Apple’s first foldable iPhone Duo, a costlier iPhone 18 Pro: Are they worth the hype?

Apple’s “Surprise and shine” event on Wednesday, September 9, was expected to be one of the company’s biggest, and it did not disappoint. The foldable iPhone, previously reported as the iPhone Ultra, was finally revealed under the name iPhone Duo, while the less exciting iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max arrived with a price rise. The Apple Watch Series 12, the Apple Watch Ultra 4 and the AirPods 5 came alongside them, with one important omission: there was no iPhone 18 at all.

The iPhone Duo starts at Dh8,499, at the low end of what was forecast, though you cannot buy one until October 23. Everything else goes on sale on September 18. The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max were always going to cost more, and both did, by Dh400 at the base storage. That rise is not uniform, though. A 1TB iPhone 18 Pro costs Dh1,250 more than the equivalent iPhone 17 Pro.

Apple might have come to the foldables party late, but the entrance is in character — a device it would not ship until the engineering was finished, and software written around what a folding screen can do.

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iPhone Duo features

iOS 27 has been built with the iPhone Duo’s shape in mind. It supports Split View, a first for iPhone, and moves the Dock, the Lock Screen controls and app navigation to the side of the display, running vertically instead of across the bottom. On a screen this short and wide, that hands the height back to whatever you are reading. The animation is the other tell. Hands-on reports describe the interface blurring and stretching across the fold as the phone opens, rather than cutting from one screen to the other.

The hardware is where the price lands. The iPhone Duo folds shut into a 5.4-inch phone and opens into a 7.6-inch screen, measuring 5.2mm unfolded and 11.3mm closed, at 254g. The frame is titanium, the front is Ceramic Shield 2 and the IP68 rating is good for six metres. There is no Face ID, so Touch ID moves into the side button. Apple has also given the inner display a matte nano-texture finish, which hands-on reports say hides the crease rather than removes it. Storage runs from 256GB to 2TB, or Dh8,499 to Dh13,599, and pre-orders open on October 16.

Here’s iPhone Duo at a glance:

What you need to know about iPhone 18 Pro

On paper the iPhone 18 Pro is a serious upgrade. The A20 Pro moves to a 2nm process, its GPU up to 40 per cent faster than the A19 Pro, and the 48MP main camera gets a real variable aperture with four settings from f/1.48 to f/4. In daily use, almost none of that will announce itself. The exception is battery: Apple claims 45 hours of video on the iPhone 18 Pro Max, the longest it has ever quoted.

The design barely moved. The Dynamic Island has shrunk, enough to hold three Live Activities at once, but the iPhone 18 Pro models keep the shape, the size and the camera plateau of the iPhone 17 Pro. The colours have changed, though: the two-tone back is gone in favour of one colour running across the glass and the frame, and only Silver carries over, alongside Black, Glacier and the new Burgundy. All of it coincides with rising prices, and the top of the range is where they bite — a 2TB iPhone 18 Pro Max is Dh10,599, which is Dh2,100 more than last year’s.

iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max at a glance:

Apple Watch Series 12 now reads heart rate every 5 seconds

That is the headline change on both the Apple Watch Series 12 and the Apple Watch Ultra 4, which share a new Health Sensing System with optical and electrical sensors. Heart rate variability is now sampled up to 24 times more often, and the watch turns all of it into a readiness score out of ten each day, with a verdict: Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready or Go For It. Apple claims it is the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable.

The Apple Watch Ultra 4 gained the most elsewhere. Apple quotes 50 hours of normal use and 84 in low power mode, against 24 hours on the Series 12, where 15 minutes of charging now buys 12 hours. Ceramic also returns on the Series 12 after seven years, in Pearl White and Night Blue. Both opened for pre-order on Wednesday and reach shops on 18 September, from Dh1,599 for the Apple Watch Series 12 and Dh3,199 for the Apple Watch Ultra 4.

Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 at a glance:

The AirPods 5 brings noise cancellation down to Dh549

Active noise cancellation is now standard across the line, and Apple says the AirPods 5 remove up to 50 per cent more outside noise than the noise-cancelling AirPods 4. There are two versions, and the difference is not the sound. The Dh629 model adds a wireless charging case and a force sensor for volume, and runs five hours with noise cancellation on against four.

The two things Apple did not put on a slide

The first is the iPhone that never appeared. There was no standard iPhone 18, no iPhone 18e and no iPhone Air 2, and reporting puts all three in early 2027. Apple also discontinued the iPhone 17 Pro models and raised the iPhone 16, iPhone 17, iPhone Air and iPhone 17e, taking the iPhone 17 to Dh3,799 and the iPhone Air to Dh4,699. Nothing cheaper is coming before next year.

The second is in the small print. Apple says it will put usage limits on Siri AI and other Apple Intelligence features, and that wider access will come at a cost. No price or date has been announced, so this is notice rather than a bill, but the notice has been given.