Everything announced at the Apple Surprise and Shine event

Apple held its Surprise and Shine event on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, at the Steve Jobs Theatre in Cupertino. This was John Ternus’s first product keynote as Apple’s CEO, eight days after he took over from Tim Cook on September 1. Cook now serves as executive chairman.

Ternus opened the show calling the iPhone an intelligent personal hub for your day. Later in the keynote, he echoed a line Steve Jobs made famous, saying there was one more thing, before revealing Apple’s first foldable phone.

Here is everything Apple announced at the Surprise and Shine event.

iPhone Duo: Apple finally enters the foldable market

The biggest reveal was the iPhone Duo, Apple’s first foldable phone. Apple calls it the most transformational change to the iPhone since the original model launched.

The Duo opens like a book. It has a 7.6-inch inner display and a 5.4-inch outer display, both Super Retina XDR panels with up to 3,000 nits of peak brightness. Apple says the inner screen is 50% larger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max display. A nano-texture finish on the inner panel cuts down glare and hides the fold line.

The frame is mirror-polished titanium with a 3D-printed titanium hinge cover, and the phone carries an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. Instead of Face ID, the Duo uses Touch ID built into the side button. You can also unlock it with your Apple Watch.

Inside, the Duo runs on the A20 Pro chip, the same processor found in the iPhone 18 Pro. It has a 6-core CPU, a 7-core GPU, and a Neural Engine built for on-device AI tasks. A custom display engine lets the chip run both screens at once.

On the camera side, the Duo uses a 48MP main lens and a 48MP ultra-wide lens, with no telephoto lens. That means you get up to 4x optical zoom, and the camera system falls short of the variable aperture found on the iPhone 18 Pro. Four features are built specifically for the Duo’s outer display:

• Smart Take, which fires the shutter once everyone in the shot is posed
• Duo Preview, which shows your subject a live view of the shot on the outer screen
• Kid Cue, which plays short animations to hold a child’s attention
• Duo FaceTime, which lets a friend standing nearby join your call from the outer display

Battery life comes in at up to 24 hours of typical use, 31 hours of video on the inner display, and 44 hours on the outer display. The Duo also supports Apple Pencil, though that feature arrives later this year, not at launch. You can run two apps side by side on the inner screen for iPad-style multitasking.

The iPhone Duo comes in Star White and Night Sky, with storage from 256GB up to 2TB. Pricing starts at $1,999 and climbs to about $3,199 for the top storage option. Pre-orders open October 16, and the phone goes on sale October 23.

Apple is not the first to enter this market. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 launched in August with similar screen sizes, a lighter build, and a starting price of $1,899. Google’s Pixel 11 Pro Fold launched around the same time with an even bigger 8-inch inner screen, three rear cameras, and a $1,899 price tag. Apple’s Duo costs about $100 more than both, but it adds Apple Pencil support and access to the full library of iPad apps, something neither rival offers.

iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max

Apple opened the event with the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. Both phones run on the A20 Pro chip, Apple’s first chip built on a 2-nanometer process, which brings faster performance and better efficiency.

The standout upgrade is the camera. The 48MP main lens now has a true variable aperture, a first for any iPhone. It adjusts automatically for light and depth, and you can also choose from four aperture settings. The Dynamic Island shrinks in size and can now show up to three Live Activities at once.

Apple also redesigned the cooling system, giving both phones a vapour chamber about three times larger than the one in the iPhone 17 Pro. That helps the phones sustain performance during heavy use. Battery life also gets a boost, with the Pro Max rated for up to 45 hours of video playback and the Pro rated for around 30 hours. Wired charging reaches 50% in about 15 minutes.

Both phones add burgundy as a new colour, alongside black, silver, and glacier. Storage now goes up to 2TB on both models.

Pricing starts at $1,199 for the iPhone 18 Pro and $1,299 for the iPhone 18 Pro Max, both $100 more than last year’s starting prices. Pre-orders open September 12, and both phones go on sale September 18.

Why Apple skipped the standard iPhone 18

Apple isn’t releasing a standard iPhone 18 this year. Apple’s fall lineup covers only the Pro, Pro Max, and the foldable Duo.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple plans to release the standard iPhone 18, a new iPhone 18e, and an iPhone Air 2 in spring 2027. This points to a bigger shift in how Apple plans to release phones. Instead of launching its whole lineup in September, Apple appears to be splitting its releases across the year, with premium models arriving in the fall and mainstream models following in the spring. Reports suggest this move helps Apple manage component costs and spread out demand.

Until the new standard model arrives, the iPhone 17 stays as Apple’s mainstream option, and you can expect price cuts once the newer phones hit the market.

Apple Watch Series 12

The Apple Watch Series 12 runs on Apple’s new S11 chip and introduces a Health Sensing System built for more accurate tracking. Heart rate now gets measured every five seconds, about 60 times more often than before, and heart rate variability readings come in up to 24 times more frequently.

A new feature called Readiness gives you a score from 0 to 10 based on your activity, training load, vitals, and sleep, along with a recommendation on how hard to push yourself that day. Battery life reaches up to 24 hours for everyday use and up to 10 hours during an outdoor workout, a 25% jump from the previous model. A 15-minute charge now gets you up to 12 hours of use.

The Series 12 comes in Space Grey, Black, Light Gold, and Dark Bronze aluminium, plus a ceramic option that returns for the first time in six years. It starts at $399, with pre-orders open now and a September 18 release.

Apple Watch Ultra 4

The Apple Watch Ultra 4 shares the same Health Sensing System and S11 chip as the Series 12, but adds features built for outdoor and endurance use.

Battery life reaches up to 50 hours for everyday use, up from 42 hours on the Ultra 3. In Max Extended Workout mode, the watch can last up to 45 hours while still taking GPS readings every second, enough to track a 100-mile race. Standard outdoor workout tracking with full GPS and heart rate runs up to 18 hours. A 15-minute charge gets you up to 18 hours of use.

Apple calls the Ultra 4’s on-device GPS the most accurate ever on a sports watch, supporting GPS, Galileo, QZSS, and BeiDou satellite systems. Satellite Emergency SOS and messaging carry over from the Ultra 3.

The watch keeps its Black and Natural titanium finishes and its 49mm case size. It starts at $799, the same as the Ultra 3, with pre-orders open now and a September 18 release.

AirPods 5

Apple introduced AirPods 5 in two versions. The $129 model brings active noise cancellation to Apple’s most affordable earbuds for the first time. The $149 model adds a wireless charging case, stem-based volume control, and longer battery life.

Both versions get a new acoustic design and improved sound quality, plus better resistance to dust, sweat, and water. Apple says the noise cancellation blocks up to 50% more outside sound than the previous ANC model. The $149 version lasts up to 5 hours with ANC on and up to 22 hours with the charging case.

AirPods 5 also support Live Translation and hands-free Siri AI, features that now work across Apple’s entire AirPods lineup. Pre-orders opened September 9, and both models go on sale September 18.

Siri AI and Apple’s software release dates

The new hardware ships with iOS 27 and watchOS 27, both built around Apple’s updated Siri AI. iOS 27 installs on iPhone 11 and later, but the Siri AI features only work on newer hardware, so not every phone running iOS 27 gets the full experience.

Siri AI launched in beta and starts in English, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish arriving in October. The feature remains unavailable in the EU for now, and it will not launch in China.

Apple has also set daily usage limits on cloud-based AI features like image generation, with higher limits for most iCloud+ subscribers. Tim Cook said on Apple’s last earnings call that the company may offer ways to buy higher usage tiers through iCloud+, though he added that Apple does not yet have a complete plan.

Prices and release dates

Product	Starting price	Pre-order	Release date
iPhone 18 Pro	$1,199	September 12	September 18
iPhone 18 Pro Max	$1,299	September 12	September 18
iPhone Duo	$1,999	October 16	October 23
Apple Watch Series 12	$399	Now	September 18
Apple Watch Ultra 4	$799	Now	September 18
AirPods 5 (base)	$129	Now	September 18
AirPods 5 (Wireless Charging Case)	$149	Now	September 18

Colours: The iPhone Duo comes in Star White and Night Sky. The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max come in black, silver, glacier, and burgundy. The Apple Watch Series 12 comes in Space Grey, Black, Light Gold, and Dark Bronze aluminium, plus a ceramic option. The Apple Watch Ultra 4 comes in Black and Natural Titanium.

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