I watched Apple’s “Surprise and Shine” event live on September 9, then fell down the usual rabbit hole of first-impression videos afterwards. My first reaction was a split one. As someone who cares about product design, I thought the dimensions and the interface were spot on: thoughtful, and genuinely usable for the average person. As a product manager, I found myself nodding at the price tags too, which is not a sentence I expected to write. Inflation, and the rising cost of hardware since the AI race began, mean the cost to own a flagship has tilted on its head.
Here is what was announced, and what I made of it.
The short version
- iPhone Duo, Apple’s first foldable: a 7.6-inch inner display, a 5.4-inch outer display and a titanium frame, from $1,999. Pre-orders open October 16, and it ships October 23.
- iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max: the A20 Pro chip, built on a 2nm process, a variable-aperture 48MP camera with manual aperture and shutter controls, and Apple Reference Image. From $1,199 and $1,299, which is $100 more than last year.
- Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, AirPods 5 with noise cancellation now standard, and iOS 27, where Siri can finally take actions inside apps, third-party ones included.
- No base iPhone 18. Reports point to spring 2027 for that one.
The Duo is the statement
Most of this year’s lineup is an incremental upgrade. The Duo is the one that makes a statement. Folding phones have been around for the better part of half a decade, so Apple isn’t first. What Apple is good at is arriving late with the use case already worked out for the people it is selling to, and the Duo feels like that kind of launch.
Would I buy one? No, for two reasons.
- It’s a first generation. A new product line always has kinks and bugs to work out, and I’d rather let someone else find them.
- The price. At $1,999, the Duo starts $100 above the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, both $1,899, and it is thicker and heavier than both.
The Apple tax, now with inflation
The price increases across the rest of the lineup didn’t surprise me. Tim Cook said back in June that rising memory and storage costs would be passed on to customers, and Apple has always charged a premium, the “Apple tax”. Discontinuing the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max is not a surprise either. Apple has followed that pattern since the very first iPhone.
Proof that a photo is real
The feature I’m happiest about is the least flashy one. Apple Reference Image is an opt-in camera mode on the 18 Pro. When it’s on, the camera sensor and the phone’s security chip each sign the photo with their own keys at the moment it’s taken. Later, anyone on an Apple device can check that this phone captured these pixels at that moment, and see whether the image has been changed since.
This is obviously about AI-generated content, and it’s necessary. We need a secure way to tell that a photo wasn’t generated or edited by AI, and when AI has edited a photo, that should be shown clearly. I’m all for authenticity, and for an easy way to keep track of it.
Siri, tokens and another subscription
iOS 27’s Siri can pull personal context from across your apps and act inside them, but it comes with daily usage limits and a paid “Expanded Access” tier. As a PM, two things stand out to me.
- Token economics will need constant attention. Does every prompt really need to carry all of the user’s past context, or can the experience be more precise and refined?
- Another paid tier will confuse people. Users already pay for Apple One, and many of us already subscribe to ChatGPT or Claude. The first version of Apple Intelligence let you bring your ChatGPT account. I’d love to see Apple keep that and open it to all the common models, so people aren’t paying twice for the same intelligence.
What I wanted to see
- A Duo for everyone else. I would have made this year’s event all about the Duo, with an affordable model and a Pro model, the way the iPhone lineup already works.
- Silicon-carbon batteries. They offer higher capacity in the same space. Phones keep getting thinner, and the Duo is small once folded, so a higher-capacity battery would have been a no-brainer.
What’s in my pocket
I’m still on an iPhone 14 Pro, which means I’m still on Lightning, a cable I absolutely detest. I’m not upgrading to the 18 Pro or the Duo. I’m waiting for the non-Pro iPhone 18 to see whether it’s the right replacement.
Final thoughts: Beautifully designed, carefully thought through, and goodness, is it expensive.
Sources: Apple Newsroom on iPhone Duo, Apple Newsroom on iPhone 18 Pro, MacRumors event recap, MacRumors live blog, Engadget on Reference Image, PC Guide foldable comparison, TidBITS on Apple’s price increases, PhoneArena on the iPhone 18.