The headline promotion is a tie-in with the carrier's brand-new Simplicity plan, which gets you a device and unlimited plan for just $72.22/mo all-in. That's a flat fee, with no required trade-in rebates or any of the usual hoops to jump through.

Even better still, the carrier is also throwing in your choice of an Apple Watch Series 12 or iPad free of charge, although I assume that you'll still need to pay for those accessory cellular lines.

If you're signed up for one of the carrier's myPlan unlimited plans, then you can also get a $1,000 rebate on the iPhone Duo with an eligible trade-in — another very strong promotion. Interestingly, you can also bundle in your choice of either an iPad or Apple Watch 12 alongside a MyPlan line if you're willing to spend a little extra per month to take out additional cellular lines.

Verizon's opening Apple iPhone Duo deal is live

• See more: check out all of today's deals at Verizon

What's new with the iPhone Duo?

The iPhone Duo is Apple's first foray into foldable phones. It features a 5.4-inch outer display and a 7.6-inch Super Retina XDR inner screen with a matte-like finish designed to minimise the appearance of the crease. Unlike rivals from Samsung and Google, its shorter, wider design resembles a passport or a foldable iPad mini, rather than the book-like design common on other foldable devices.

Under the hood, it packs Apple's new A20 Pro chipset and a titanium frame reinforced with ceramic fibres. Apple has also introduced exclusive software features, including new Liquid Glass animations, widescreen support for popular apps, and Apple Pencil compatibility for the first time on an iPhone.

In short, it's a very well-featured device. However, it does miss a few features like Face ID, a telephoto camera, and the Action button, all of which are available on the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.

It didn’t even take four hours for things to get that bad. Within about 25 minutes of preorders opening, shipping estimates were already approaching the end of December 2026 or slipping into early 2027. Many took to social media to report the worsening delivery times, along with issues using both Apple Store apps, which were at times unresponsive or failed to remember the ‘get ready’ information customers had entered ahead of preorders.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen demand push shipping estimates back this far, and it’s reminiscent of the iPhone X — the first iPhone with Face ID — or even the unicorn Jet Black iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. In the latter case, though, the supply crunch was limited to a single color. Either way, the early rush suggests serious interest in Apple’s first folding iPhone, even before most people have had a chance to try one.

It’s likely a combination of high demand and limited supply, rather than either factor alone. And with shipping estimates already slipping into 2027, I’d expect Apple to look at ramping up production if its manufacturing partners can accommodate it. The big question is how quickly it can get more units out the door to meet demand.

Right now, if you want an iPhone Duo, you’re looking at a wait until 2027. And it’s not just Apple’s folding phone: the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are showing delivery estimates ranging from the end of October through mid-November, depending on the configuration. That means anyone hoping to get their hands on one of Apple’s newest iPhones immediately — or even in the next few days — is out of luck. The initial preorder rush has already pushed delivery windows weeks or, in the Duo’s case, months out.

My dad had a mostly smooth preorder experience, securing an iPhone Duo 256GB in Night Sky right at 8 AM ET. His delivery estimate currently falls somewhere between mid-November and December, which is a pretty good outcome given how quickly shipping times slipped. But plenty of people have taken to social media to report glitches with Apple’s Store apps, and my friend Jason Cipriani detailed his own preorder experience at Pixels and Pizza, with his iPhone Duo order now expected to arrive in mid-December.

If you’re still hoping to get an iPhone Duo sooner, Apple isn’t your only option. Carriers and other retailers, including Best Buy, may have different inventory and delivery estimates depending on the color and storage configuration you want. The iPhone Duo comes in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB options, so it’s worth checking a few different combinations. I’ll include links to the other retailers below so you can compare availability.

Best iPhone Duo preorder deals in the US

• Apple: up to $885 off with a trade-in
• Verizon: phone and unlimited plan for $105.55 $72.22/mo
• AT&T: up to $1,200 off with a trade-in and new line
• T-Mobile: up to $1,000 off with a trade-in and new line
• Red Pocket: get $100 off an unlocked iPhone Duo
• Xfinity: get up to $1,000 off with a trade-in and unlimited plan

Best iPhone Duo preorders in the UK

• Sky: from £47 per month with a £12 upfront fee
• Vodafone: up to £855 off with a trade-in and from £27.45 per month
• EE: from £73.57 a month
• Three: save up to £1,035 when you trade in
• Tesco Mobile: save up to £90 with a Clubcard and get a £100 gift card

Want the iPhone Duo sooner?

There’s also the possibility of picking one up on launch day. Apple may have some stock available in stores on October 24, though that’s not guaranteed, and you could be in for a wait. Another option is to keep checking Apple.com from launch day onward to see whether an iPhone Duo becomes available for in-store pickup. If you’re flexible on color or storage, it’s worth checking regularly rather than assuming you’ll have to wait until 2027.

And if you’re after one of the newest iPhones with Apple’s latest and greatest silicon, there’s always the iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max. Both are mighty fine phones and earned a full five out of five stars from us.

Let me know in the comments below what you think of the iPhone Duo, how your preorder experience went, and when your new phone is expected to arrive!

The Apple iPhone Duo was officially unveiled last month, but the device has been subject to a particularly long period between the unveiling and the initial preorder window. That wait is now over, and with a provisional delivery date of October 23rd, there isn't long now until you can finally get Apple's first foldable device in hand.

Note that the iPhone Duo officially launches at $1,999 / £1,999 and will be available at Apple both in-store and online. Preorders are also open at major partners like Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T, as well as UK networks such as O2, Vodafone, and EE. Available deals include trade-in rebates of up to $1,200 off, so it's crucial to assess what you're eligible for if you're looking to get the biggest possible discount.

Best iPhone Duo preorder deals in the US

• Apple: up to $885 off with a trade-in
• Verizon: phone and unlimited plan for $105.55 $72.22/mo
• AT&T: up to $1,200 off with a trade-in and new line
• T-Mobile: up to $1,000 off with a trade-in and new line
• Red Pocket: get $100 off an unlocked iPhone Duo
• Xfinity: get up to $1,000 off with a trade-in and unlimited plan

Best iPhone Duo preorders in the UK

• Sky: from £47 per month with a £12 upfront fee
• Vodafone: up to £855 off with a trade-in and from £27.45 per month
• EE: from £73.57 a month
• Three: save up to £1,035 when you trade in
• Tesco Mobile: save up to £90 with a Clubcard and get a £100 gift card

Apple iPhone Duo: what's new?

Quite a lot, actually. Considering the iPhone Duo is Apple's first attempt at a foldable phone. In typical Apple fashion, the brand has taken a slightly different approach to Samsung, Google, and other brands by adopting a shorter and wider form factor with the Duo. The device more closely resembles a passport than the traditional book-style foldable phones — almost like an iPad mini that you can fold and take anywhere.

The iPhone Duo features a 5.4-inch outer display, plus a 7.6-inch Super Retina XDR inner display with an interesting matte-like finish that supposedly diminishes the visible 'fold' that you often see on these displays.

The device also features the new A20 Pro chipset and a titanium frame, which Apple says is reinforced by ceramic fibres. Apple has also placed an emphasis on a few exclusive software features, including new Liquid Glass animations and wide-screen support for popular apps. To aid its productivity credentials, Apple Pencil support is also added with the Duo — a first for iPhones.

Note, however, that the Duo has a few core iPhone features missing, like Face ID, a telephoto camera, and the action button, which are all there on the new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.

Pre-orders for the iPhone Duo in Australia started on October 16 at 11pm AEST through Apple Australia, various retailers and telcos.

Prices begin at a slightly eye-watering AU$3,499 for the base 256GB model (for reference, Samsung’s equivalent Galaxy Z Fold 8 starts at AU$2,699), and go as high as AU$5,899 for the 2TB configuration.

As expected, we haven’t seen any discounts on the handset itself, but retailers and telcos have added freebies and bonuses to make it worth your while.

The standout deal we’ve seen so far is Vodafone, which is offering a AU$300 trade-in credit on top of your old device's value, which can be up to AU$1,585 depending on the model.

Telcos have also revealed the monthly instalment costs, with plans starting at AU$117.89 per month — if you’re willing to take on a longer repayment period.

The best iPhone Duo outright deals

If you’re ordering directly from Apple, financing is available via Afterpay when you pre-order the iPhone Duo, starting at AU$145.79 per month for 24 months. The trade-in values from Apple are also more generous, with up to AU$1,595 depending on the device.

Otherwise, the device is also available through a range of retailers, with the current pre-order offers listed below:

The best iPhone Duo telco deals

What’s new with the iPhone Duo?

The iPhone Duo is Apple’s first attempt at a foldable handset, adopting a shorter and wider form factor than traditional book-style folding phones. Featuring a 5.4-inch outer display with a 7.6-inch Super Retina XDR inner display, the device looks somewhat like a squat iPhone mini when folded and an iPad mini when opened.

It features the new A20 Pro chipset and a titanium frame, which Apple says is reinforced by ceramic fibres. The Duo, however, also has a few core iPhone features missing, like Face ID, a telephoto camera and the action button, but is still undeniably the star of the show.

There are also some exclusive software features that look to take advantage of the larger folding display, like some new Liquid Glass animations and multitasking features. Moreover, the Duo will also get Apple Pencil support, which is a first for any iPhone.

[Editor's note] preorders are now officially live and you can check out our bespoke preorders guide for a roundup of the biggest discounts on the device.

If you're already getting ready to place your order, then note that there are a few little tips and tricks you might want to know ahead of go-time. In some cases, these pointers could save you a few headaches — and potentially a little cash on the side, too.

I've laid out the various tips just below for our readers, including pre-save, information on deals, the benefits of an in-store visit, and any useful additional content to check out ahead of preorders.

Note that the iPhone Duo is set to launch at $1,999 / £1,999 and will be available at Apple both in-store and online. Preorders will also open at major carriers like Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T, as well as UK networks such as O2, Vodafone, and EE.

1. Pre-save at Apple

This is a tip that I covered in some detail earlier this week, but the short of it is: you can already head on over to the Apple Store to input your details before you buy.

Entering your shipping, color, storage, and trade-in details can save you time and effort once preorders open. Right now, I'm still on the fence about whether the iPhone Duo will sell out, but certainly, companies tend to make these higher-end foldable devices in smaller numbers than the mass-market devices.

With all the hype around the Duo, it could sell out. Subsequently, pre-saving your details ahead of time might mean the difference between securing a preorder and missing out. This is certainly my number one tip for anyone looking to preorder today.

2. Browse the available deals ahead of time

This one is pretty obvious, but one massive benefit of the huge build-up to today's iPhone Duo preorders is that several carriers have already listed their opening promotions.

Over at Verizon, for example, you can see the carrier's new all-in-one deal on the iPhone Duo, which bundles a device with an unlimited data plan for $72. At AT&T, the carrier is set to offer competitive discounts of up to $1,200 with a trade-in and a new plan. T-Mobile will be offering up to $1,000 off with a trade-in and a new plan, but I suspect there will be non-trade-in savings available, too.

If you're interested in an unlocked device, then you can use Apple's trade-in menu to estimate how much you'll get for your old device. Right now, the rebates are capped at $885 / £855, but you'll need a relatively new device in good condition to hit that maximum discount. Even if you have an older phone, however, it's worth using the estimator to see what you'll get ahead of time.

3. Brush up on our content

If you're currently twiddling your thumbs waiting for preorders to open, why not consider checking out TechRadar's phone channel?

For example, you can read our recent story on the CEO of phone company Nothing calling the iPhone Duo 'a waste of money' — a rather hot take, if I've ever seen one. You can also check out this really interesting in-depth expert feature on Apple's new Upgrade program to determine whether it's for you — and whether it's good for the industry as a whole.

4. Consider visiting in-store store

Do you have an Apple Store nearby? It could be worth visiting in person to simply buy a device outright. Interestingly, according to a Tweet by Mark Gurman, Apple will be offering to customize the boot-up of your device with a personalized message, which could be a nice little bonus over simply buying a device online.

There are other reasons to buy a device in store, too. If online stores face heavy traffic once preorders are live, there could be some delivery delays if you're later in the queue. I've seen similar scenarios unfold with previous iPhone launches where delivery dates sometimes stretch back to November and December in some extreme cases. That hasn't been the case for a few years now, however.

Apple introduced the second-gen AirTag 2 at the start of 2026, bringing with it upgraded features, including being able to be found from a farther distance, and a louder speaker so you can hear it more easily — and currently, you can save 22% on a four-pack at Amazon for a limited time.

Take it from me, the AirTag is one of the gadgets that you never knew you needed until you own it. I own the first-gen model, and have them attached to a couple of sets of keys. I lost one set on a late-night walk home some time ago, and rather than feel stressed about the whole ordeal, I simply opened the Find My app the next morning and saw exactly where my keys were. A short while later, we were reunited.

As mentioned, the second-generation AirTag offers some notable upgrades over its predecessor that make it even more findable. These include a heavily upgraded ultra-wideband (UWB) chip that enables precise AirTag finding from up to 50% farther away than the previous tracker. You will, however, need an iPhone 15 or newer to take advantage of this feature. If you have an older iPhone, you’ll still get the new precision finding feature, but range is limited to around nine metres or 30 feet.

The other notable upgrade is a speaker that’s 50% louder. When you’re trying to find an AirTag, you can get it to play a sound. The first-gen model has already proven to be loud enough in my experience, but a louder version is always going to be welcome.

We found both upgrades worked a charm in our Apple AirTag 2 review.

What’s more — and perhaps my favourite feature of all — Apple has continued to employ easily user-replaceable CR2032 batteries to ensure your AirTags will keep working for years to come. I’ve owned the first-gen trackers for almost 3 years, and I’ve only replaced the battery in the one I use most (on my house keys) twice. Other trackers that have laid dormant still have their first battery inside, and I can see them on the Find My app.

If you’ve been holding off investing in Apple’s AirTag trackers, now could be a perfect time. And if you do go ahead and buy, make sure to check out the various accessories available, including key rings, straps, wallets and more.

• View more of the latest, expert-approved deals on Amazon Australia.

While it’s unclear exactly how much demand there is for the iPhone Duo, it's sure to be a popular phone — in fact, there’s a good chance it will be the best-selling foldable phone ever. But the CEO of a rival brand thinks it’s not particularly good value.

Carl Pei — the CEO of Nothing and co-founder of OnePlus — has posted a short YouTube video calling the iPhone Duo “a waste of money” due to its lack of key iPhone features. The Duo doesn't feature a telephoto camera or Face ID, and ships with a worse front-facing camera than you get with the iPhone 18 Pro.

Pei sums up the situation by saying “it’s $2,000 and costs more than an iPhone Pro with fewer features… so you’re paying more and you’re getting less.” And he’s not wrong — although the extra screen gives the Duo at least one feature not found on the Pro models.

Pei additionally highlights the Duo's folding animation as being what most people seem to be excited about, rather than its hinge or cameras (he notes that, while it’s a nice animation, “it’s just an animation at the end of the day” — i.e., not really a reason to buy the phone).

Still, he credits Apple’s attention to even the smallest details — such as that folding animation — for being the reason the Duo is likely to do so well.

Personally, I think it’s more simply because it has an Apple logo on the front — and because the vast number of iPhone users will be more likely to use a foldable that runs iOS than one that runs Android. But either way, criticisms could certainly be leveled at the phone's specs and value.

Don't get scammed

In any case, it’s likely the iPhone Duo will be in high demand when pre-orders open on Friday, and it might also be in short supply, with analyst Jeff Pu suggesting (via 9to5Mac) that “hinge constraints” are causing production slowdowns.

As such, some buyers might be tempted to take drastic steps to ensure they get an iPhone Duo on day one, which explains why pre-order bots are being advertised to help purchase the phone — with some even claiming to secure multiple units, which might appeal to resellers.

But as Francis Fong Po-kiu, honorary president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, said to The Standard, “even if you succeed in securing the phone, the follow-up cost, including stolen personal or credit card data, is extremely high.”

After all, not only are these bots typically not free to use, but they’re likely to require your payment information to place the order — putting them in a position to then steal from you if the developers are unscrupulous. Additionally, they could include malware, giving them access to other sensitive information on your device.

So, they’re simply not worth the risk, and as Malwarebytes points out, you should also watch out for fake pre-order pages.

Instead, you should ensure you’re ordering the iPhone Duo directly from Apple or other reputable retailers, and if you want to get ahead of the game, you can both input your details ahead of time using Apple’s ‘Get Ready’ feature, and make sure you place your order as soon as pre-orders open at 5am PT / 8am ET / 1pm BST / 11pm AEDT on Friday, 16th October.

The show was highly anticipated following his Album of the Year Grammy Award for Debí Tirar Más Fotos and history-making Super Bowl Halftime Show.

But the excitement around the show wasn’t just because of the scale of the artist, it was also due to the incredibly ambitious scale of the production.

The best stadium tours have a way of making their use of technology seamless and in some cases, invisible.

You see a 100ft screen tracking the band’s movement from across the field without missing a beat, or members of the audience picked out and flashed on the giant LED walls around the venue.

None of it looks labored or complex, at least not to the general public in attendance. To them it’s all part of the magic of the show, which is exactly the point.

Media servers

Carlos “Charly” Camina is the tour’s media server engineer, and the size of the kit he oversees is much smaller than the grand scale of the show might suggest. The entire production runs on four Disguise GX 3+ servers, with a fifth GX 3 unit held in reserve as an understudy for the show’s director.

That’s down from five servers during the tour’s earlier Puerto Rico leg, despite the fact that the World Tour carries significantly more content layers and considerably bigger screens at 10,752 x 2,816px, requiring a 4K input.

The GX3+ upgrade alone roughly doubled the processing headroom for the same effects load, which is what made it possible to deliver more with a smaller footprint. The lighting runs on grandMA kit, the unchallenged global industry-standard for live event lighting control, with a grandMA light desk as the main control surface and a grandMA3 compact unit as backup.

The whole setup sits on a dedicated network split into eight isolated VLANs, a structural choice to provide containment, so that a fault in one part of the system can’t spread and collapse the whole thing. The engineering challenge on a show of this scale isn’t cramming in more and more hardware, it’s finding the smallest reliable solution that can do the job every single night, in any venue, anywhere on the planet.

Adaptability is key on any tour

The most unique piece of engineering on the Bad Bunny Tour wasn’t actually planned or commissioned ahead of the show. During rehearsals, the creative team at Sturdy suggested photographing the crowd during the opening act and then displaying those images on LED screens around the venue later on in the show. Charly’s instinct was to push back. Loading fresh, unvetted content into the live system with zero headroom for troubleshooting is the kind of risk that wise engineers know to avoid.

His solution was to keep the additional photography content out of the Disguise system altogether. Instead, he built a standalone application using HTTP Sockpuppet and OSC (Open Sound Control) to communicate with the main Disguise system, running off a laptop. A photographer hands over images for Charly to upload. When the relevant cue fires inside Disguise, it sends a request to the laptop for specific images, which are mapped to specific locations on a four-way live layout.

Charly said that the hardest part wasn’t the concept, it was the live timing: ensuring that front-of-house and the on-stage servers sync closely enough so that there’s no discernable lag, and making sure the system never repeats the same face twice in one night.

How this curveball was handled is a good example of a pattern that shows up across the whole build: rather than adding risk to a proven core system, Charly builds smaller satellite systems to support it and keeps them loosely connected. It’s a slick approach that preserves the magic and spontaneity of a seamless live experience, without risking the core build or compromising the show’s production value.

Animated CGI Frog - Why not?

The tour’s most curious element involved a Puerto Rican-inspired 3D animated frog called “Concho” rendered live using Unreal Engine and a face-tracked performer, which enabled Concho to interact directly with Bad Bunny mid-show as part of a FaceTime call. The segment needed a camera that could move freely, handheld, so the team decided to use an iPhone.

However, the phone could not have any visible external antennas. This meant the feed from the iPhone had to be captured over NDI (Network Device Interface) on a dedicated Wi-Fi network, rather than a standard wireless link that could have been easily interrupted by the tens of thousands of audience and staff devices around the arena. Charly’s team has to scan the RF spectrum every night to find clear channels before the Concho segment goes live.

The benefit of reliability

The ultimate stress test of the system came during the show’s finale where the production deployed a 40-tile feed, displayed in a grid across the main 5K screen and two IMAG screens. Together with Screens Producer Vishal Sharma and his team at All of it Now, who created all the show’s Notch content, Charly decided to route four separate 4K video inputs through a Notch block to build the grid live.

Nothing was pre-rendered or keyframed and the color-grading also took place in real-time. That final segment pushed the servers to their limit, with all four of the GX 3+ units red lining on their performance markers. Despite the load, the system held and delivered a truly spectacular end to the show.

Charly has worked with Disguise servers for over a decade. In that time he’s worked on shows of all types, from festivals like Coachella to state-of-the-art mixed-use venues like the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. With that much experience using these systems, what’s clear to him is that the value in this system isn’t in a specific creative feature. The value is knowing that if a server has an issue mid-show, he can switch to a backup with just one click and have full confidence that the backup will take over seamlessly.

For an engineer, touring a production this huge, reliability and predictability is the actual product. The breathtaking visuals that we get to enjoy as part of the audience will rightly get their applause, but the job is protecting the integrity of the show from its own scale and demands, every night, in every city, until the tour comes to an end.

The same existential threat applied to all carriers except AT&T and O2, which had exclusive launch rights to the iPhone in the US and UK, respectively.

Fast-forward 19 years, and Apple has repeatedly proven that the iPhone's popularity gives it considerable power over its carrier partners — customers are no longer loyal to the carrier providing the mobile service, but to the brand behind their favorite phone.

Apple's newest commercial venture, the Apple Upgrade program — which was announced earlier this year and is, at the time of writing, still only available in the US — is the latest dagger to the heart of major MNOs (Mobile Network Operators).

But despite being a fantastic deal for customers and Apple itself (and make no mistake: I believe it's a net positive move), the Apple Upgrade program could yet prove a double-edged sword for the mobile industry as a whole. Let me explain.

Carriers used to have ALL the power...

To understand what the Apple Upgrade program is, you have to first understand how the industry worked before the original iPhone. To say that Apple has irrevocably changed the carrier business model on numerous occasions may seem like hyperbole, but it’s hard to overstate the company's lasting effect.

Before the original iPhone, carriers were integral to a phone's success. Carriers controlled which phones were sold in stores, which phones received the bigger marketing pushes, and which were “certified” to work with that carrier.

This meant that all phone makers had to focus more on acquiescing to carrier requests — including shipping customized devices with several preloaded apps and even carrier-specific branding — than meeting their customers' needs.

In many ways, carriers were the customer rather than the end-user itself, and they proved even more integral, as each carrier also controlled when software updates were released to its phones. I remember clearly how customers would blame the phone maker for software-related shortcomings rather than the carrier, even if the software update was delayed by the carrier’s own internal testing.

The power of carriers was inevitably going to be replaced by a different model, but the iPhone had a marked effect on the power wielded by carriers in more ways than one.

... until Apple launched the original iPhone

If you’ve seen the BlackBerry movie, you’ll remember the line used to describe the original iPhone before it went on sale: it had the "highest interest of any consumer electronic item in history". To go further, its original $499 / £269 price also made it the most expensive phone in history at the time.

But contrary to industry standards at the time, the exceptional consumer interest in the original iPhone meant carriers were clamoring to stock it, rather than Apple having to entice them to sell it. This complete reversal of established norms also meant Apple was able to stamp out many of the key controls carriers had, and the effect was stark.

Let’s consider each of the previous requests that carriers would make of a phone maker. Branding on the phone itself or in the software? Gone for the iPhone. Preloaded carrier apps and other bloatware? Gone for the iPhone. A software update schedule controlled by carriers? Apple releases updates to all phones at the same time globally. Customized models? Carriers should be grateful they get to stock the iPhone at all.

However, Apple's unique position went even further. Phone makers used to have to discount phones and offer incentives, but for many years, Apple did not. Granted, we are now in an era in which Apple competes through trade-in promotions and works closely with its carrier partners, but it was the last major phone maker to embrace promotional pricing of any kind.

It's not just Apple that has benefited from these changes; as Apple established new ground rules, companies like Samsung, Google, and LG have all benefited from a different playbook than in the pre-smartphone era.

Now, with the Apple Upgrade program, Apple again holds outsized control over the customer journey. For many, this is a great program, but for other stakeholders, it’s decidedly not. Here’s why.

The Apple Upgrade program is a great deal for consumers

The Apple Upgrade Program is a leasing program provided by Apple, with financing by Klarna. It lets you lease a new iPhone, Mac, iPad, or Apple Watch and pay for it monthly over a fixed lease period (between 12 months and 36 months). At the end of the lease, you can opt to return the item to Apple at no charge or buy it out for the remaining value; the latter is a particularly attractive offer for customers.

Most lease programs have you spending more money over the course of the lease compared with buying the item outright. This arbitrage is how the financing lender makes their money, but with the Apple Upgrade program, you’ll never pay more in total than the outright purchase value.

This is crucial: Apple is effectively offering 0% financing across its range of products, and while it likely pays Klarna directly for providing these services, it does not pass any additional costs on to the customer. In essence, you can still buy any Apple item you plan to, but you now have a more flexible way to pay for it, with no credit card or specific credit limit needed.

... and also great for Apple

The current state of RAMageddon — aka the soaring cost of all technology due to the shortage of RAM modules — meant it was inevitable that Apple would have to increase its product prices, which it did by a considerable margin in both June and September this year.

Despite Apple customers traditionally being less price-sensitive than Android customers, rising prices during a global cost-of-living crisis would inevitably have impacted its financial statements and, therefore, its share price.

The Apple Upgrade program changes this reality in a big way: in the US at least, it’s now far easier for customers to buy Apple products (and more of them) than they used to be able to, and Apple itself gains far more valuable numbers to present to its shareholders: the number of customers on subscriptions; the dollar value of those sold; and the number of customers.

More than that, the Upgrade Program offers Apple predictable revenue numbers for quarters and years into the future, and allows it to launch more products across the year without worrying as much about established launch cycles and windows.

It also makes all of its new products far more accessible to the masses, which is particularly prescient given the now-confirmed $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,499 launch price of the iPhone Duo, which begins shipping next week.

However, the Apple Upgrade program is bad for carriers...

For all its positives, there are two areas where the Apple Upgrade program could have a negative effect — and both stem from its potential impact on carriers.

Like the now-discontinued iPhone Upgrade program before it, an iPhone purchased via the Apple Upgrade program is seemingly unlocked for use on any network. It still requires activation with one of the Big Three carriers — Verizon, T-Mobile US, or AT&T — at the point of sale, but once you complete said activation, you can switch to a different carrier of your choosing.

This undoubtedly reduces the need to be locked into a long-term, multi-year contract with your carrier and, crucially, removes a key source of revenue from locked devices: roaming fees. Together, they will impact carriers’ revenue, inevitably leading to several knock-on effects for the consumer.

First, customers will inevitably end up paying more for their service plans, whether through higher plan costs, higher add-on costs, or even increased out-of-bundle charges.

Second, the above will lead to an even more booming MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) market, but as we’ve seen with Mint Mobile, these MVNOs will also inevitably be acquired by the aforementioned big carriers they rely on.

The biggest impact will be felt in network technology and retail footprint. Verizon, T-Mobile US, and AT&T are publicly traded and have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders. They might pay even more for future spectrum holdings, but the adoption and rollout of future technologies could be much slower if the Apple Upgrade program takes off in the way Apple clearly hopes. This isn’t just hyperbole; we’ve already seen this happen with the 5G rollout and the LTE rollout before it.

The impact will be even more acute for those who like to frequent carrier retail stores. T-Mobile has already made some services fully digital, and, like other industries, phone retail seems to be undergoing a managed decline. Further pressure on carriers’ revenue sources will simply accelerate this shift, leaving vulnerable customers most likely to feel the effects.

So, yes, the Apple Upgrade program is a fantastic deal for most people involved, but I am concerned about the impact it will have on carrier operations, and specifically how these operations might impact consumers in the long term.

Having said all that, my next Apple purchase will almost certainly be through the Apple Upgrade program — it’s a deal that’s too good not to take advantage of, especially if you’re buying one of Apple's higher-spec models.

If you are interested, however, note that there's a little trick you can use to get ahead of the crowds to make preordering easier.

Apple is opening its 'Get Ready' feature today, which allows potential customers to input details ahead of preordering. That includes shipping details, storage capacity, color, and carrier preferences. That's everything that could slow you down if you were to input them once preorders go live, essentially.

You can use the Get Ready feature on both the Apple Store page for the iPhone Duo and the Apple Store‌ app, so it's definitely worth doing if you're looking for a preorder. With this feature, all you have to do is turn up on time and click order, which could be handy if the device is flying off the shelves.

It's quite tough to predict whether the iPhone Duo will sell out or not, but I would err on the side of caution here if you're interested. Excitement is high since it's Apple's first foldable device and these types of devices tend to be manufactured in smaller batches. For example, the Galaxy TriFold sold out earlier this year.

What are the opening Apple iPhone Duo deals?

Apple has already listed a few of the various preorder deals that will be going live this Friday, so you can also check those out to see if they fit the bill.

First up, there's Apple's trade-in rebate of up to $885 for unlocked devices. That matches the maximum rebate we saw on the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, so it's a pretty good deal — albeit one that we were expecting.

Two other options listed on the iPhone Duo page are AT&T and T-Mobile. In the case of the former, it's a competitive trade-in rebate of up to $1,200 off with a new line. In the case of the latter, a rebate of up to $1,000, which is a little less than what I was expecting, to be honest.

One deal that's conspicuously missing from Apple's iPhone Duo page is Verizon's opening promotion. You'll have to navigate to Verizon's iPhone Duo page to see that, which is a great all-in-one bundle option. In short, you can combine a Duo with the carrier's 'Simplicity Pro' unlimited plan for $72.22/mo without having to trade in. The carrier is offering a whopping $33/mo discount on device payments, so this could be an extremely competitive opening promotion.

Note: we'll have more recommendations, tips, and news on the upcoming iPhone Duo in the next week. Stay tuned for more preorder content, including recommendations on carrier promotions once they're live.

If you were to arrange Apple's current crop of iPhones in terms of price, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Air would sit squarely in the middle of the pack. They're more expensive than the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17e, but cheaper than the iPhone 18 Pro Max and iPhone Duo.

Generally speaking, these two devices are for people who want something special from their phones, but don’t quite want to spend top-end money — or simply don’t want the massive (or foldable) screens that Apple’s priciest handsets come with.

But the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Air are also quite different in a lot of ways. One delivers pro-level features and market-leading camera performance; the other offers a comfortable and stylish design. So which should you choose?

Below, we've detailed the key differences between the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Air to help you figure out which device is best for you.

iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone Air: specs comparison

The table below gives you a brief overview of these two handsets; then, under that, we’ll look more closely at what makes them tick.

iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone Air: price and availability

The iPhone 18 Pro launched in September 2026, and it’s available globally. It starts at $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,099, for which you’ll get a model with 256GB of storage. 512GB will set you back $1,399 / £1,399 / AU$2,499, 1TB costs $1,799 / £1,799 / AU$3,299, and a 2TB model is $2,399 / £2,399 / AU$4,499.

The iPhone Air launched back in September 2025, so it’s a year older but doesn’t yet have a successor. It too is widely available, and it costs $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,899 for 256GB of storage, $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,299 for 512GB, and $1,699 / £1,699 / AU$3,099 for 1TB — there's no 2TB variant of the iPhone Air.

So, the starting price of the iPhone 18 Pro is $100 / £100 / AU$200 higher than that of the Air, and that difference is consistent for each configuration. Importantly, though, the Air is often on sale, so you're unlikely to need to pay full price.

It's worth noting, too, that the iPhone Air was actually priced at $999 / £999 / AU$1,799 at launch, but Apple increased its price following the launch of the iPhone 18 Pro in September, just as it raised the price of iPads and MacBooks in June due to "significantly higher memory costs."

iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone Air: design

Notwithstanding their display size differences (more on that below), the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Air look similar from the front, offering flat screens, minimal bezels, and Dynamic Island cut-outs at the top of their respective displays.

The Dynamic Island on the iPhone 18 Pro is actually a touch smaller than the Air's, and it can display three Live Activities simultaneously instead of two, but this isn't a particularly consequential difference.

From the back, there are more visible differences between the two phones. The iPhone Air is made from a single slab of glass surrounded by a titanium frame, while the iPhone 18 Pro has a glass panel surrounded by an aluminum frame.

Their respective camera layouts are different too, with the iPhone 18 Pro having a much larger triple-lens block compared to the iPhone Air’s slimmer, single-lens camera island.

But the biggest design differences come in the two phones' dimensions and weights. The iPhone 18 Pro measures 150 x 71.9 x 8.8mm and weighs 211g, while the iPhone Air measures 156.2 x 74.7 x 5.6mm and weighs 165g.

Those are substantial differences — the iPhone Air is far slimmer and lighter than the iPhone 18 Pro, which is, of course, the whole point of the phone. It feels much more comfortable to hold in the hand and carry around in your pocket, despite being taller and wider.

Having a thin and lightweight phone might not matter all that much to you, in which case you probably won't care for the iPhone Air's design. But I'd urge you to at least hold Apple's super-slim iPhone in your hand before disregarding it — it genuinely is a lovely device to use day-to-day, and TechRadar's Phones Editor, Axel Metz, was surprised by how much he came to appreciate the Air's design in testing.

The iPhone 18 Pro is, of course, still an attractive and well-designed phone, but it's significantly bulkier and doesn't excite in the same way as the Air — at least on the design front.

For colors, the iPhone 18 Pro comes in Black, Silver, Glacier, and Burgundy, while the iPhone Air is sold in Space Black, Cloud White, Light Gold, and Sky Blue. So there are some differences there too.

Both phones, though, are similarly durable, offering Ceramic Shield 2 protection on the front and Ceramic Shield on the back, along with IP68 water and dust resistance.

iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone Air: display

The iPhone 18 Pro has a 6.3-inch 1206 x 2622 Super Retina XDR OLED screen with around 460 pixels per inch, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 3,000 nits.

On the iPhone Air, you’re getting a 6.5-inch 1260 x 2736 Super Retina XDR OLED display with roughly 460 pixels per inch, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 3,000 nits.

So the specs here are almost identical, with the main difference just being that the iPhone Air has a slightly larger display — though as noted earlier, the iPhone 18 Pro does have a smaller Dynamic Island.

Our reviews described both screens as “punchy, sharp, and smooth,” so there’s really very little to choose here. Do you prefer a bigger display, or a more compact one?

iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone Air: cameras

There’s a clear winner when it comes to cameras and, unsurprisingly, it’s the iPhone 18 Pro: this device has three lenses on the back — a 48MP variable aperture main camera, a 48MP ultra-wide with a 120-degree field of view, and a 48MP telephoto with 4x optical zoom and 8x ‘optical-quality’ zoom, achieved through a sensor crop.

The iPhone Air, meanwhile, just has a single 48MP wide camera with a static f/1.6 aperture. In other words, you have far less photographic versatility with this phone, which you'll notice when filming at concerts, sports games, or basically anywhere that might have you attempting to capture a subject from far away.

That's not to say the iPhone Air is a bad camera phone — its 48MP wide camera is the same as the 18 Pro's, minus the latter's variable aperture feature (which lets you tweak how much light gets into the lens). If you use your phone's main lens for 90% of shots, you may not notice the Air's lack of versatility.

But the iPhone 18 Pro is indisputably one of the best camera phones you can buy, while the iPhone Air falls into the 'good but not great' category.

Still, the Air does at least match the iPhone 18 Pro’s selfie camera, with both devices sporting an 18MP front-facing sensor. Both can also record 1080p video at up to 240fps, though the Pro can additionally record 4K footage at up to 120fps, while the iPhone Air tops out at 60fps.

In our iPhone 18 Pro review, we described its cameras as delivering “better detail, strong low-light performance, and excellent 4x and 8x zoom.” Of the iPhone Air, we said it “delivers sharp, natural photos and impressive portraits, but lacks the versatility found on other models.”

iPhone 18 Pro camera samples

iPhone Air camera samples

iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone Air: performance and software

As for power, you'll technically get better performance from the iPhone 18 Pro, with Apple's newer phone boasting — surprise! — a newer A20 Pro chipset than the iPhone Air's A19 Pro chipset.

Still, you're not likely to notice this power difference unless you plan on using your phone for heavy video editing or prolonged gaming. Both the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Air feature 12GB of RAM, so their multitasking capabilities are comparable, while scrolling, streaming, and browsing won't present a challenge to either device.

Our iPhone 18 Pro review called Apple's newer phone “fast, efficient, and ready for whatever comes next”, and we said the iPhone Air was “fast and smooth in daily use, though it can warm up under sustained heavy gaming.”

There’s even less difference between the two phones when it comes to software, as both run iOS 27. Their shared 12GB RAM capacity also means both phones get the full version of Siri AI, which includes expressive voices and advanced dictation.

However, since the iPhone Air shipped with iOS 26 at launch and is a slightly older phone, it’s possible that it won’t be updated for quite as long as the iPhone 18 Pro (read: you'll probably get six more years of updates, instead of seven).

iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone Air: battery

You probably wouldn’t expect a massive battery in a phone as slim as the iPhone Air, and you’d be right not to: the Air has a dinky 3,149mAh cell, which is dwarfed by the iPhone 18 Pro's 4,288mAh one (you'll get a slightly smaller 4,056mAh battery if your iPhone 18 Pro features a physical SIM tray).

In practice, Apple claims the iPhone 18 Pro can make it through 34 hours of video playback, while it lists just 27 hours for the iPhone Air. Those figures proved accurate in our testing, and the gap between the two phones is similar for real-world use — you'll get around a day-and-a-half of life from the 18 Pro, and no more than a day for the Air.

The iPhone 18 Pro also charges faster, with Apple claiming it can reach 50% in around 15 minutes, while the iPhone Air takes twice as long — though with wireless charging, both phones can supposedly charge to 50% in 30 minutes.

In our iPhone 18 Pro review, we praised its “outstanding endurance,” while in our iPhone Air review, we said it “should last a workday, but heavy users will need to recharge.” We've used both phones extensively, and haven't found the iPhone Air's one-day battery life to be a dealbreaker — but those who don't charge their phone every night may be caught short by its lack of endurance.

iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone Air: verdict

If you go simply by our review scores, the iPhone 18 Pro is the better phone, achieving five stars to the iPhone Air's four. And looking at the specs, it’s clear why — the iPhone 18 Pro has better battery life, more power, and more cameras, so it’s clearly the more capable device.

However, there’s little to choose between the two phones' screens, other than the size — with the iPhone Air’s being bigger. And they run the same software too, on top of which the iPhone Air is slightly cheaper (especially if you can pick it up at a discount).

But the real reason you might want the Air is its design — it's far slimmer and lighter than the iPhone 18 Pro, which makes a difference in your hand and pocket, and also makes it the more stylish device. Whether that makes up for its relative shortcomings elsewhere will be a personal choice.

Usually, September brings a new standard iPhone, but this year was different — we didn’t get an iPhone 18, with that device reportedly set to land early next year instead.

As such, we’re in the odd situation of the iPhone 17 coexisting alongside the iPhone 18 Pro as a current-generation model in Apple's iPhone lineup.

It goes without saying that the iPhone 18 Pro is the better phone — it’s both newer and a Pro model, duh! — but just how much better is it really? And how much more does it cost? We’ve answered those questions in the comparison below.

iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17: specs comparison

Before we examine every major detail of these phones, the chart below will give you a brief overview of their core specs and how they compare.

iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17: price and availability

The iPhone 18 Pro was announced in September 2026, and it’s available now. This being an iPhone, you can buy it in most parts of the world too.

The cheapest version of the 18 Pro comes with 256GB of storage and costs $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,099, but you can also get a model with 512GB of storage for $1,399 / £1,399 / AU$2,499, one with 1TB of storage for $1,799 / £1,799 / AU$3,299, or a massive 2TB configuration for $2,399 / £2,399 / AU$4,499.

The iPhone 17 launched a year earlier, in September 2025, and is similarly widely available. This device starts at $899 / £899 / AU$1,549 for 256GB of storage, rising to $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,949 for 512GB of storage. But those are the only two configurations, so you can’t get the iPhone 17 with 1TB or 2TB.

That price, then, makes the iPhone 18 Pro $300 / £300 / AU$550 more expensive than the iPhone 17 in both their 256GB and 512GB configurations, with the iPhone 18 Pro getting more expensive still if you choose a 1TB or 2TB model.

Incidentally, the iPhone 17 was actually priced at $799 / £799 / AU$1,399 at launch, but Apple increased its price following the launch of the iPhone 18 Pro in September, just as it raised the price of iPads and MacBooks in June due to "significantly higher memory costs."

iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17: design

The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 17 don’t have drastically different designs — both have flat screens protected with Ceramic Shield 2, and both feature a Dynamic Island cut-out near the top (though the iPhone 18 Pro’s cut-out is smaller and can display three Live Activities simultaneously, versus two on the iPhone 17).

Both also have aluminum frames, similarly curvy corners, and an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance. But they differ a bit more from the back, as while the iPhone 17’s rear panel is made of glass, the iPhone 18 Pro has a glass panel surrounded by aluminum.

The iPhone 18 Pro also has a large, horizontal camera block, while the iPhone 17 has a smaller vertical one.

They differ in weight and dimensions, too, with the iPhone 18 Pro being larger and heavier at 150 x 71.9 x 8.8mm and 211g, while the iPhone 17 measures 149.6 x 71.5 x 8mm and weighs 177g.

They're also available in different colors: the iPhone 18 Pro comes in Black, Silver, Glacier, and Burgundy, while the iPhone 17 comes in Black, White, Mist Blue, Sage, and Lavender.

Still, these are both stylish, premium phones, with our iPhone 18 Pro review praising its “fantastic” new colors, and our iPhone 17 review praising that phone's “durable build” — though in both reviews, we noted that they look similar to their predecessors, so there’s not much new here.

iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17: display

The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 17 both have a 6.3-inch Super Retina XDR OLED screen with a 1-120Hz refresh rate, a 1206 x 2622 resolution (coming in at roughly 460 pixels per inch), and brightness that peaks at 3,000 nits.

So, they’re basically identical here, with the only significant difference being that the iPhone 18 Pro has a smaller cut-out for its Dynamic Island — which, as mentioned, also allows it to display up to three Live Activities simultaneously, whereas the iPhone 17 is limited to two.

Still, this is a small difference, and both phones have great screens, with our iPhone 18 Pro review describing its display as “punchy, sharp, and smooth,” while our iPhone 17 review praised its “excellent visuals.”

iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17: cameras

With the iPhone 18 Pro, you get a 48MP wide camera with a variable aperture that can move between f/1.48 and f/4.0.

That variable aperture is arguably the main camera upgrade this year — it lets you control how much light gets into the main sensor, and therefore how much of a given background you want to keep in focus — but the phone also has a 48MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera with a 120-degree field of view, and a 48MP f/2.8 telephoto camera with 4x optical zoom and 8x ‘optical-quality’ zoom.

The iPhone 17, on the other hand, has a 48MP wide camera with a static f/1.6 aperture and a 48MP f/2.2 ultra-wide with a 120-degree field of view.

So the two phones have similar ultra-wide snappers, but the iPhone 17 doesn’t have a variable aperture on its wide camera, nor a dedicated telephoto lens, making it a far less versatile shooter — especially as it also lacks the pro camera controls offered by the iPhone 18 Pro.

Both phones, however, do have an 18MP f/1.9 Center Stage selfie camera that uses subject tracking to automatically keep you in the frame, and also lets you switch between portrait and landscape modes. All current-generation iPhones except the iPhone 17e have this same selfie camera.

When it comes to video, both the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 17 can film 1080p video at up to 240fps — though the former can also shoot 4K video at up to 120fps, whereas the iPhone 17 tops out at 60fps there.

In our iPhone 18 Pro review, we said its cameras deliver “better detail, strong low-light performance, and excellent 4x and 8x zoom,” while in our iPhone 17 review, we praised its “two excellent cameras.” So both phones are good for photography, but the iPhone 18 Pro is clearly the better of the two.

iPhone 18 Pro camera samples

iPhone 17 camera samples

iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17: performance and software

The iPhone 18 Pro has an A20 Pro chipset paired with 12GB of RAM, while the iPhone 17 has an A19 chipset (not the ‘Pro’ version) paired with 8GB of RAM. So, for both chipset and RAM, the iPhone 18 Pro has a substantial edge.

Apple claims that the CPU and GPU in the A20 Pro are up to 20% and 60% faster, respectively, than the A19 Pro in the iPhone 17 Pro, so the gains are likely even larger versus the iPhone 17's A19 chipset. In other words, the 18 Pro is the more capable device for gaming, using AI, or whatever else you plan to do with your phone.

Still, the iPhone 17 is no slouch — our review said its A19 chip is “plenty fast for now and should last well into the future.” We said something similar about the iPhone 18 Pro, describing it as “fast, efficient, and ready for whatever comes next.” In truth, most people won't ever need as much power as the A20 Pro chipset offers, and the A19 remains a supremely capable chipset for everyday tasks and light mobile gaming.

For software, both phones currently run iOS 27, but the iPhone 17 originally shipped with iOS 26, so it might not be updated for as long (Apple pledges around seven years of updates to each new model).

The iPhone 17 also lacks a few software and AI features found on the iPhone 18 Pro, such as more expressive voices for Siri, which rely on the Pro’s better hardware. You can read more about those specific features in our Siri AI compatibility explainer.

iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17: battery

The iPhone 18 Pro has a higher-capacity battery than the iPhone 17, with you getting either a 4,288mAh one (if you’re in the US or other regions that sell an eSIM-only model), or a 4,056mAh one elsewhere. The iPhone 17’s battery is a lower-capacity cell than either of those, at 3,692mAh in all regions.

So you won’t be surprised to learn that the iPhone 18 Pro also has better battery life than the iPhone 17. According to Apple, it can deliver up to 34 hours of video playback, while the iPhone 17 can manage 30.

In our reviews, we found that the iPhone 18 Pro exhibited “outstanding endurance,” while the iPhone 17 can “last all day.” So both are respectable here, but only the iPhone 18 Pro excels and will get you through a day-and-a-half of use.

And the Pro charges faster too — it can reach 50% charge in 15 minutes, according to Apple, with the iPhone 17 taking 20 minutes. Though if you use MagSafe, they both take 30 minutes.

iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17: verdict

Ultimately, the iPhone 18 Pro is a better phone than the iPhone 17 in most ways — it’s significantly more powerful, has more and better cameras, a longer-lasting battery, faster charging, and some software features the iPhone 17 lacks.

There’s little to choose between their screens, and they both have premium builds, but those are about the only areas where they’re close to equal.

However, the iPhone 18 Pro is also quite a lot more expensive than the iPhone 17, and while it’s better in most ways, the iPhone 17 is still no slouch. So you should ask yourself whether you really need all the Pro’s bells and whistles, because for a lot of people. the iPhone 17 will do just fine (even despite its price increase, it's still the best-value iPhone Apple has ever released).

Best for: Apple device owners who want an inexpensive, space-saving way to charge three devices at the same time.

The deal: The Energizer 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand is now $17.49 (was $49.99) at Best Buy.

Why it matters: The very low price makes a three-device charging station more affordable than many individual wireless charging accessories, and its foldable design adds portability.

Today's best charging station deal

Why we recommend it

The Energizer 3-in-1 Magnetic Foldable Wireless Charging Stand can charge an iPhone, wireless earbuds, and an Apple Watch at the same time. The phone charger supports wireless charging at 5W, 7.5W, 10W, or up to 15W. The earbud charging area provides 3W, while the watch charger delivers 2.5W.

The charger has a foldable design, which makes it easier to take with you when traveling. Although it works with Apple devices, the charger is also compatible with Samsung, Motorola, and Nokia smartphones.

Price context & historical value

Best Buy has reduced the Energizer 3-in-1 charging stand from $49.99 to $17.49 as part of its Energizer sale. That's a solid 65% off the usual price.

Buyers also get up to three months of Apple Music and up to one month of Apple TV, although you have to be a new or returning subscriber to benefit from the deal.

For more options, check out our roundup of the best phone chargers.

Should you buy it?

✅ Buy the Energizer 3-in-1 Charging Stand if...

You regularly charge an iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch and want to replace several charging cables with one compact station. At $17.49, it's a very affordable offer. Free trials for Apple TV and Apple Music make it even more appealing.

❌ Skip the Energizer 3-in-1 Charging Stand if...

You only need to charge one device or prefer the fastest possible wired charging speeds. A dedicated USB-C charger may be more practical.

More charging station deals

• Shop all Energizer cellphone accessories on sale

Most bugs can be fixed by software updates, but right now, some iPhone 18 Pro Max users are facing a glitch that requires a whole new handset.

In a statement to 9to5Mac, Apple has confirmed that a “small number” of iPhone 18 Pro Max devices on AT&T have lost cellular service, leaving them unable to make calls.

The company is rolling out a carrier settings update which — along with iOS 27.0.1 — is designed to prevent this issue from occurring on phones that aren’t already affected, but it won’t fix things for devices that already have the bug.

How to check if your phone is affected

So, how can you see if your phone is affected? Well, first off, the issue is limited to iPhone 18 Pro Max models on AT&T — the iPhone 18 Pro isn’t affected, likely because it uses a different modem. So if you’re not on AT&T or not using an iPhone 18 Pro Max, you should be fine.

If you are using this phone on AT&T, then you should easily be able to tell if the bug has hit your handset, as it will be displaying the word ‘SOS’ in the status bar, and you won’t be able to use AT&T’s network for calls, texts, or data — though Wi-Fi should still work.

If you haven’t experienced that, then make sure to update your phone to iOS 27.0.1 immediately. The carrier settings update that Apple is additionally rolling out should automatically be installed within the next 14 days, but you can trigger it before then by heading to Settings > General > About, where a prompt should then appear to download this.

But what if you’ve already been affected by this glitch? Well, sadly, the only option there is to get your phone replaced.

To do this, get in touch with Apple Support or AT&T over the phone or online, or visit an Apple Store or AT&T branch. Since this is an unfixable glitch, you should then be issued a free replacement — though make sure you’ve backed up your current iPhone first.

The iPhone 18 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra are the top non-foldable phones from Apple and Samsung, respectively. They both feature top-tier chipsets, big, beautiful screens, and several capable cameras — and they also cost a lot as a result.

But while, superficially, these two phones have a lot in common, they are, in many ways, quite different, so if you’re deciding between them in your search for the best phone of 2026, there are several factors to consider.

Below, then, we’ve detailed the specs and features of the iPhone 18 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra to give you a clearer idea of how they compare.

iPhone 18 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: specs comparison

Before we look closely at the key features of these two phones, here's how they stack up in terms of specs:

iPhone 18 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: price and availability

The iPhone 18 Pro Max was launched in September 2026 and is now available globally, while the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra landed in February 2026 and is also now widely available across the world.

For pricing, the iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,299, for which you get 256GB of storage. There are other options too, though, including $1,499 / £1,499 / AU$2,699 for 512GB, $1,899 / £1,899 / AU$3,499 for 1TB, and $2,499 / £2,499 / AU$4,699 for 2TB.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will set you back $1,299.99 / £1,279 / AU$2,199 for a 256GB model, $1,499.99 / £1,449 / AU$2,499 for 512GB, or $1,799.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,649 for 1TB.

So their starting prices are either similar or identical, depending on where you are, but as you move up the storage capacities, the gulf in price widens, with the iPhone 18 Pro Max being the more expensive model — and that’s before you even get to its 2TB configuration, which isn’t a capacity that's available for the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

iPhone 18 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: design

The iPhone 18 Pro Max has a similar design to the iPhone 17 Pro Max, with a large camera island on the back (housing three lenses) and a Dynamic Island cut-out in the screen — though the latter has shrunk since the previous model.

The frame is made of aluminum, and the back has an aluminum section and a glass part. The phone is also water-resistant to depths of six meters for up to 30 minutes, and it measures 163.4 x 78 x 8.8mm and weighs 249g.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has a slightly more angular design with less curvy corners, but it too has a large camera block on the back — though it’s arranged vertically, rather than horizontally as on the iPhone.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra also has a smaller punch-hole cut-out on its screen, and it uses aluminum for the frame and glass for the back. It has the same water resistance rating as the iPhone 18 Pro Max — namely IP68 — but it's only actually tested for depths of up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes.

The Ultra comes in at 163.6 x 78.1 x 7.9mm and weighs 214g, so it’s actually lighter and slimmer than the iPhone 18 Pro Max — despite finding room for a slot to house its included S Pen Stylus.

Finally, their colors also differ, with the iPhone 18 Pro Max being sold in Black, Silver, Glacier, and Burgundy shades, while the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is available in Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Black, White, Silver Shadow, and Pink Gold.

In our iPhone 18 Pro Max review, we described Burgundy and Glacier as being “two fantastic new colors”, but noted that little else had visually changed since the previous model, the iPhone 17 Pro.

In our Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review, we similarly noted that it’s an “incremental update that slims the phone down, makes it lighter, and just a little bit softer around the edges.”

iPhone 18 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: display

The iPhone 18 Pro Max has a 6.9-inch 1320 x 2868 OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 3,000-nit peak brightness, and around 460 pixels per inch.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has a 6.9-inch 1440 x 3120 AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 2,600-nit peak brightness, and roughly 500 pixels per inch.

So, the two phones have the same size screens, the same refresh rates, and both use OLED displays, but Samsung’s phone has a marginally higher pixel density, while Apple’s has a slightly higher peak brightness.

In our reviews, we praised both displays highly, saying that the iPhone 18 Pro Max’s was “punchy, sharp, and smooth”, and the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra’s was “a fantastic 6.9-inch AMOLED that makes every image pop.”

In terms of their screen specs and quality, then, there’s little to choose between them, but the Galaxy S26 Ultra has a trick up its sleeve in the form of Privacy Display — a feature that blanks out some or all of the screen when not viewed front-on, so people can’t as easily snoop. This is a great feature that our reviewer called “a one-of-a-kind innovation that actually does what it promises.” The iPhone 18 Pro Max has no such feature.

iPhone 18 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: cameras

For a comprehensive breakdown of how the camera systems on these two phones compare, check out our detailed iPhone 18 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra comparison. In essence, though, both of these phones excel at photography.

Headlining the iPhone 18 Pro Max's camera array is a 48MP main sensor with a variable aperture that can move between f/1.48-4.0. That basically means you can control how much light gets into the sensor and therefore how much of your photo stays in focus — the more light you let in, the blurrier the background, and the less light you let in, the more of your scene stays in focus.

Variable apertures are a rarity on phones, and so the functionality of such a feature may take some getting used to if you've never played around with aperture before, but its existence on the iPhone 18 Pro Max gives you more creative control over your shots.

The iPhone also has a 48MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera with a 120-degree field of view, a 48MP f/2.8 telephoto with 4x optical zoom — plus 8x "optical-quality" reach — and an 18MP f/1.9 front-facing camera.

The latter also offers automatic subject tracking and the option to switch between portrait and landscape modes in one click, which is definitely a nice-to-have feature.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, meanwhile, has a 200MP f/1.4 main camera, a 50MP f/1.9 ultra-wide with a 120-degree field of view, a 50MP f/2.9 telephoto offering 5x optical zoom, and a 10MP f/2.4 telephoto with 3x optical zoom, plus a 12MP f/2.2 camera on the front.

So you get an extra lens on the S26 Ultra, giving you more telephoto versatility, but there’s no variable aperture here.

iPhone

Samsung

In terms of photo quality, the iPhone 18 Pro tends to capture scenes as they are, using more neutral, realistic colors, while the Galaxy ups the saturation for slightly more stylized shots.

iPhone

Samsung

When it comes to zoom, the S26 Ultra is the more versatile shooter of the two, not only because you get two optical zoom distances instead of one, but also because it lets you zoom digitally up to 100x, while the iPhone stops at 40x.

To be honest, we'd never recommend zooming much beyond 30x anyway, but the Galaxy does at least give you the option to do so, and its 3 and 5x optical zoom ranges are slightly more usable than the iPhone’s 4x range.

iPhone

Samsung

Macro photography is pretty similar on both phones, though that aforementioned color difference does come back into play, and again, we'd choose the iPhone for selfies.

Remember: check out our detailed iPhone 18 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra comparison for more pictures and thoughts on how these two phones stack up in terms of photography.

iPhone 18 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: performance and software

Neither of these phones is lacking in power, with the iPhone 18 Pro Max having a top-end Apple A20 Pro chipset and 12GB of RAM, while the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has a similarly capable Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset and either 12GB of RAM or — in the 1TB model — 16GB.

Our iPhone 18 Pro Max review described its chipset as “incredibly fast, efficient, and ready for whatever comes next,” while our Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review described the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 as delivering “snappy performance in every task.”

Both phones also have a vapor chamber to help keep them cool under pressure, so there isn't much to choose between them in terms of gaming performance.

The same can't be said of their respective software.

The iPhone 18 Pro Max runs on iOS 27, while the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra runs on Android 17 (having originally shipped with Android 16).

The two OS packages are similarly accomplished — especially now that Apple has finally launched Siri AI — and both phones will likely receive many years of updates, with Samsung committing to seven major Android updates and Apple typically offering the same amount for its iPhones.

That said, iOS and Android are very different. The former offers a clean, uniform layout and focuses on privacy and security, while the latter is an open-source system offering deep customization options and more granular control. If you're reading this, you probably already know which software you prefer.

iPhone 18 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: battery

For most of the last decade, Samsung’s flagship phones have had higher-capacity batteries than Apple’s, but that’s recently changed.

Samsung has refused to move above 5,000mAh in its flagship Galaxy models, while iPhones have kept creeping upwards, with the iPhone 18 Pro Max having either a 5,567mAh battery (in eSIM-only models) or a 5,391mAh one in other variants.

Still, both phones excel when it comes to battery life, with the iPhone 18 Pro Max delivering “outstanding endurance” according to our review, and we similarly praised the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra for its “fantastic” battery life.

Both phones can last for around 30 hours if used casually, and if used continuously, you'll get around 17 hours from the iPhone 18 Pro Max and 16 hours from the Galaxy.

Both devices also charge fast — you'll get 60W wired speeds and 25W wireless speeds regardless of which you choose — but for sheer capacity, the iPhone 18 Pro Max has the edge. It benefits from MagSafe, too, which isn’t something you get with the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

iPhone 18 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: verdict

The iPhone 18 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra are both exceptional phones, but they have some specific strengths and weaknesses too.

The iPhone 18 Pro Max has a variable aperture, a higher-capacity battery, MagSafe, and more storage at the top end, but it also costs a bit more in some configurations.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra isn’t just the marginally cheaper phone — at least in some varieties and regions — but it also has an extra camera, a clever Privacy Display, an S Pen stylus, and more or less matches the iPhone in most other ways.

So, you’ll have to consider which of these features matters most to you — but for what it’s worth, the iPhone 18 Pro Max received five stars in our review while the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra achieved 4.5 stars.

Back in January, Samsung released the globally available Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, before Oppo and Xiaomi dropped the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and Xiaomi 17 Ultra, respectively, both of which were made available in the UK but not the US (Australian buyers, meanwhile, got the Xiaomi, but not the Oppo).

Google entered the race with the Google Pixel 11 Pro in August, and now Apple has released the iPhone 18 Pro, which is earning plaudits for its variable aperture feature and pro-level video capture capabilities.

So, wherever you are in the world, you’ve likely got at least three compelling camera phones to consider at the time of writing, and I took two of them — the iPhone 18 Pro and Galaxy S26 Ultra — on a recent trip to Hawaii to see how they stack up against one another.

Below, I’ve added examples of both phones’ wide, zoom, macro, ultra-wide, and selfie-taking capabilities to help you decide which model is right for you. Then, at the end, I've summarized my thoughts on how they compare.

Specs

Before we dig into the comparison, here’s a quick roundup of each phone’s key camera specs:

In addition to the optical zoom distances listed above, both phones offer an additional ‘optical-quality’ zoom (8x for the iPhone, 2x and 10x for the Samsung), but they do so via a sensor crop rather than fixed focal lengths, so I’ve prioritized their true optical zoom distances in the ‘zoom’ section below.

It’s also worth noting that, to save storage, both the iPhone 18 Pro and Galaxy S26 Ultra capture images in smaller file sizes than their large sensors suggest by default. Specifically, the iPhone defaults to 24MP (using Apple’s ‘super-high-resolution’ imaging pipeline), while the Galaxy S26 Ultra defaults to 12MP (via pixel-binning).

I stuck with these out-of-the-box shooting settings for each of the comparisons below.

Wide

iPhone

Samsung

In this picture of a statue by the beach — “The Acrobats” by John Robinson — we can immediately see the difference between the two phones’ approaches to color science.

The iPhone’s image is the more natural of the two, with more pronounced shadows and muted colors, versus the Samsung’s brighter, more contrast-heavy image. This difference is particularly apparent on the statue’s torso and patch of grass to the right of the scene.

iPhone

Samsung

Here, again, the Samsung’s image has punchier, arguably more artificial-looking colors, but the difference isn’t quite so stark as in the first image. Both photos are equally detailed.

iPhone

Samsung

Again, only a subtle difference between the two images, but the leaves are certainly greener in the Galaxy’s shot (see the top right-hand side of the image)

iPhone

Samsung

The iPhone and Samsung take radically different approaches to capturing this shadowy pathway. The former’s image is more realistic, with strong detail maintained where the leaves meet the sky. The Galaxy’s image is impressively detailed, too, but its colors are much more stylistic than natural, which is emerging as a theme in this comparison.

iPhone

Samsung

This, for me, is the clearest example yet of the color science difference I’ve referenced below every image so far. Both of these shots are equally detailed, but the Samsung has definitely dialed up the saturation versus the iPhone’s more neutral shot.

iPhone

Samsung

Moving on to a sunset image, and the iPhone does a good job at maintaining the clarity of both the foreground and background, while the Galaxy goes full “Oh, so you want a sunset shot?” mode. I definitely don’t hate the Monet-style sky the Samsung has captured here — it's certainly the more aesthetic of the two — but in doing so, the phone obscures almost everyone in the foreground. The iPhone’s shot is, again, more balanced, but much less stylistic.

iPhone

Samsung

This image, though, proves that the Galaxy S26 Ultra can effectively balance foreground and background in low light. I actually think it does a slightly better job than the iPhone here, but there’s not much in it.

iPhone

Samsung

Again, pretty similar results here, but the iPhone definitely chooses a warmer hue that fades from orange to red, while the Samsung goes from red to an almost pink color. This is, in fairness, a particularly tricky shot to capture.

Zoom

iPhone

Samsung

Back to that statue again, this time at 4x optical zoom for the iPhone and 5x optical zoom for the Samsung.

The level of detail captured is impressive in both cases, but the Galaxy’s image is, in my opinion, the sharper of the two, which makes sense given the phone's optical advantage over the iPhone — the Galaxy essentially has more information for its processing algorithms to work with, resulting in a slightly more detailed image.

I also like the way the Galaxy dials down the color of the blurred clouds in the background to really bring the statue into focus, which isn't something you'd expect given the phone's gung-ho approach to colors we've observed so far.

iPhone

Samsung

Interestingly, in these photos — taken at the same optical distances as above — the Samsung has again dialed down the colors to produce a much grayer image than the iPhone, though I'm not sure that approach works for this particular scene.

The iPhone's image is warmer and, in parts (see the cracks in the pavement), a touch more detailed.

iPhone

Samsung

This is an example of each phone’s maximum digital zoom capabilities — 40x for the iPhone, 100x for the Samsung. Yes, 100 is a bigger number than 40, but you can see why Apple doesn’t bother to offer anything beyond that figure. In both cases, the phone is guessing at details via processing trickery, rather than actually being able to capture them, which results in two pretty unusable images.

Still, the Samsung will produce iPhone-like results up until around the 50x mark, so it's a more versatile zoom camera overall.

Macro and ultra-wide

iPhone

Samsung

Macro mode — where your phone automatically switches to its ultra-wide camera lens when you move close to a small subject — was my favorite test to carry out on both the iPhone 18 Pro and Galaxy S26 Ultra, because macro photography is something Apple and Samsung phones have been good at for years.

In this example, as we’ve seen previously, the iPhone 18 Pro opts for more realistic, neutral colors, while the Galaxy’s shot has way more contrast. The greens in these two images are quite literally different shades.

iPhone

Samsung

Again, the level of detail here is comparable across both shots, but this is the first instance where I actually prefer the Galaxy’s deeper, more artistic-looking colors. The iPhone's brighter image is closer to reality, though.

iPhone

Samsung

In this example, it’s the other way around; I prefer the iPhone’s colors to the Samsung’s. However, you’ll notice — if you zoom in on the vascular tissue of the leaves — that the Galaxy phone actually captures more detail.

iPhone

Samsung

As in my comparison between the iPhone 17 Pro and OnePlus 15’s cameras, I’ve only included one regular ultra-wide example here because I was so preoccupied with the phones’ wide and telephoto lenses while shooting in Hawaii that I forgot to take more with their respective ultra-wide lenses (perhaps my colleague was right in saying that phones don’t need ultra-wide lenses at all — but that’s a debate for another day).

In any case, everything I said about the first few photos in this comparison applies again here. Both phones capture excellent detail — I'd probably give the edge to the iPhone, since it captures the graininess of the sand slightly better than the Samsung — but their approaches to color science differ dramatically, which is evident in the sand, sky, and grass pictured above. The iPhone captures the scene as it is; the Samsung captures the scene as it thinks you want it to be.

Selfies

iPhone

Samsung

Both of these selfies are detailed and well-balanced in terms of color, but the iPhone's image is the slightly sharper of the two, no doubt because the 18 Pro has a larger 18MP front-facing sensor than the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s 12MP sensor. It does a better job of maintaining the clarity of my flyaway hairs, for instance.

It’s worth mentioning, too, that the iPhone 18 Pro’s ‘Center Stage’ selfie camera uses subject tracking to automatically keep you in the frame, and also lets you switch between portrait and landscape modes, depending on how many subjects are in frame. I've used that particular feature a lot, so it's definitely not a gimmick.

Verdict

There’s no doubt that both of these phones are among the best camera phones money can buy in 2026, but they do differ on several fronts.

For everyday shots in good lighting, both the iPhone 18 Pro and Galaxy S26 Ultra — in their respective default shooting modes — capture plenty of detail, but you’ll get more natural-looking shots from the former, and more vibrant, stylized shots from the latter.

In low light, the iPhone takes slightly brighter pictures and, as a result, sometimes captures more of the scene than the Galaxy, but Samsung’s style-focused color science can similarly lead to better results than the iPhone. It all depends on what you’re shooting and which aesthetic you prefer.

When it comes to zoom, both phones perform well, though the Galaxy will get you closer to your subject than the iPhone without sacrificing detail (5x optical zoom vs 4x optical zoom). You also get an additional 3x optical zoom option on the Samsung, which you don’t get on the iPhone. If I wanted the most versatile zoom shooter, I’d choose the Samsung.

For selfies, though, the iPhone is the clear winner, with its larger 18MP sensor and genuinely useful framing tricks.

As mentioned, the iPhone 18 Pro also boasts a variable aperture feature. Since I wanted to compare both of these phones using their out-of-the-box shooting settings, I didn’t manually control the aperture on the iPhone in any of the above shots, but Apple does give you the option to do so, whereas Samsung does not.

Changing the aperture is useful for tweaking how much of a given background you want to keep in focus (as my colleague Lance demonstrates in a separate piece), and you can also achieve some nice lens flare effects in low light while doing so. But this is very much a pro-level feature that most users won’t play around with too much.

Overall, then, I’d say the Galaxy S26 Ultra is my preferred camera phone for zoom photography and stylized shots, but the iPhone 18 Pro is the more consistent wide shooter in both well-lit and low-light scenarios. It’s got a better selfie camera, too, and since Apple’s new pro-level controls unlock more possibilities for the iPhone, it’s the phone I’ll be sticking with until the next wave of camera-focused Chinese flagships rolls around.

Incidentally, I'll be publishing separate Portrait mode and video comparisons shortly, so stick with TechRadar for more on these two top-end camera phones.

You can’t even buy the iPhone Duo yet, but that hasn’t stopped developers from working on apps for it — and there’s already one app that could, for me, almost justify an iPhone Duo purchase all on its own.

Vidit Bhargava has shared details of their ‘Duo-Man’ app on X, and it’s designed to recreate the experience of an old-school Walkman.

This is something that only works with a foldable form factor, and the dimensions of the iPhone Duo look ideal for it, with the cover screen acting as the front of a Walkman — where you can see a tape spinning away and access controls — and the foldable screen being something that you can open to insert or remove a tape.

A digital take on analog tech

Of course, you’re not actually jamming a tape into the iPhone Duo, but the interface of the app comes close to replicating what a Walkman looks like, and the act of opening and closing the screen to insert a new tape should help recreate some of the tactility of that device too.

The app also includes button click and static sounds recorded from a real Walkman, just to add to the nostalgia value, and you’ll even be able to use an Apple Pencil to wind the tapes.

But this has some modern conveniences too, with support for both Apple Music and local files (with Spotify support possibly being added later), so you’ll have access to a massive library of ‘tapes’ immediately, rather than having to carry around multiple real tapes with you (as we did in the 90s if we didn’t want to hear the same thing on repeat).

The app — like the iPhone Duo itself — isn’t available yet, but it’s seemingly going to be a hit when it does launch, given that the X post about it currently has 2.1 million views and 10,000 likes.

While iOS 27 has generally been well received, no update is perfect, and some users are reporting that, since downloading the latest software, they’re experiencing performance issues.

Across multiple Reddit threads, there are reports of unresponsive touchscreens and slowness or stuttering. It’s unclear how widespread these issues are, but in the case of unresponsive screens, users are reporting it can happen on almost any part of the interface, while the slow or stuttery performance is most often exhibited when swiping or switching screens.

However, a few possible solutions have also been presented. One user has reported that restarting their phone fixes an unresponsive screen (at least temporarily), while another has said that when their apps freeze, they can unfreeze them by switching to the home screen and then back to the frozen app.

As for slowness and jittery animations, one Redditor found that having too many app icons on your home screens can cause a stuttery launch animation, so reducing the number of apps on each screen might help.

You might have to wait for a proper fix

Still, these all seem to be either temporary solutions or ones that restrict how you customize your phone, so they’re not ideal.

More long-term, it’s possible that things will settle down on their own after the initial post-update system-wide indexing is complete. Failing that, if you’re affected by these issues, you might have to wait for the next iOS update for a proper fix, as hopefully Apple will address it there.

And if you haven’t updated to iOS 27 yet, you might want to consider holding off until it’s clearer how widespread these issues are — though usually bugs like these only affect a minority of users, so the risk probably isn’t too high.

There’s certainly plenty of good stuff in iOS 27 too, including the long-awaited AI overhaul for Siri, so hopefully these teething issues don’t last long.

The second iOS 27.2 developer beta has now landed, and while on the face of it this doesn’t look much different to the first beta, behind the scenes there’s quite a lot of new stuff to find.

Digging into the code, 9to5Mac has found more details of an anti-snatching feature that we’ve previously reported on. This as-yet-unannounced feature is apparently called ‘AutoLock’ internally at Apple, and is designed to lock your phone if a thief grabs it.

It sounds similar then to Android’s Theft Detection Lock, and the code in this beta suggests that it would use various signals to tell whether an iPhone has been stolen, such as a sharp acceleration (which could happen when a phone is first snatched), loss of connectivity to a paired Apple Watch, a paired Apple Watch being unreachable, prolonged loss of network activity, or the device remaining unlocked for a certain period of time.

Any of these things could trigger an iPhone to automatically lock itself, but there are also references to safeguards aimed at preventing false positives. These include things like successful biometric authentication, and certain innocent app activities that could otherwise be signs of theft.

Other hidden features

On top of this, as spotted by X user @itspdfu (via 9to5Mac) iOS 27.2 beta 2 also includes code for a new album release countdown in Apple Music, and for the ability to support actions from third-party apps in Shortcuts new ‘Describe a Shortcut’ tool. So you’ll be able to include third-party apps in shortcuts built using natural language, rather than having to use the old shortcut builder.

Finally, @aaronp613 has found evidence that CarPlay Ultra will soon offer a ‘Drive Mode Theme’, allowing you to change things like the gauge style and color. Though right now CarPlay Ultra is only available on Aston Martin vehicles, so this might be of limited usefulness.

Of course there’s the usual caveat with all this that while Apple is seemingly working on these features, we can’t be sure of if or when they’ll actually launch. But they all sound like worthwhile upgrades, so hopefully they will roll out — and soon.

If you were to ask iOS users how they felt about Apple’s decision to insert ads into Apple Maps, it would quickly become obvious that it was not a popular move. So when iPhone fans discovered that Apple has been inserting prompts for its own products into iOS, the reaction was predictably swift and furious.

The ‘ads’ in question appear in the Settings app in iOS. They can be found near the top of the iPhone’s display and promote several products to the user, including paid-for iCloud+ storage, free trials for services like Apple Music and Apple TV, and the AppleCare+ extended warranty.

Infuriatingly for iOS users, the only way to disable these promos is to either let them expire — which in many cases could take weeks or even months, leaving a persistent notification badge on the Settings app in the meantime — or pay for the service being offered. There is not always a “dismiss” button to shoo them away for good, and when there is, some people have reported that it doesn’t seem to work.

Many people have taken to social media to vent their frustrations with Apple’s actions. “I’m feeling like this is nearly on-par with the ens***ification that Microsoft introduced with Start menu ads,” said one aggravated user. “I wish Apple would just stop that crap,” stated another. Many other people have taken to Reddit to express their exasperation, suggesting that the discontent is widespread.

Some of these ads and offers — such as the one for Apple Music — appear after you’ve bought a new Apple product. With the company launching the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro range recently, it’s perhaps unsurprising that we’re seeing a sudden influx of posts flush with irritation and indignation.

Apple’s services push

On the face of it, Apple’s decision to include promotions like this in its operating system might seem like a strange one. After all, Apple has long positioned itself as a premium company where the user experience is paramount. From that viewpoint, repeatedly attempting to prod customers towards even more of the company’s products might seem cheap, even distasteful. And when you’ve just shelled out a record fee for an iPhone after Apple’s painful price rises, that can just feel like nickel and diming.

But Apple has been putting increasing emphasis on its services in recent years, of which products like iCloud+, Apple Music, Apple TV and AppleCare+ are all a part. With limited room for growth in the smartphone market, the company is turning to areas where it thinks it can make more progress.

And unfortunately for users, that means more ads like this on their devices. While they are far from the most obnoxious ads around, the fact that many cannot be dismissed is clearly rubbing users the wrong way — as is the fact that the promos even exist at all in an Apple product.

There is also the possibility that at least some of these adverts are appearing due to a bug. The iCloud+ one in particular has drawn comments from users who are already subscribed to iCloud+ and thus, one would think, should not need to see any ads like this. Time will tell how that plays out and whether Apple fixes this ‘bug’ or leaves the ads in place. If the latter transpires, it would suggest that they are not appearing erroneously.

With Apple’s services push showing no signs of slowing down and further ads supposedly planned for the likes of the firm’s Visual Intelligence system, don’t expect Apple to have a change of heart any time soon.

The iPhone 18 Pro Max has the highest capacity battery that Apple has ever put in a handset. Going by teardowns, you’re getting a 5,567mAh battery in eSIM-only models and a 5,391mAh one in versions with a physical SIM card slot. But both of those are over 20 watt-hours (Wh), and that could have been a problem for Apple.

You see, most countries have additional shipping requirements for devices with a single-cell battery of over 20 Wh. For example, both the US and UK consider these ‘dangerous goods’, and they’re prohibited to be sent through standard consumer mail services such as USPS standard post and Royal Mail.

That’s obviously a problem for a device that many people will be ordering online — and it can also complicate shipping the device to stores. But Apple has come up with a clever solution called ‘Prepare to Ship’.

This is a mode that uses battery firmware to limit the capacity to under 20Wh, and it's active from when the phone is manufactured to when a customer first activates it.

Once you have the phone up and running, the limit is removed automatically — so in other words this gets it around the shipping restrictions, without limiting the capacity of the product you receive.

However, this also adds an extra step you need to take before shipping the phone somewhere yourself — whether you’re sending it off for repair, selling it, or whatever else, as you need to manually enable the ‘Prepare to Ship’ mode again.

How to prepare your phone for shipping

To do this, go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Prepare to Ship. Then just follow the onscreen instructions, including selecting whether or not you also want to erase your phone.

There are a few things to be aware of though: to activate ‘Prepare to Ship’ mode, your phone might need to discharge a bit, so you should unplug it from its charger, and you should also be aware that it might become warmer than usual while this process is being carried out.

The full process can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours depending on how much the battery needs to drop, but you can use the phone as usual in the meantime (assuming you haven’t also opted to erase it), and the Settings app will display a red badge reading ‘Ready to Ship’ once it’s done.

If you have erased it, then you’ll instead see whether it’s ready to ship on the ‘Hello’ screen — just tap the info button there.

Once ‘Prepare to Ship’ has been enabled, it limits the battery to under 80% capacity for 14 days, but if you need to undo this setting prior to that, just head to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Ready to Ship, and tap ‘Undo Shipping Preparation.’

This might become the new normal

So it’s a simple enough process, but it’s one that’s vital to know about when it comes time to sell or repair your phone — so hopefully there will be enough messaging around it.

But while for now this only affects the iPhone 18 Pro Max, it could one day become the norm. Certainly, we’d expect future large iPhones to have this same feature, but Android phones are likely to get in on the act too, since it's a very elegant solution to the problem.

Currently, some Android phones get around 20Wh restrictions by using multiple smaller battery cells, but depending on the design of the phone it might be preferable to just have a single cell — in which case a solution like Apple’s firmware trickery makes total sense.

This is one of those situations where we don't think there's any shame in borrowing ideas from other manufacturers.

The next time you head into an Apple Store, you should be able to spot a small blue 'hello' sign somewhere, as per reports on social media — and the appearance of these little signs is apparently connected to the launch of the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.

As per MacRumors, the signs are there to help customers test out the optical zoom capabilities of the new handsets. Both models offer up to 8x optical zoom, so having something specific to zoom in on is going to be helpful.

While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max have a variable aperture feature on one of their three rear cameras now, the optical zoom capabilities are actually the same as the iPhone 17 equivalents that launched in September of last year.

There are also new Pro controls on the latest handsets, so settings for lens aperture, shutter speed, and white balance can be tweaked shot by shot — something else you might want to test out in an Apple Store.

Now available

The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max arrived in Apple's retail stores on Friday, September 18, six days after preorders started. Prices for the handsets start at $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,099 and $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,299 respectively (for 256GB of storage).

New Apple CEO John Ternus made an appearance at the Apple Store in New York to help celebrate the wider availability of the flagship iPhones — as well as the Apple Watch Series 12, the Apple Watch Ultra 4, and the AirPods 5.

He didn't mention anything about the new 'hello' signs in stores, but they've been spotted by customers nevertheless. They look to be located on higher shelves and fixtures, perhaps to put off anyone wanting one as a souvenir.

And if you're wondering where the iPhone 18 is and when you'll be able to test that out, don't panic — it's rumored to be showing up around March time, alongside the iPhone 18e and the iPhone Air 2.

Its Ceramic Shield 2 display glass — first introduced on the iPhone 17 line and returning this year on the iPhone 18 Pro — is earning plaudits for delivering on the promise of 3x better scratch resistance 12 months on from its release, while the iPhone Duo is set to arrive next month with a host of impressive durability credentials (including, notably, a Galaxy Z Fold 8-beating IP68 resistance rating).

But while features like ingress protection and corrosion resistance aren’t the sexiest topics of discussion at Apple Park, they are some of the most important for ensuring Apple’s products stand the test of time — and Tom Marieb, the company’s new Vice President of Hardware Engineering (a role formerly occupied by CEO John Ternus), knows that better than most.

I had the chance to quiz Marieb on the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo in a group interview at Apple’s London HQ, and he lifted the lid on how Ceramic Shield 2 — which we described as “the first iPhone glass we fully trust” earlier this year — managed to deliver such a noticeable jump in quality versus the original Ceramic Shield, and why he’s “especially proud” of the iPhone Duo’s hinge durability.

“Personally, when I see someone put a screen protector on their iPhone, it makes my skin crawl, because we work so hard to make beautiful front screens,” Marieb told me. “So we very much wanted to develop new coatings that could withstand [scratches], but also make sure that these coatings were wear-resistant as well. We worry about scratching, which is obviously very dependent on having [material that can withstand] very sharp things going into the screen. But we also worry about wear over time; as people use the screen, whether they’ll wear away that surface. And it turns out that those things are a little counterindicated in a lot of materials.

“So we had to try to optimize both of those [qualities] simultaneously [...] And I think we finally hit on a nice balance between the two [in Ceramic Shield 2]. We could have made it more scratch-resistant, but it would have been a little less wear-resistant. It’s the long life we’re looking for against both of those loads over time.”

Marieb added that, in testing Ceramic Shield 2, Apple accounted for half a decade’s worth of use in a comparatively minuscule testing period: “We very much try to meet the customer where they live, and so we don't design tests that measure old military specs or old standards; we try to say, ‘How are customers actually using this? What exactly are they exposing it to in the real world?’ And we make tests that mimic those things.

“And as you said, people waiting a year or two to actually see the benefits of [Ceramic Shield 2] means we've correctly predicted how people would use it. We accelerate time to try to compress those things into the engineering cycle, so that we can feed back as we try one thing after another, and can represent five years of life — or even more — within a couple of weeks of testing.”

It all hinges on the hinge

The display is the most important part of any iPhone, but the foldable iPhone Duo saw Apple tasked with protecting a new, equally crucial component: the hinge.

Like any foldable, the Duo can be used open or closed, and Apple has also developed dedicated ‘Seated’ or ‘Standing’ modes that will see the Duo bent at various angles for extended periods. The former displays visual content on the top half of the screen and viewing controls on the bottom (picture a Game Boy Advance), while the latter turns the Duo into a bedside clock, photo gallery, or weather screen via StandBy.

Whichever orientation you choose, the Duo remains fixed in place — but the work to make that happen wasn’t easy.

“I'm glad you hit on this, because this is something I'm especially proud of, and it took us a long time [to crack],” Marieb explained. “What we worry about with this device is that people see how thin it is and they think it's fragile. People seem to be worried about the Air, too, but it's honestly one of the most reliable phones we’ve ever made. And so we thought, ‘How do we design a hinge that feels very solid when you close it, but also really solid when you open it?’

“We really worked on the torque profile very heavily, and that means changing a lot of the mechanical properties of the hinge to have it feel solid, like a high-end automobile's car door, when you shut it. That was design intent, so people would have a feeling like, ‘Oh, it's okay. This is well crafted, and it's safe for me to use and not worry about it.’

And then, as you said, we have a lot of use cases where the Duo is [in a half-folded state]. And so we also had to think, ‘Can people interact with this [device] and not have it feel floppy?’ So getting those torque profiles right at both those ends, as well as in the middle — not having it feel like you're pulling something open, and not feeling as if it's floppy — we spent a lot of time optimizing that. So thank you for noticing, because a lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into that.”

The dual benefits of nano texture

On top (literally) of the iPhone Duo’s hinge, Apple has equipped its first foldable phone with a 7.6‑inch nano‑texture display. This new material isn’t a million miles away from the anti-reflective nano-texture glass that can be added to the best MacBooks, though, of course, the Duo version of said glass needs to bend in half.

Another journalist in my group interview with Marieb noted that foldable creases typically appear minimal out of the box, but become more prominent mere months after being used extensively. In response, the Apple executive was bullish on the longevity of the Duo’s hinge and explained that the nano‑texture display should help maintain its obscurity:

“Hold us accountable to that, please […] The choice of a matte finish — apart from it being beautiful — is part of that equation. When you look at glossy displays, their specularity makes it very easy to pick up topology differences. That’s part of the reason we picked the matte finish — it’s not only beautiful in terms of preventing glare, but it’s also more forgiving of [topology] changes over time.”

Apple, then, is supremely confident in the durability credentials of its first foldable phone — and we look forward to putting the iPhone Duo through its paces ahead of its official launch on October 23. For our full verdict on Apple's latest candybar handsets, check out our iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max review.

It was a big day for Sung, who scored his second year in a row as the first Apple customer on iPhone launch day, and an even bigger day for Ternus, who was hosting his first iPhone launch store event as CEO.

It's been a whirlwind few weeks for Ternus, who officially took over for former CEO Tim Cook (new Executive Chairman) on September 1 and, a week later, was on stage unveiling the iPhone 18 Pro line, new AirPods, new Apple Watches, and the exciting foldable iPhone Duo.

On this day, that flexi-phone was nowhere in sight. Even so, the atmosphere was electric, and it felt, to those of us who've been attending iPhone store launch events for almost 20 years, like the old days.

When I caught up with Ternus inside the store, he told me the day was "exciting," and I could tell he was still a little amped up from the store opening ceremony.

At precisely 8am ET, Ternus appeared behind the frosted glass doors of Apple's Fifth Avenue flagship store and then swung open the doors. He stood for a time, waving to a cheering crowd, behind which was a small cluster of protesters shouting about, among other things, iPhone manufacturing working conditions. As the groundswell of excitement grew around Ternus, the protesters seemed to lose steam.

Ternus then turned to the long line of iPhone customers waiting outside the store, many of whom had pre-ordered the phone last week, and started greeting them. First up was Sung.

In his arm was a binder full of cards denoting the 120 Apple Stores he'd visited around the world. Sung later told me he had met Ternus once before at another product launch at Apple's "100th store" where he'd had Ternus sign the book. The inside cover also featured more than half a dozen other Apple executives' signatures (This is not surprising. In another part of the store, I witnessed Apple head of Retail Deirdre O'Brien signing someone's MacBook.)

Ternus posed with Sung outside the store and then turned his attention to the next customer.

After collecting his iPhone 18 Pro Max, Sung briefly appeared outside the store again and held his purchase aloft. The crowd cheered again.

Later, when I asked Sung, 21, how he secured his pole position, he told me that first he pre-ordered his burgundy 256GB iPhone 18 Pro Max online (he never leases and always buys), and then he arrived at the store yesterday at 8:30pm ET — and waited.

I asked Sung, who is a native of China but is currently living in New Jersey and attending university, if he's ever owned an Android. He shook his head and then told me his first iPhone was the iPhone 15.

Why, though, does Sung visit all these stores, and why was he here right now? Sung looked at me like I had lobsters dancing on my head. "I love Apple," he told me, as if nothing could be more obvious.

Most of the best deals that were available during the preorder period are still on the table. If you've been waiting to pick up one of Apple's latest Pro devices, there are still plenty of ways to save. I've laid out the biggest savings for both the US and UK down below.

The iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 / £1,199, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299 / £1,299. While those are the official starting prices, there are several ways to get either device for less, particularly if you're willing to trade in an existing phone or sign up for a new carrier plan. Note that some carriers are facing slightly delayed delivery times, but both devices are still readily available to order at most outlets.

In the US, it's possible to get an iPhone 18 Pro included with either a new line (with a pricey unlimited plan) or a qualifying trade-in at the major carriers. Apple's own offers include a trade-in rebate of up to $885 for unlocked devices, alongside its new leasing option, which I'm covering in more depth just below.

In the UK, we're currently looking at trade-in rebates of up to £885 at Apple, which is actually quite good in terms of discounts for the official store. Several networks are also stocking the devices, including Three and Vodafone, giving shoppers more options now that the phones have officially launched.

If you're looking for more details on these devices, then you can check out our full iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max review page for specs, image samples, and more.

iPhone 18 Pro preorders in the US

• Apple: up to $885 off with trade, or leasing from $34.99/mo
• AT&T: up to $1,200 off with a trade-in
• Verizon: up to $1,200 off with a trade-in
• T-Mobile: device included with switch, or trade-in
• Walmart: devices from $11.75/mo (no trade-in required)
• Xfinity Mobile: 18 Pro Max included with trade and line

iPhone 18 Pro preorders in the UK

• Apple: up to £885 off with a trade-in
• EE: up to £750 off with a trade-in
• Carphone Warehouse: from £52/mo with 100GB plan
• Mobiles.co.uk: unlimited data from £55/mo, plus trade discounts
• Sky: from £38 per month
• Three: save up to £1,035 with trade-in and plan
• Tesco Mobile: £100 gift card for Club Card members
• Vodafone: up to £885 off with a trade-in

Apple iPhone 18 Pro: what's new?

• A20 Pro chipset on both models
• Improved battery life
• New variable aperture lens, plus photographic styles

The star of the show in this year's September Apple event was undoubtedly the iPhone Duo, but that doesn't mean the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max aren't without their merits. In fact, both devices have a decent number of upgrades that could justify a trade-in, depending on what you're eligible for.

For example, both devices now carry the new A20 chipset. While we haven't tested this to confirm, Apple claims the new chipset delivers a claimed 20% faster CPU and 40% faster GPU than its predecessor due to its 2nm architecture. Battery life has also improved, with the iPhone 18 Pro offering up to 36 hours of video playback, matching last year's 17 Pro Max, while the 18 Pro Max reaches up to 45 hours.

The biggest upgrades, however, are arguably focused on the 18 Pro's camera. The devices now feature a 48MP main camera with variable aperture and a new sensor. In layman's terms, that means better low-light performance and greater user control over depth of field. There's also talk of a "computational imaging pipeline", which includes new Photographic Styles for share-ready JPEGS.

I’m a big fan of tech innovation, so when a phone case that provides a second screen for the back of your device gets announced, I pay attention. And while that in itself isn’t a totally new concept, the new Ugreen Magic E Ink Screen Case takes a different approach from most.

While second screens designed for the back of phones are usually focused either on ebooks or — if they’re more tightly integrated into the phone’s operating system — widgets, this one, announced on Ugreen's Weibo feed, is designed simply to show photos.

It’s a nice idea, delivering both the protection of a case — in both iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max sizes — and the ability to sync photos to the color E Ink screen built into it. But it also sounds quite limited compared to some e-paper accessories.

E-paper is still best for reading

I’m thinking primarily of the Xteink line, and in particular the Xteink X4 Pro, which is currently stuck to the back of my iPhone. With this, I can read ebooks on an eye-friendly display, and while it doesn’t show color and wouldn’t be great for photos, I’m not convinced the Ugreen Magic E Ink Screen Case will excel at this either.

Images and especially color on e-paper screens tend to leave something to be desired, even on high-end products like the Kindle Colorsoft, which delivers quite muted shades. And we’ve seen image-focused e-paper accessories before, like the VidaBay E Ink fridge magnets, which in my opinion display most images quite poorly.

Still, you never know; the Ugreen Magic E Ink Screen Case might surprise me, and if the price is right, it could be more appealing to some buyers than an ordinary case anyway. The price, though, is still unconfirmed, as is availability, with this product so far only announced for China. So it remains to be seen whether you’ll even be able to buy it.

Naturally, the iPhone 18 Pro preorders quickly followed suit, with rebates of up to AU$1,595 when you trade in an old phone, and accompanying SIM plans from AU$39/m.

While it’s always nice to have the latest tech, a fresh product launch also means an older device is ripe for discounts, and that’s certainly the case for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Apple may have discontinued both models from its online store, but retailers and telcos, including Amazon, Optus and Vodafone, still have stock — including the popular Cosmic Orange colour — meaning you still have time to score one at a discount. Whether you just want to save money, aren’t fussed with having the latest iPhone, or you simply prefer the colour options of the iPhone 17 Pro series, now’s a great time to take advantage of any offers.

Buying outright

If you want to buy outright, then Amazon and Optus are great options, although if you’d prefer to shop at the former, you’ll want to hurry as the retailer doesn’t have stock of all sizes and all colours.

The standout offer has to be a 9% saving on the iPhone 17 Pro Max (256GB) in Cosmic Orange, now AU$1,995. The same phone is also available in Silver for the same price.

If you’d prefer the smaller iPhone 17 Pro, Amazon no longer has stock of the base 256GB variant. Instead, the most affordable option is 512GB for AU$2,197 in Deep Blue, or AU$2,229 in Cosmic Orange.

Alternatively, you could get the 256GB iPhone 17 Pro from a retailer such as The Good Guys, and pair it with Optus’ Small plan, or any of our other highly recommended SIM-only plans.

With a telco

Optus arguably has some tempting offers of its own. Not only can you split the cost of either the iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone 17 Pro Max into monthly interest-free instalments over up to 36 months, but all colours and storage sizes are in stock.

And, for a limited time, you can pair either iPhone with Optus’ Small plan, which has currently been reduced to just AU$39/m while the included data has increased from 60GB to 100GB. These benefits only apply to the first 12 months, after which the plan reverts to its regular AU$60/m for 60GB data — at this point, I’d recommend you check out the best SIM-only mobile plans for a more affordable option.

If you’re able to, it’s cheapest to pay the device off over 12 months, as you can see in the table below.

However, if you intend to remain on that Optus plan for three years anyway, all three options cost exactly the same over 36 months: AU$3,906.72. With the 12-month option, you'd simply pay $205.56/month for year one, then $60/month for years two and three.

Vodafone also has some attractive offers, with monthly device payments for the iPhone 17 Pro starting at AU$47.18/m. Once again, you’ll spend the least amount of money if you pay off over 12 months.

This is just a snapshot of the iPhone 17 Pro offers available right now, but if you want to take advantage, you’ll need to be quick, because once stock has gone, it’s gone.

Still, it's one small interjection he made in a video interview with TechRadar and Tom's Guide (see below) that tells me a lot about his relationship with the company he now governs.

In addition to discussing the new devices launched this week, we had the opportunity to ask Ternus about his views on AI, wearable tech and becoming CEO of one of the world's largest and most eminent tech companies; plus, crucially, his view on innovation.

When our Editor-at-Large, Lance Ulanoff, asked about his plans to reinvigorate the brand's image when it comes to innovation, Ternus replied: "I don't think we ever lost innovation."

Is it ever enough?

The unavoidable truth is that the "iPhone moment" is, perhaps, once in a generation; and there's a lot more competition in the playing field now than there was back in 2007. That being said, it's hard to argue that there's been no innovation under Tim Cook's tenure.

From Apple silicon chips (2021) and Touch ID (2013) to Face ID (2017) and the world's first over-the-counter direct-to-consumer ECG in the Apple Watch Series 4 (2018), there's been plenty to shout about — even though recent years have maybe been a little quieter, barring the Vision Pro... but that's not much to write home about yet.

Of course, Ternus' quick retort garnered some reactions nonetheless, with commenters across our TikTok and YouTube accounts arguing that true product-level innovation had been lost at Apple for many a year. So, what do you think?

Cook had a difficult job, without a shadow of a doubt: huge boots to fill in the wake of Steve Jobs' passing, a grieving user base and fanbase, plus lofty expectations to steer the Apple ship through everything from a global pandemic to hardware supply chain chaos; and that's just in recent years.

Apple's still kicking, with a strong set of products, devoted audience and a seemingly optimistic future under Ternus' leadership. Only time will tell what's in store for this new era after the iPhone Duo.

It's Mint Mobile's latest new-customer promotion, which lets you take out a line on any of the carrier's excellent prepaid plans for just $15/mo. That includes the annual unlimited data plan - which usually clocks in at $30/mo.

Even without the discount, Mint's unlimited plan is competitive and much cheaper than many competitors, so the deal is just the cherry on top. While you'll have to pay $180 upfront, you'll lock in an unlimited data plan for an almost unbelievably cheap $15 per month.

Overall, the Mint unlimited plan includes unlimited talk, text, and mobile hotspot. There are a few restrictions, such as 50GB of 5G data and 20GB of mobile hotspot, but these are still pretty generous for the price - especially at $15/mo.

Mint Mobile's latest deal for new customers

• See more: check out today's best deals on phones at Mint Mobile

Note, if you're looking for a great all-in-one deal at Mint, then the carrier also has some great discounts on the latest Google Pixel 11 and Samsung Galaxy S26. If you're interested, I've attached further details just down below.

Also available at Mint Mobile

Sift through the press releases that Apple pushed out while announcing the new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, and you'll see some big battery life increases touted — including "the largest increase in battery life ever" on an iPhone with the Pro Max model (compared to the iPhone 17 Pro Max).

We know that the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max come with 4,056 mAh and 5,391 mAh capacity batteries respectively (at least in Europe), but does that translate into much better battery life? We put both of these new handsets through their paces in the TechRadar labs (as part of our full iPhone 18 Pro review) to see if Apple's claims held up under some real-world testing.

Our standard test involves having the iPhone automatically cycle through a series of websites over a cellular connection, until the battery dies. Features like location services, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth are all turned off while the test is being run, and the battery management features in iOS are disabled too.

The iPhone 18 Pro managed 16 hours and 17 minutes in the test, compared to 15 hours and 21 minutes on the iPhone 17 Pro, a boost of around 6% overall. The iPhone 18 Pro Max managed 18 hours and 27 minutes compared to 17 hours and 54 minutes on the iPhone 17 Pro Max, an increase of roughly 3% in total.

Those increases are of course welcome, but perhaps aren't quite as impressive as Apple is making out, though there are a lot of different variables (like screen brightness) involved. Apple's own figures usually make use of video playback time — as in how long a single battery charge lasts when you've watching a video.

For the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, Apple quotes 33 hours and 39 hours respectively, while for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max those numbers go up to 36 hours (a 9% increase) and 45 hours (a 15% increase). That last jump is indeed significant, but may only apply in quite a narrow set of scenarios.

"All battery claims depend on network configuration and many other factors," explains Apple in the small print on its comparison page. "Actual results will vary. Batteries have limited recharge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced. Battery life and charge cycles vary by use and settings."

We can safely say that you should see better battery life on the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max compared to the models that preceded them, but based on our own testing, don't expect the kind of improvements Apple is promising unless you're doing nothing but watching videos in long stretches between recharges.

If the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max were a reinvention of the flagship iPhone, the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max see Apple carrying the flagship-iPhone baton forward with few, if any, missteps.

I’ve spent the last week with a Glacier iPhone 18 Pro Max and a Burgundy iPhone 18 Pro — both colors are striking new additions to Apple’s iPhone color palette — and Apple has mostly stuck to last year's winning formula, while updating key aspects of the experience to push things forward.

While the main camera array still carries the same 48MP count across the telephoto, ultra-wide, and main lenses, the arrival of Pro controls in the Camera app breathes new life into the photo-taking experience, letting you get seriously creative whenever you want to.

You can also take advantage of the new variable aperture on the main 48MP Fusion camera to shoot across ƒ/1.48, ƒ/1.8, ƒ/2.8, or ƒ/4.0, and capture unique visuals, including starburst effects from lights. Of course, you can also choose to let the Camera app take control, and in general it’ll capture a well-balanced shot that you can still edit after the fact.

All in all, after taking hundreds of photos and shooting dozens of videos, I’m impressed with the level of detail the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max can deliver. Some images match what you’ll get from the previous-generation Pros, but these iPhones can also deliver even better-looking images and video, especially when you take control.

Under the hood is Apple’s first 2-nanometer chip in an iPhone, the A20 Pro, and while it doesn’t run laps around the previous A19 Pro, or the chip before that one, its CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine do an excellent job of handling general iOS tasks, as well as more advanced AI features, including keeping Siri AI chugging along where it's available and powering Apple Intelligence features in Photos, such as Clean Up and Reframing. It also ensures that third-party experiences run well, and I’ll be shocked if you encounter noticeable slowdowns anywhere.

The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max can easily keep pace with any of the other best modern smartphones, and I suspect they’ll keep doing so for years. You can again choose between a punchy, vibrant, and crisp 6.3-inch or 6.9-inch Super Retina XDR display, and that’s the main difference between the two Pro iPhones, as Apple maintains feature parity across the lineup.

Another meaningful improvement is in battery life, with the iPhone 18 Pro lasting longer than the 17 Pro Max according to Apple, while it says the 18 Pro Max establishes a new iPhone battery-life record. Add in the improved thermal management, smaller Dynamic Island, and arrival of Siri AI, and there’s a lot of refinement here beyond the cameras and processor.

And that’s ultimately what the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max feel like to me: a refinement of an already excellent Pro iPhone, rather than a reinvention. If the iPhone 17 Pro generation was about Apple changing the formula, the iPhone 18 Pro is about taking that formula and making it better across the board, without messing with what worked.

It’s not night and day across the board, and if you’re coming from an iPhone 17 Pro or 17 Pro Max, you probably don’t need to upgrade. The A20 Pro feels largely neck and neck with the A19 Pro in daily use, the displays remain familiar, and the overall design is essentially unchanged. But I would bet that some iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max owners will want to make the jump anyway, particularly for the camera improvements. The combination of the variable aperture and, finally, a genuinely customizable Camera app with Pro controls enables a level of user input that I’ve wanted Apple to bake into the iPhone for years.

If you’re holding onto an iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max, or anything older, the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max represent a much more substantial generational leap. You’re getting bigger and better displays, way-improved cameras, better battery life, a faster and more future-ready chip, improved thermals, and a modern, durable design that Apple has now had a year to refine.

And that’s the thing about the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max: you don’t need any one of these upgrades to completely reinvent how you use an iPhone. Taken together, though, they make for a seriously capable flagship that feels ready for the next several years.

Apple iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max review: Price and Availability

• Starts at $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,099 for 256GB
• Both Pro models now offer 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB options
• On sale September 18, with preorders open now

Apple made the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max official at its September 9, 2026, ‘Surprise and Shine’ special event; preorders are open now, with an on-sale date of September 18.

The iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 in the US, £1,199 in the UK, and AU$2,099 in Australia, and the iPhone 18 Pro Max at $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,299, respectively. That means they come with a $100 / £100 / AU$100 increase in starting price over the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max, while, like last year’s Pros, starting at 256GB of storage. Both can be configured with 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB of storage, with the latter now an option on both Pro models. You can choose from Burgundy, Glacier, Silver, and Black.

Both phones officially go on sale on September 18, 2026.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Apple iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max review: Design

• The 18 Pro keeps the 17 Pro’s aluminum body and camera plateau
• Burgundy and Glacier colors bring some welcome personality to the Pro lineup
• A new vapor chamber and Nanotwin copper help keep things cooler under load

With the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, Apple chose to dramatically reinvent the Pro-series iPhone's design. It swapped the left-side bump that housed the main camera system for a plateau that stretches across the back, went back to aluminum, and focused heavily on durability.

Given that, the odds of a major redesign for the next-gen Pro phones were slim, and the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max stick with a design that not only scored well in our reviews, but also won over a wider audience. I've been switching between the iPhone 17 Pro Max in Cosmic Orange and the iPhone Air for the last year.

The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max stick with the aluminum body and camera plateau from last year's models. That might seem like a safe choice, considering that the iPhone Duo is launching alongside these candy-bar-style phones in October, but it also shows Apple pushing forward with a working design — essentially the same trajectory it took from the iPhone 16 to the iPhone 17.

Still, to help the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max stand out from the crowd — and just to let people know you’re rocking one of Apple’s new phones, rather than a 17 Pro or 17 Pro Max — there are two entirely new colors, and I can't decide which is my favorite, and luckily I've been testing both. Burgundy is sort of a dark-red wine color that evokes a sense of high-class sleekness, while Glacier, which the event invite teased, is a mix of blue and silver that looks decidedly fresh. These are the two colors that pop, both much more muted than Cosmic Orange, but also a bit more vibrant than the Dark Navy from 2025. Those two join silver and the first ‘true’ black Pro model. It shows that Apple is listening, and I'm all for more Pro colors.

The dimensions are the same year over year. The iPhone 18 Pro measures 150 x 71.9 x 8.75mm, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max comes in at 163.4 x 78 x 8.75mm — exactly the same footprint as their predecessors. The button placement is also identical, so if you've spent the last year with an iPhone 17 Pro or 17 Pro Max, there's nothing new to learn here: power and Camera Control are on the right, with the Action Button, and volume up and volume down on the left. Both phones are a little heavier than last year’s: the 18 Pro weighs 211 grams, up from 206 grams, while the 18 Pro Max jumps to 249 grams from 233 grams.

Even with the slight weight increase, both the 6.3-inch Pro and 6.9-inch Pro Max feel comfortable in the hand and are pretty well balanced. The Pro Max is still very much a two-handed phone for me, especially for texting, while the Pro is still the smaller, more portable option.

Then there's Ceramic Shield 2, which is sticking around. Judging by the coatings on my iPhone Air and 17 Pro Max, it's done wonders at preventing micro-abrasions and front-screen scratches, and even means that drops don’t elicit a gasp, since after a year my screens are still unblemished. In my few days testing the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max, I haven't seen a scratch on the front or abrasions on the back, which is both aluminum and glass.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max was known for getting warm, or at least warmer to the touch, during more intense activities such as gaming or long content shoots, and Apple has looked to address that issue with some new cooling tech under the hood. There's a new thermal architecture inside, which consists of a vapor chamber, the positioning of which has been tweaked, and which offers three times the surface area to better dissipate heat. Apple has paired this with an industry-first Nanotwin copper material, which is baked into the display plate to help keep that surface cool.