We want our products to be simple and intuitive, the words of Apple’s new CEO, John Ternus, as he took the stage for a pivotal keynote that ushers a new chapter for the Apple iPhone, and indeed the broader foldable phone market. Apple, which completed its 50th anniversary earlier this year, has unveiled the new iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max and indeed the perceived star of this year’s lineup, a foldable iPhone Ultra. Also unveiled at the ‘Surprise and Shine’ keynote are the new Apple Watch Series 12, fourth generation Watch Ultra and the AirPods 5.
Ternus is no stranger to the limelight on stage, having introduced key Apple products over the years. This time, as the one steering Apple’s fortunes, Ternus shared his vision for technology evolution, the company’s product portfolio, as well as an immediate product category expansion with the foldable iPhone Duo. Stakes are high for Ternus, succeeding Tim Cook, who stepped aside having overseen Apple’s market cap rise to around $4.65 trillion, and a stock that gained around 2,300% in value during the 15-years of Cook as CEO. When Cook took over in August 2011, Apple’s market capitalisation was approximately $347 billion.
It is expected that these launches mark the start of the company’s most prolific period ever, of new device announcements stretching into the next year, spanning the company’s Mac, iPad and Home portfolios. Missing from the traditional keynote lineup are the standard iPhone 18 models, which are now expected to arrive in early 2027, alongside what is expected to be called an iPhone 18e. Apple’s strategy to separate the consumer-focused iPhone from the more expensive Pro phones, will serve it well in the years to come.
iPhone Duo, and the foldable phone saviour
The iPhone Duo is also the most expensive iPhone ever, with prices starting $1,999 (around ₹1,90,000). Globally, similar passport-style dimensioned foldable phones include the recently launched Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8, prices for which start at $1,900 or ₹1,74,999 in India, and the Xiaomi 18 Fold. Costly components and supply chain volatility have defined phone pricing this year, and Apple is balancing the same challenges. It is expected that Apple’s foldable iPhone will infuse momentum into a stuttering foldable phone market.
The iPhone Duo’s short and wide design compared to book-style foldable phones, will enable app multitasking, much like an iPad. It will also support the Apple Pencil. The passport style dimensions, which make this shorter and wider than the book-style foldable which have been around for longer, give the iPhone Duo key ergonomic advantages. This phone is eSIM only, worldwide.
Since Apple played the waiting game and arrives to the foldable phone party much later than Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, Vivo and others, it draws on advantages of tech evolution over the years—more reliable foldable phone tech, including a magnetic hinge system, and foldable screens that have a less pronounced crease.
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Key specs of the foldable iPhone include a a 5.5-inch OLED cover display, a larger 7.8-inch foldable main Flexible OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, TouchID fingerprint recognition, and dual 48-megapixel wide and ultra-wide cameras (but no telephoto camera in this generation) with a 24-megapixel FaceTime camera. Storage options are 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB.
While Apple refrains from quoting memory specifics, it is expected the iPhone Ultra has 12GB memory, to balance between performance and on-device AI tasks.
Silicon matters and the A20 Pro generation
Apple’s new A20 Pro 2-nanometer architecture chip, powers the foldable iPhone, as well as the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. The silicon continuity extends with Apple’s in-house C2 modem. The A20 Pro focuses on more powerful on-device artificial intelligence (AI) compute, as well as greater power efficiency with a re-architected thermal management system.
iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and a camera leap
Generational transitions for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max mark a significant performance leap, with the new silicon. There is mostly continuity with screen sizes and overall aesthetics, but with larger battery capacities, updated display tech to reduce power consumption and a smaller Dynamic Island cutout that now supports three live activities instead of two.
In India, prices of the iPhone 18 Pro phones sees significant generational inflation, starting ₹1,64,900 and ₹1,79,900 onwards for the iPhone 18 Pro Max.
The camera on the ‘Pro’ phones introduces mechanical variable aperture for the main camera, potentially improving optical depth-of-field control and dynamic range across lighting conditions. This will have a bearing on colour reproduction as well.
From a technology standpoint, mechanical variable aperture is a physical, adjustable iris inside a camera lens that alters the size of the opening to control the amount of light reaching the sensor—unlike fixed apertures that stay the same size of opening.
The overall dimensions as well as thickness remain largely similar, albeit with new colour options including a gorgeous Burgundy, but spec changes mark significant upgrades.
iOS 27 rolls out
With the Release Candidate, or RC as the final test build now available, the final version of iOS 27 rolls out in the coming days. Apple is making a big pitch for Apple Intelligence as a private, yet personal intelligent hub on the iPhone and across all Apple devices. The feature set is dynamic across iPhone, Watch, and AirPods, for instance. There are also new Child Safety features, updates to Mail, and visual improvements.
It will mark the arrival of the new Apple Intelligence suite. This partnership with Google includes two on-device Apple Foundation models, and three server-based models. A versatile AFM 3 Core Advanced on-device model with 20-billion parameters, has a unique a sparse architecture that can activate between 1-4 billion parameters depending on type of request.
iOS 27 will introduce a new iPhone Handoff feature, that would allow users to set up a second iPhone as a companion device, also using the same mobile number as the primary phone. This launches will select mobile service providers in some countries — no update for India, as yet.
Watch Series 12 and AirPods get utilitarian tweaks
The Apple Watch Series 12 and Watch Ultra 4 upgrades are underlined as much by new hardware, new colours such as Light Gold and the return of ceramic build, as a series of changes and new features that define the software side of things. A new Readiness app, higher strength workouts and a new optical-sensing system sit alongside visual and material tweaks to the Watch.
Also read | Will Apple stock rise after the iPhone 18 launch? Here’s what history says
The Readiness app is an evolution of the Vitals software, for tracking key heart and blood oxygen level data, as the Apple Watch intends to further evolve a holistic health tracking approach amidst widening fitness focused smartwatch and tracker competition. The Health app has also been revamped.
Apple is also updating the entry-spec AirPods, with the new AirPods 5 underlined by new audio hardware, updated audio processing algorithms, and better noise cancellation. AirPods 5 will continue to offer the choice cases, with and without wireless charging.