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Opinion piece. My own views.
Apple called Wednesday's event "Surprise and shine", and to be fair to them, it delivered on the surprise. It was also the first keynote with John Ternus running the company, which is the part I've been most curious about since the handover was announced in April. I've now had a couple of days to sit with it all, so here's everything that was announced, what wasn't, and what I made of Ternus's first outing.
What was announced
The big one was iPhone Duo, Apple's first folding iPhone, with a 5.4-inch screen on the outside, 7.6 inches on the inside, Touch ID in the side button, eSIM only, and £1,999 to start. Pre-orders open on 16 October and it arrives on 23 October, and I've written a full explainer here if you want the detail, along with a closer look at how Apple reworked iOS to suit it.
Then there were the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, from £1,199 and £1,299, with a 48MP main camera that has a real variable aperture, the 2 nanometre A20 Pro chip, and the best battery life on any iPhone so far. Pre-orders open on Saturday and they go on sale on 18 September, and my upgrade guide is here.
AirPods 5 bring noise cancellation to every model from £119, which I think is the sleeper hit of the event, and the details are here. And the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 get new heart sensors, a daily Readiness score, and features that listen out for doorbells and alarms for people who are hard of hearing, from £369 and £749, which I've written up here.
Finally, iOS 27 arrives on Monday 14 September for iPhone 11 and later, with watchOS 27 and macOS 27 Golden Gate alongside it, and I'd argue that, more than any of the hardware, it's the upgrade most of you will actually feel.
What wasn't announced
There was no standard iPhone 18. Apple showed the Pro, the Pro Max and the Duo and said nothing at all about a regular model, so the iPhone 17 stays on sale at £899. Whether a non-Pro iPhone 18 turns up later is rumour for now, and I'll treat it that way until Apple says something.
There were no Macs either, which was expected after the Mac mini and Mac Studio updates in August, and no HomePod or Apple TV, both of which are overdue. I'd guess at a later announcement for those, but I want to be clear that it is a guess.
One feature worth flagging for anyone tempted by the Duo. iPhone Handoff, which lets one phone number work across two iPhones, launches with T-Mobile in the US and Telekom in Germany, and there's no UK network yet. So don't buy a Duo expecting to share a number with your old iPhone, at least not for now.
What I think about Ternus
On stage, I think he did what he needed to do, really. He got through a big lineup without any of it feeling rushed, he let the products do the talking, and he didn't try to be Tim or Steve, which I suspect was the right call for a first keynote.
The part I found more telling was what happened afterwards, in the hands-on area. That's where the modern-day content creators live now, Speed and the YouTubers and the Instagram crowd, and dealing with all of that on your very first day showing off new products as CEO cannot be easy. He handled it well, and he looked comfortable doing it, which tells you something about how Apple sees the next few years going. Whether he can keep that up when the questions get harder is a different matter, but as a first day goes, I thought it was a good one.
The part I'm less happy about
Prices. The iPhone 18 Pro is £100 up on last year, the iPhone 17 and 17e are £100 up on where they were in the spring, the Macs went up in August, and the MacBook Neo I recommended at £599 is now £699. I'd say the rises were expected, given everything that's been going on with component costs, but I'm not sure they're justified, and Apple hasn't offered any explanation.
What I do think is that Apple has been quite clever about where the rises land. The 256GB and 512GB models, which are the ones most people actually buy, took the smaller £100 rise, while the 1TB and 2TB models at the top end have gone up by considerably more. Look at the gaps on the 18 Pro this year: £200 to go from 256GB to 512GB, then £400 to reach 1TB, then another £600 to reach 2TB. The people who want the most storage are being asked to pay for it, and the headline price that gets quoted in the news stays within touching distance of last year's.
For a lot of the people I look after, who are on fixed incomes and keep their phones for five years or more, any of this matters a great deal more than a variable aperture ever will, so I'd rather say it plainly than pretend it isn't happening.
What I'd actually do
If your iPhone is a 13 Pro or older, the 18 Pro is a big upgrade, and the iPhone 17 at £899 is the sensible choice if you don't need the camera. If you're on anything from the 15 Pro onwards, install iOS 27 on Monday and enjoy it, because it's free and it's the update I've been wanting for years.
And the Duo? Go and hold one in October before you decide anything. It's a first-generation product at £1,999, and I'd want to see how it settles before recommending it to anyone who relies on their phone day to day.
If you'd like to talk any of this through, book a session or reply to this post. I read everything, and I always enjoy hearing where you disagree.
