Apple’s biggest form-factor transformation since the birth of the iPhone landed just 10 days after Tim Cook stepped down as CEO.
At 1 a.m. Beijing time on September 10, Apple held its 2026 fall product launch at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park. It was the first event led by new CEO John Ternus following Cook’s departure, under the theme “Surprise and Shine.” Cook attended the event and sat in the front row, while the spotlight shifted to Ternus, a hardware engineering veteran.
Taking center stage as the finale was Apple’s first foldable iPhone: iPhone Duo.
The iPhone Duo features a book-style inward-folding design. When folded, its 5.4-inch outer display handles everyday tasks such as checking messages and answering calls. Unfolded, it reveals a 7.6-inch Super Retina XDR display, offering roughly 50% more screen real estate than the iPhone 18 Pro Max.
Both displays use 120Hz adaptive-refresh OLED panels. The inner display features an under-display front-facing camera, marking a first for an Apple production device. When unfolded, the screen is completely free of camera cutouts.
The hinge was one of the most heavily emphasized aspects of the launch. Apple developed a proprietary variable-torque hinge with magnetic assistance for closing, incorporating more than 100 components. Combined with a multilayer bonding structure, the display layers can shift relative to one another as the device folds and unfolds, reducing deformation.
Apple says the display is 40% more rigid than competing panels and has undergone hundreds of thousands of folding cycles in durability testing. Chief Hardware Officer Johny Srouji said the team wanted to avoid the wrinkles and plastic-like feel typically associated with foldable displays, leading Apple to develop a custom nanotextured display.
Under the hood, the iPhone Duo is powered by the A20 Pro chip built on TSMC’s 2nm process, paired with 12GB of RAM and a vapor chamber cooling system.
The device measures approximately 11.3mm when folded and as little as 5.2mm when unfolded, while weighing 254g. Due to the constraints of the foldable design, Apple has replaced Face ID with Touch ID integrated into the side power button.
Global models also drop the physical SIM tray entirely in favor of eSIM-only connectivity.
The iPhone Duo comes in four storage configurations: 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB, priced in China at RMB 15,999, RMB 17,999, RMB 21,499 and RMB 26,499, respectively. The 2TB model is the most expensive new product announced at the event.
Pre-orders open at 8 p.m. on October 16, with sales beginning October 23.
Joining the foldable iPhone were the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
Both models debut the A20 Pro chip built on TSMC’s 2nm process, featuring a six-core CPU and seven-core GPU, along with dual 16-core Neural Engines. Apple says AI processing performance is up to twice that of the previous generation.
The chip package adopts an approach inspired by Apple’s M-series chips in the Mac, positioning the processor die and memory side by side for direct contact with a next-generation vapor chamber. The vapor chamber is three times larger than the previous generation, delivering up to 40% higher sustained performance than the iPhone 17 Pro.
The camera system receives another major upgrade. The 48MP main camera introduces a true physical variable aperture for the first time, using six laser-cut aperture blades that can adjust between f/1.48 and f/4.
In low-light conditions, the aperture can open to f/1.48 to let in more light. For portraits, f/1.8 balances light intake and depth of field, while f/4 provides greater depth of field for group shots. Pro users can manually select from four aperture settings in the Camera app.
The iPhone 18 Pro starts at RMB 9,999, while the Pro Max starts at RMB 10,999. Both models add a new 2TB storage option.
Pre-orders begin at 8 p.m. on September 12, with both models going on sale September 18.
Notably, Apple is not updating the standard iPhone 18 alongside the Pro lineup this fall for the first time. The standard iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e are expected to arrive in spring 2027.
The Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 introduce a new health-sensing system featuring next-generation optical and electrical heart sensors.
The heart-rate sensor collects data every five seconds, while heart-rate variability monitoring frequency has increased 24-fold.
A new Health Age feature combines metrics including VO2 Max and sleep data to compare a user’s health indicators with their chronological age.
New intelligent audio features use on-device AI to recognize specific sounds such as alarms, doorbells and a baby crying, helping users with hearing loss better perceive their surroundings.
The Apple Watch Series 12 starts at US$399 (RMB 2,999 in China), while the Ultra 4 starts at US$799 (RMB 6,499 in China). Both go on sale September 18.
The AirPods 5 arrive as AirPods mark their 10th anniversary, with both standard and active noise cancellation versions available. Apple says noise cancellation performance has improved by up to 50% compared with the previous generation.
Orders open immediately, with sales beginning September 18.
Perhaps more significant than the hardware itself is the shift in Apple’s AI strategy.
iOS 27 introduces a new AI-powered Siri with personal context awareness, on-screen understanding and the ability to perform actions across apps. However, Apple did not announce a launch timeline for these features in China.
Throughout the presentation, Ternus repeatedly emphasized the combination of AI and personal context on the device.
Both the iPhone 18 Pro lineup and iPhone Duo feature vapor chamber cooling systems designed to provide the thermal headroom needed to run AI models locally on the device.
Tim Cook spent 15 years turning Apple into an extraordinarily efficient profit machine. Ternus now faces a different question:
In a world being rewritten by AI, can Apple redefine innovation once again?
The foldable iPhone Duo is the first step.
But it is far from the last.
