Apple’s ‘Surprise and Shine’ Event: The Foldable iPhone Duo, Pro Camera Overhauls, and the Ternus Era Begins

If you spent the morning assuming Apple’s September showcase would be another iterative cycle of minor camera upgrades and slightly shinier titanium edges, Tim Cook’s successor had other plans.

Marking the first major keynote helmed by new Apple CEO John Ternus, Apple’s “Surprise and Shine” event delivered one of the company’s biggest shakeups in years. Headlines were stolen by Apple’s long-rumoured jump into the foldable market, alongside massive upgrades to the flagship iPhone lineup, Apple Watches, and AirPods.

Here is everything you need to know from Apple’s biggest showcase of 2026.

1. The Main Event: iPhone Duo

It finally happened. Years after competitors launched their first folding devices, Apple has officially entered the arena with the iPhone Duo.

Instead of a flip-style clamshell, the Duo adopts a “passport” form factor. When closed, you get a 5.4-inch outer display; unfold it, and you’re looking at a 7.6-inch inner canvas that effectively turns your phone into a pocket iPad.

• The Hinge & Crease: Apple claims to have cracked the fold problem with a custom carbon-fibre hinge built from over 100 precision components, allowing the inner display to fold completely flat.
• Touch ID Returns: In a surprise design pivot, Face ID is swapped for a side-button Touch ID sensor built into the power button to save bezel space.
• Power & Battery: Driven by the new A20 Pro chip and a dual-battery setup, Apple promises up to 31 hours of video playback on the internal display. It is also an eSIM-only device worldwide.
• Price & Release: Pre-orders start 16 October, with shipping from 23 October. It doesn’t come cheap: starting at $1,999 / ~£1,799 for 256GB.

2. iPhone 18 Pro & 18 Pro Max: Pro Controls & Big Battery Leaps

For those not quite ready to fold their phone in half, the flagship iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max received substantial updates geared heavily toward mobile creators and photography enthusiasts:

• DSLR-Style Pro Controls: A new manual camera interface lets users tweak aperture, shutter speed, white balance, and monitor histograms natively in the camera app.
• Apple Reference Image: A new security and capture feature that signs sensor data via Private Cloud Compute, producing an unalterable reference photo alongside standard processing.
• Massive Battery Boost: The iPhone 18 Pro Max boasts up to 45 hours of video playback, marking the largest single battery life gain in iPhone history.
• New Colours: Available in Black, Silver, Glacier, and a striking new Burgundy (RIP Cosmic Orange).

3. Apple Watch Series 12 & Ultra 4: S11 Health Engine

Apple refreshed both ends of its wrist lineup, keeping entry prices stable ($399 for Series 12, $799 for Ultra 4) while revamping the core health architecture under the hood.

• Re-engineered Health Sensing: Powered by the new S11 chip, the sensors now take heart rate and HRV (Heart Rate Variability) readings far more frequently throughout the day.
• Readiness Score: Taking a page from Oura and Garmin, watchOS now calculates a daily 0–10 Readiness Score to guide your workout intensity or recovery based on sleep, vitals, and training load.
• Audio Intelligence & Safety: Features like Live Rewind let you double-press the crown to review a transcript of the last 15 seconds of a spoken conversation, while Sound Recognition alerts deaf or hard-of-hearing users to sirens or doorbells.

4. AirPods 5 & The Siri AI Rollout

Rounding out the audio department, the AirPods 5 arrived with a 50% increase in Active Noise Cancellation performance compared to the previous ANC generation, a updated acoustic architecture, and hands-free head gestures for responding to Siri.

Alongside the hardware, Apple confirmed that the long-promised, contextual Siri AI overhaul will roll out with iOS 27 later this month. Featuring full onscreen awareness, camera integration, and cross-app action handling, Siri will be integrated directly across the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone Duo, Apple Watch, and AirPods 5.

The Verdict: Has Apple Won Over the Skeptics?

With the iPhone Duo, Apple isn’t first to the foldable party—Samsung, Google, and Motorola have been iterating on this form factor for years. However, by pairing a refined flat-folding hinge with desktop-class multitasking software and a thinned-down chassis, Apple is attempting to do what it usually does best: take an existing category and polish away its rough edges.

Between a legitimate foldable, massive battery jumps on the Pro series, and genuine health-tracking upgrades, the “Surprise and Shine” event gave tech fans plenty to talk about heading into the autumn.