Apple has finally gone foldable, but the iPhone Duo was only one part of a rather busy night for the company.
Alongside its first foldable iPhone, Apple has introduced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, AirPods 5, Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, giving its 2026 line-up a pretty significant refresh across phones, audio and wearables.
For Malaysians, there is plenty to look forward to, although the prices range from relatively approachable to very much not so approachable.
The iPhone Duo Is The Big One
The biggest announcement is undoubtedly the iPhone Duo, Apple’s first foldable iPhone and one that has clearly been designed to look and behave like an iPhone rather than simply being a phone that happens to fold.
Opened up, the Duo has a 7.6-inch inner Super Retina XDR display, making it Apple’s largest iPhone display yet. Closed, it becomes a more compact 5.4-inch phone with an outer display offering 90 percent of the screen area of the iPhone 18 Pro.
Both displays have the same aspect ratio, while the inner screen gets a nano-texture finish designed to reduce glare, reflections and the visibility of the crease.
Apple has also packed in ProMotion, Always On functionality and up to 3,000 nits of peak outdoor brightness.
The company is taking durability seriously too. The Duo uses a Grade 5 titanium enclosure, Ceramic Shield at the back and Ceramic Shield 2 on the front, with Apple claiming three times better scratch resistance than the previous generation.
Its precision hinge contains more than 100 components and is designed to control the opening and closing motion while supporting the centre of the folding display.
There is also an IP68 rating for splash, water and dust resistance.
Apple Is Making The Foldable Do More
The folding design is not just about having a bigger screen.
iOS 27 has been redesigned around the Duo, with the interface adapting depending on whether the phone is open, closed or being used in different orientations.
Split View allows two apps to run side by side, while users can open two windows of the same app, such as Safari, and save pairs of apps for quick access later.
StandBy also gets an interesting upgrade, as the Duo can enter StandBy mode on either its outer or inner display even when it is not charging.
Apple is also bringing Apple Pencil support over USB-C later this year, allowing users to take notes, sketch or mark up documents on either display.
The Duo runs on the same A20 Pro chip found in the iPhone 18 Pro models. Apple says it delivers up to 35 percent better sustained performance than the iPhone 17 Pro, with the CPU up to 20 percent faster and the GPU up to 40 percent faster and more power efficient than A19 Pro.
Battery life is split between two batteries, one on each side of the phone. Apple claims up to 31 hours of video playback on the inner display and up to 44 hours on the outer display, while typical usage with both displays used equally can reach up to 24 hours.
The Duo starts at RM9,499 for 256GB, with 512GB, 1TB and 2TB options available.
Pre-orders in Malaysia begin at 8pm on October 16, with availability from October 23.
The iPhone 18 Pro Finally Gets Variable Aperture
If RM9,499 for a foldable iPhone sounds slightly terrifying, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are considerably less painful on the wallet.
Starting at RM5,499 and RM5,999 respectively, the new Pro models introduce one of the biggest camera changes Apple has made in years: variable aperture.
The new 48MP Fusion Main camera uses six laser-cut blades to adjust between four aperture settings, allowing the camera to automatically adapt to lighting and depth of field or giving users manual control through the Camera app.
There are also new Pro controls for adjusting aperture, shutter speed and white balance, along with a histogram for checking exposure.
Apple has also introduced Apple Reference Image, which can create an unalterable reference image using signed sensor data to help establish whether a photograph has been edited.
That could prove particularly interesting for photographers and photojournalists at a time when AI-generated and heavily edited images are becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish from reality.
The A20 Pro powers both Pro models, while a redesigned vapour chamber is designed to keep performance stable during demanding workloads.
Battery life has also received a substantial boost, with up to 34 hours of video playback on the iPhone 18 Pro and up to 43 hours on the Pro Max.
The new Pro models come in black, silver, glacier and a new burgundy finish.
Pre-orders begin September 12, with availability from September 18.
AirPods 5 Are Going After The Noise
Apple has not forgotten about your ears either.
The new AirPods 5 bring Active Noise Cancellation to the company’s most affordable AirPods line, with Apple claiming up to 50 percent more external noise reduction compared with AirPods 4 with ANC.
The open-ear design remains, but Apple says a new multiport acoustic architecture and next-generation Adaptive EQ improve sound quality across different ear shapes.
Transparency mode has also been refined, while Adaptive Audio can dynamically blend ANC and Transparency mode depending on the surroundings.
There is even a new way to respond to Siri using head gestures.
For RM599, the standard AirPods 5 offer what could be the most interesting entry point into Apple’s refreshed audio line-up.
Those wanting wireless charging, longer battery life and on-stem volume control will have to pay RM699 for AirPods 5 with the Wireless Charging Case.
The latter offers up to five hours of playback with ANC on a single charge and up to 22 hours with the charging case.
Pre-orders begin September 11, with availability from September 18.
Apple Watch Gets Serious About Your Readiness
Apple’s watch line-up is also getting a major health and fitness push.
Both the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 come with the new Health Sensing System and S11 chip, which Apple says provide its most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable.
The watches can now measure heart rate every five seconds throughout the day, while heart rate variability measurements are taken up to 24 times more frequently.
The more interesting addition, however, is Readiness.
The feature looks at recent activity, training load, vitals and sleep score before giving users a score from 0 to 10, accompanied by recommendations ranging from “Recover” and “Pace Yourself” to “Ready” and “Go For It”.
In other words, your Apple Watch can now essentially tell you whether today is a gym day or a “maybe just sit down” day.
Apple Watch Series 12 also gets more accurate step tracking, a new Steps complication and Sound Recognition and Shazam features powered by the S11 chip.
For accessibility, Sound Recognition can alert deaf or hard-of-hearing users to sounds such as sirens, alarms, doorbells or a baby crying even when their iPhone is not nearby.
The watch can also identify music through Shazam directly from the wrist.
The Series 12 starts at RM1,799 and comes in 42mm and 46mm sizes, with aluminium, titanium and ceramic options.
It will be available in Malaysia from September 18.
Ultra 4 Is Built For The Long Haul
The Apple Watch Ultra 4 takes the same health upgrades and pushes them further for athletes and outdoor users.
It offers up to 50 hours of everyday battery life and up to 84 hours in Low Power Mode.
For workouts, Extended Workout mode provides up to 25 hours of tracking with full GPS and heart rate readings, while Max Extended Workout mode can track outdoor runs, walks and hikes for up to 45 hours.
Apple has also redesigned its step-tracking system and claims the Ultra 4 now offers the most accurate step tracking of any smartwatch.
The new model comes in natural and black titanium and starts at RM3,699.
So, What’s Apple Really Selling This Year?
The interesting thing about Apple’s 2026 line-up is that there is no single theme running through everything.
The iPhone Duo is about changing what an iPhone can physically be. The iPhone 18 Pro is about giving photographers more control. AirPods 5 bring ANC further down the range, while the Apple Watch models are increasingly positioning themselves as health and fitness companions rather than simply notifications on your wrist.
And then there is AI quietly sitting underneath much of it.
A20 Pro is built around more powerful on-device AI processing, the Duo uses AI for features such as Smart Take and Apple Intelligence continues to expand across Apple’s devices.
Whether all of this is enough to convince someone to spend RM9,499 on a foldable iPhone is another question entirely.
But for Apple fans in Malaysia, there is certainly no shortage of new hardware to choose from this year.
