Apple’s “Surprise and Shine” keynote at Apple Park was its busiest in years. Out came the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, the company’s first foldable in the iPhone Duo, the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, and the AirPods 5. There is no standard iPhone 18 this year; the base model, an 18e and a second-generation Air are all pushed to spring 2027.
iPhone Duo
Apple’s foldable opens to a 7.6-inch Super Retina XDR display, 50 percent larger than the Pro Max, and closes to a 5.4-inch cover screen with roughly 90 percent of the 18 Pro’s area. The hinge uses over 100 precision components under a 3D-printed titanium cover, and the inner panel gets a nano-texture finish meant to hide the crease. Touch ID moves to the side button, the FaceTime camera hides under the display, and it is IP68 rated.
Compromises exist. The dual 48MP camera system skips a dedicated telephoto, there is no Action Button, and it is eSIM-only worldwide. Split View finally brings side-by-side apps to iPhone.
iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max
The headline is silicon. The A20 Pro is Apple’s first 2nm iPhone chip, with a 6-core CPU, a 7-core GPU that Apple claims is 40 percent quicker than the A19 Pro, and a dual 16-core Neural Engine that doubles AI throughput. Apple has borrowed packaging from its M-series Macs, placing the die alongside the memory to pull it out of the thermal path, which lets the chip sit directly against a redesigned vapour chamber with three times the surface area of last year’s.
More significant for anyone outside the spec sheet: Qualcomm is gone. The Pro line ships with Apple’s own C2 modem, which the company says is up to 50 percent faster than the C1X, uses 15 percent less energy and finally supports mmWave in the US. The N1 chip handles Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread.
The camera gets a variable aperture on the 48MP main sensor, an iPhone first and, contrary to pre-event chatter, present on both Pro models rather than just the Max. The Dynamic Island shrinks and now holds three Live Activities. Apple quotes 45 hours of video playback on the Pro Max. There is a new burgundy finish, a glacier silver, and a 2TB storage tier.
Watch and AirPods
Series 12 and Ultra 4 share the S11 chip and a rebuilt Health Sensing System that reads heart rate every five seconds and HRV up to 24 times more often. Both gain Readiness, a daily 0-to-10 score drawn from activity, training load, vitals and sleep. Ceramic returns to the Series 12; the Ultra 4 claims 50 hours of battery, or 84 in Low Power Mode. In India they cost Rs 56,900 and Rs 1,09,900.
The AirPods 5 bring open-ear ANC that Apple says removes 50 percent more noise than the AirPods 4, plus Live Translation and Siri AI, at Rs 14,900, or Rs 17,900 with the wireless charging case. Apple Intelligence still supports no Indian language.
All of it costs more than last year, and in India considerably more. We have broken those numbers down separately.
The 18 Pro goes on sale September 18, the Duo on October 23.
