Apple on September 9 unveiled its first foldable iPhone alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max at its “Surprise and shine” keynote held at Apple Park in Cupertino, California.
The announcement marks one of the most significant product shifts the company has made in its smartphone lineup in years.
A new form factor arrives
Apple’s first foldable had spent much of the pre-launch cycle being referred to as the iPhone Ultra; Apple officially named it the iPhone Duo. Closed, it has a 5.4-inch outer display; open, it unfolds to a 7.6-inch inner display, the largest Apple has put in an iPhone. The device uses a book-style design with a titanium frame and an ultra-thin profile.
The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 for the 256GB model. The Duo will arrive later than the Pro models; Apple confirmed that pre-orders will begin on October 16, followed by availability on October 23. Apple spent years watching Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola iterate on folding designs while staying out of the category entirely.
Apple is splitting its iPhone 18 lineup, with a standard iPhone 18, iPhone 18e, and iPhone Air 2 reported to follow in spring 2027. That means customers who want a new iPhone this fall are looking at Apple’s three most expensive devices.
iPhone 18 Pro: 2nm chip and a variable-aperture camera
The iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199.99, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299.99. Both phones are built around Apple’s A20 Pro chip, which is manufactured on a 2nm process and comes with a 6-core CPU, 7-core GPU, and a Dual 16-core Neural Engine.
The A19 Pro in the previous generation was built on TSMC’s N3P process, and the move to 2nm represents a long-awaited step to a new node. TSMC’s 2nm process promises a 10 to 15 percent speed gain at the same power, or a 25 to 30 percent reduction in power consumption at the same performance.
Both Pro models feature the 48MP Pro Fusion camera system with variable aperture, physical aperture blades that adjust how much light hits the sensor depending on the scene, similar in concept to what some Android flagships have offered for several years. The iPhone 18 Pro offers up to 36 hours of video playback, while the Pro Max reaches up to 45 hours. The redesigned Dynamic Island is now narrower and supports up to three simultaneous Live Activities.
Among the confirmed upgrades on the Pro line are a variable-aperture main camera, a smaller Dynamic Island, and Apple’s C2 cellular modem. Battery life also benefits from the C2’s lower power draw compared to the Qualcomm unit it replaces. Apple began bringing modem design in-house with its 2025 models, reducing its long-standing dependence on Qualcomm.
A restructured launch calendar
Apple did not announce a standard iPhone 18 in September. The standard iPhone 18, iPhone Air 2, and iPhone 18e were not part of Apple’s September announcement; reports continue to point toward those models arriving in 2027, though Apple has not confirmed their release timing.
Apple confirmed that pre-orders for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will begin on September 12, with both phones becoming available on September 18. For the iPhone Duo, Apple confirmed that pre-orders will begin on October 16, followed by availability on October 23. Apple confirmed it would broadcast the September 9 event live on its website, the Apple TV app, and on YouTube.
The September event was also notable as the first keynote under new CEO John Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook on September 1. Price increases were expected on the new models, with memory costs cited as a key reason.
The foldable in particular represents uncharted pricing territory for Apple buyers accustomed to the company’s traditional four-model fall lineup.
A crowded market moment
Apple’s announcement came during an unusually packed competitive window. Reports indicated Huawei held a launch event in China shortly before Apple took the stage. Xiaomi has been using September to introduce its in-house Xring O3 chip across device families, while Qualcomm’s next-generation Snapdragon platform is expected to power several other flagship Android phones in the months ahead.
The surge in silicon ambition across the smartphone industry is reflected in broader market data. The A20 Pro, which powers the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo, is Apple’s first iPhone chip built on a 2-nanometer node, putting it among the first consumer devices to ship on that process at volume. For context on the scale of the underlying chip market, global chip sales hit $146.8 billion in July, surpassing any previous full-year record in just seven months.
Wearable hardware announced alongside the iPhones also drew attention. Apple also introduced the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 at the event. Apple’s Watch lineup has been pushing sensing capabilities aggressively, a trend reflected across the wearables category: a redesigned heart sensor from a rival maker now fires every five seconds all day, 60 times more often than the model it replaced last year.
Apple has not officially confirmed every hardware specification through its newsroom as of publication time; figures cited here reflect confirmed event coverage and supply-chain reporting published before and after the September 9 keynote.
