymore
With this new generation, both variants have ANC. The more expensive AirPods add volume adjustment on the stem, just like AirPods Pro, and a case that supports wireless charging. As we’ve come to expect, the case can handle MagSafe, Qi, and Apple Watch chargers. The premium version also have a five-hour battery life, which is an hour more than what the less expensive ones offer. This is measured with ANC enabled.
Both versions of AirPods 5 are, Apple claims, designed to feel and sound better while lasting longer. ANC is 50% more effective than AirPods 4, while transparency sounds more natural. Audio sounds more detailed and rich, and the earbuds can shrug off more sweat and rain than before. They will also work better in even more ear shapes–so Apple says, anyway. No, they are still not available in any color other than white.
The less expensive AirPods cost $129, which is what the non-noise-canceling AirPods 4 cost, and this generation includes ANC. That’s a good deal, but for just $20 more, you can get on-stem volume controls and a case that can charge wirelessly. That’s $149, which is $30 less expensive than the high-end AirPods 4. Apple isn’t known for lowering prices, so this is a very pleasant surprise. You can pre-order starting today (September 9). Deliveries will begin arriving September 18, which is also when stores will start offering the new AirPods.
Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4
The Apple Watch got some nice enhancements this time around. They all apply equally to the Series 12 and Ultra 4, so I will just talk about the new features here. Everything is true of both models, neither of which seems to have changed, physically, from its predecessor.
The first improvement is to the heart sensors. Apple Watch has always used lights to measure your pulse, and that hasn’t changed. The LEDs in these new models are different, though. Skin contact is better, the LEDs have been arranged in a ring pattern, and the color of the light has gone from red to green. Add in the new electrical sensors for ECG readings, and Apple Watch has never had a more accurate measure of your heart rate.
Almost more exciting is how often Apple Watch now takes heart measurements: every five seconds. This is up to sixty times more often than previous Apple Watches did. Heart rate variability (HRV) is now measured every five minutes, which is a 24 times increase. HRV is an indicator of stress and cardiovascular health, so the more (and more accurate) the readings, the better.
This generation of watch has better step length tracking as well, meaning that indoor walks and runs will be measured more accurately than before. Apple also claims that this makes Apple Watch the most accurate step tracker of all the modern wearables. They are therefore adding a step count complication, at long last.
What will watchOS do with all this data? Apart from your heart rate complication actually showing your current pulse, Apple has made a series of health data improvements. A readiness score suggests whether you should make today a recovery-focused day or a day during which you can push more.
On iPhone, your heart and activity data feed a new Longevity feature. You can see how you are doing over time, how your metrics compare to the average person at your age, and what you could do to improve things. To make this feature more accurate, you can take VO2 max, flexibility, movement, and other tests, all done using your iPhone’s cameras and live coaching from the app. You can also purchase bloodwork from Quest for $119, directly through the Health app (U.S. only, for now). The results will inform your health insights and recommendations. You can also connect your existing health records, as has been possible for some time.
It’s not all about health, though. Audio Intelligence is a set of features centered around the microphones in the watch and Siri AI’s increased abilities. All of these features are opt-in, meaning they are not enabled by default.
Sound Recognition has been on iPhones for years, but now comes to Apple Watch. People who are deaf or hard of hearing can be alerted to sirens, alarms, doorbells, and other sounds. This works even without iPhone nearby.
Live Rewind: double press the digital crown and you get a transcript of the last fifteen seconds of conversation. You can read it, or choose to send it to Siri for further use. During the presentation, they showed a server listing food options, then an Apple Watch user bringing up the list as a transcript. It’s not clear if you have to activate this feature each time you want the watch to start paying attention, or if it is always available.
Siri Recap is a feature you turn on when you want it, such as during a business meeting or an important conversation. Once the event is over, you turn Recap off again. Siri will generate a title and key points from what it heard, letting you review what was said and jog your memory. I assume this also adds to Siri AI’s context, letting you ask questions about what was said in the meeting last week, for instance.
Shazam for song detection is nothing new, but it is now automatic (once you turn the feature on). You can always know what song is playing near you, without having to ask Siri to do anything.
Apple promised that all of these features run locally or, when they don’t, are end-to-end encrypted and have extra security built in. No speakers are ever identified or tagged, no audio is saved, nothing is used for training AI. In fact, audio processed by Apple Watch can’t leave the system because of how the S11 SoC is designed. Apple has a whole privacy paper about Audio Intelligence if you want to read more.
Speaking of the S11 system, let’s go over what we know, which isn’t much. We know it has something called an Audio Exclave, which is where audio from the watch’s microphones is saved and processed. Audio can’t leave this isolated part of the system, which is part of how Apple guarantees that Audio Intelligence puts privacy first. The S11 also supports the greatly increased health sensor readings without impacting battery life. Beyond that, Apple made no claims about speed increases, wireless changes or anything else.
In a bit of a surprise move, Apple has kept prices the same. The Series 12 starts as $399 for the aluminum casing, while the Ultra starts at $799. Preorders are open today (September 9) and, as with most of what we’ve talked about here, deliveries and in-store availability start on September 18.
The new colors and materials are:
- aluminum, now with Ceramic Shield 2 glass: black, space gray, light gold, and dark bronze
- ceramic: pearl white and night blue
- titanium (Series 12): radiant gold and natural
- titanium (Apple Watch Ultra 4): black and natural
That’s All For Now
Rumors continue to swirl that Apple has more to show us, so there might be press releases or another event later this year. For now, though, we’ve covered all the new shinies–iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone Duo, Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, and AirPods 5. Plus, version 27 of all of Apple’s operating systems comes out on September 14, at which time we will finally get a look at this much-improved Siri that all these new devices were built to support.
What caught your metaphorical eye, if anything? Personally, I pre-ordered a Series 12 before I was halfway done writing this article. It’ll be a big upgrade over my SE 3, and since most of what I use my Apple Watch for is health-related, I want all the data I can get. I might see about AirPods 5 if a good sale comes along, but I’ll wait for the reviews. I like the idea of a folding phone, and I definitely want to play with one in person, but I have no desire to own one. I’m also not planning to get an iPhone 18 Pro, though if Siri AI and upcoming Apple Intelligence features turn out to be as amazing as Apple insists they are, well, we’ll see. What do you think? Discuss your excitement, bitter disappointment, or indifference in the comments!
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