• Federal Court of Australia orders Apple to open up its iOS ecosystem in Australia to third-party app stores
• Apple is also ordered to restore Epic Games' Fortnite back onto the Australian App Store
• Apple denies it has a monopoly in Australia and plans to appeal the decision

The Federal Court of Australia has ordered Apple to fully open up its iOS ecosystem in the country to third-party competitors, with Justice Jonathan Beach ruling that the tech giant misused its market power to maintain a monopoly over app distribution and in-app payments.

The ruling has also ordered Apple to restore the video game Fortnite and other Epic Games apps back onto the Australian App Store, six years after the Cupertino tech giant banned the game for bypassing Apple’s payment systems.

Both orders are set to take effect at noon Australian Eastern time on March 1, 2027.

“In response to regulatory or judicial constraints imposed in connection with the App Store that are anything other than detailed, prescriptive and precise, Apple has systematically implemented practices that seek to circumvent the practical effects of those constraints,” the ruling read.

Beach also said that Apple “devised and pursued a deliberate and comprehensive strategy of foreclosure in relation to iOS app distribution.”

An Apple spokesperson told TechRadar that the company “does not have a monopoly position in Australia or in any market around the world. We respectfully disagree with many findings in this case, including a market definition that has been rejected by other courts.

“We will request a stay and appeal the outcome to seek a resolution that respects our intellectual property and protects the safe, secure experience that consumers and developers expect from the App Store.”

Apple has until February 15 to appeal this decision.

TechRadar has also contacted Epic Games for comment, though Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney took to X (formerly Twitter) to celebrate the ruling.

Apple and Epic Games have been going back and forth in courts ever since the former removed Fortnite from the Apple App Store in August 2020 for selling the in-game currency V-bucks in a way that would circumvent Apple’s 30% commission fee on in-app purchases.

Last year, the US Supreme Court also ruled that Apple engaged in anti-competitive conduct and pricing. A separate ruling in 2024, meanwhile, forced Apple to allow US customers to add links and buttons inside their apps that bring them out to a website where they can input credit card information, though it ultimately didn’t grant Epic Games’ petition to open iOS to competing stores and payments. Sweeney, at the time, called the ruling “a sad outcome for all developers”.

No more loopholes?

With Apple looking to appeal this ruling, these changes are far from guaranteed to happen in March next year, but it would be interesting to see if the tech giant will adopt a similar “compliance through friction” strategy in Australia.

The 2024 ruling above saw Apple implement a 27% commission on transactions completed on those external websites, a disclosure warning and restricted developers from using traditional buttons or persuasive calls-to-action language.

The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) forced Apple to allow third-party app stores, sideloading (installing apps through websites) and alternative in-app payments. Apple, instead, found workarounds like implementing a “Core Technology Fee” (charging developers that opt out of the App Store 50 euro cents per first annual install regardless of whether the developer made any money), using convoluted and multi-step installation processes for third-party app stores and requiring alternate app store developers to secure a $1 million standby letter of credit.

Justice Beach called them “deterrence tactics”, saying the fees blocked “any genuine prospect of competition” and explicitly addressed those “disproportionate frictions”, non-neutral disclosure sheets and discriminatory fees in the ruling.

The ruling outlines specific bans that Apple has to follow:

• implementing the Core Technology Fee
• 27% commissions on on transactions done through external websites
• disclosure sheets
• forcing developers into new, bundled contracts just to use alternative distribution
• requiring developers to also display Apple’s In-App Purchase (IAP) button alongside their preferred payment method
• forcing developers to appoint Apple as their legal "agent" for marketing and delivery.

Some potential workarounds that Apple may explore could be under the guise of “security standards”, using user interface design to discourage users and aggressive geofencing, or we could even see something completely different.

In any case, this is far from the last time that Apple and Epic Games will face each other in court, with Apple’s appeal to the US Supreme Court scheduled for sometime during its October 2026–2027 term. The EU is still actively investigating Apple while Epic Games continues to challenge Cupertino’s policies under the DMA.

The Apple iPhone Duo is the rare Apple product that has not received universally glowing or negative reviews. Opinions are split over its lack of Face ID support, iPhone 17 Pro-grade cameras (but without the telephoto lens), and slightly hefty frame when folded. It's also generated more interest in an iPhone than I've seen in years, and when I followed my exhaustive, generally positive review with a pair of AMAs (Ask Me Anything) on Threads and X, I was flooded with questions. My Threads post alone has 1,300 comments.

Granted, not every question was about the Duo. Many took the "Anything" part literally and asked me about everything from my hairline to their favorite color. I played along as I fielded myriad queries about Apple's first folding device. Over 24 hours, I reiterated many points from my review, which I doubt many read, but I also learned a thing or two I missed while testing the product.

Here are some of the highlights:

For my iPhone Duo review, I placed the folded phone on multiple MagSafe charge stands and holders. The MagSafe magnets sit on the back, right under the camera array, and the Duo fits perfectly on each stand. With charge stands, the Duo instantly slips into the redesigned Standby mode. I love it.

Someone on Threads asked me if I had tried unfolding the Duo and putting it on a MagSafe stand. So I did and quickly found that the weight of the half not attached to the charging stand made the entire phone rotate ever so slowly on the MagSafe charger. So, while you could use the unfolded Duo on a MagSafe charging stand, it is not recommended.

After someone else asked if they could still use their MagSafe Wallet, I found that the Duo's back is too short to accommodate the standard MagSafe Wallet.

With its two differently sized screens, the iPhone Duo is unique in the iPhone lineup, and there were reasonable questions about how features like vertical Wallpaper images work across the cover and inner display.

I didn't know, so I set the cover wallpaper as a vertical photo I took with the Duo of the Empire State Building, and I gotta say, I love the handoff between displays. The Cover display showed the iconic building, and when I opened the Duo, it showed more of the photo.

There were a lot of questions about the Duo's split-screen capabilities, like if I could open more than two apps (no, but you can do a PiP video overlay), and if you could drag and drop content from one screen to another (you can).

Some wondered if you could run the same app on both screens. You cannot, but if you want to maximize your social media, I found that you could run TikTok and Instagram Reels in side-by-side windows. It's social media turned up to 11.

During my review, I tried running the Kindle app, but the app wasn't optimized for the device and looked tiny and useless. Someone asked me about "iBooks," which is now known as Books.

As a first-party app, it's optimized for Duo, of course. Flipping virtual pages on the 7.6-inch inner display is a transporting experience.

Many wondered whether I hated the matte finish on the inner display (I don't), but I also got a ton of questions about the crease and the inner display's overall durability. A few wanted to know if I'd scratched it, either purposefully or by accident, with my fingernail. I had not, honestly; I don't even see fingerprints on the matte display.

A couple of people asked about the visibility of the crease and whether that area of the screen bounced or wobbled when I touched it. So I tested it by opening the phone and pressing down on the essentially invisible crease. No movement.

Many had obviously heard that not every app is optimized for the new inner display. In my review, I noted that LinkedIn and Gmail were particularly poor fits and later found that Adobe Acrobat still wasn't optimized. But developers are constantly delivering updates, so apps that didn't work yesterday look great today.

Still, people wanted to know how apps deal with the handoff from the 5.4-inch outer display to the 7.6-inch inner one. Optimized apps handle it smoothly; most simply expand without losing context.

Some, like DeckMan and Toastie, playfully use the two screens to create entertaining interplays. DeckMan, for instance, turns the duo into a virtual portable tape deck.

An almost equal number shared their concerns about the size of the 5.4-inch cover display. It's actually not that small, but Apple's decision to place the Dock vertically on the right-hand side means that you lose a lot of pixels to what is often empty space. Others complained about the lack of support for left-handed users (they kept asking me if I was left-handed). Some are even bothered by the dock's placement on the much larger inner display. You can't move it, and this will probably remain a key issue for many potential Duo owners.

Every single iPhone model now supports Face ID, with the notable exception of the new Duo. It's probably the single biggest Duo misstep, and many asked me if I was having trouble adjusting to using Touch ID again. Initially, I was, but I have gotten used to it. I hope the next Duo brings back facial recognition.

I probably got a dozen or so questions about battery life. Some reviewers have criticized the Duo for subpar battery life if you mainly use the larger inner screen. I did not find that, but I did field quite a few battery life questions from concerned potential buyers. I told them what my tests found: all-day battery life in a variety of situations.

I struggled a bit when people asked me to compare the Duo to the iPhone 18 Pro Max. I get it; they want to know if they should stick with what they know or, perhaps, try the awesome new thing. It's not easy, though, to directly compare the single-screen iPhone 18 Pro Max with the dual-display Duo. But leaving aside the screens, if you focus on, say, the cameras, you might stick with the 18 Pro Max, which offers a telephoto and a variable-aperture main camera. The Duo is also heavier than the iPhone 18 Pro Max, which might be a deal-breaker for some.

There were also a healthy number of comparisons to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 lineup, especially the similarly sized and shaped Galaxy Z Fold 8. A few asked me to compare the cameras. Turns out that both the Z Fold 8 and Duo have just two external cameras: wide and ultra-wide, and the Z Fold 8 has just a couple of megapixels per camera on the Duo. Ultimately, it's a wash on the camera front.

I got just as many questions about the cameras' quality, including the 12MP Center Stage camera on the outside and the 4MP inner camera. I found it interesting that many knew not to directly compare it to the new iPhone 18 Pro Max lenses and instead focused on the more comparable iPhone 17 Pro's wide and ultrawide. In my testing, I found the imagery was just as good as what I got from that now year-old device. I do, however, miss the telephoto lens.

One person actually asked how this iPhone Duo is different from the Surface Duo that Microsoft launched in 2019 and discontinued in 2024. I gently explained that while the Surface Duo's inner screen had two displays, the iPhone Duo offers one flexible inner display.

Apple hasn't said much about Apple Pencil support, but that may be because the Duo currently only supports the Apple Pencil USB-C. Why? It's the only one that you can still charge separately from, say, a tablet. Apple Pencil Pro needs the iPad to charge. The Duo cannot charge another device. As one Threads user put it, "Which basically means that my Pencil Pro is useless?" Mine too, my friend, mine, too.

We’re just hours away from the iPhone Duo officially going on sale here in the United States, specifically in the New York–New Jersey time zone, and it’s clear Apple’s first-ever folding phone is proving popular.

Just minutes after the iPhone Duo went up for preorder last week, on October 16, 2026, shipping timeframes began to slip. And if you were to order one right now — regardless of color, carrier, or storage — you’re looking at a January 2027 delivery date. But fear not, I've got some good news directly from Greg Joswiak, Apple’s SVP of Marketing.

"You know, we didn't ship them all away during the pre-order, we have them available at the stores, we're excited," said Joswiak.

He continued, “I'll be at 5th Avenue in the morning, my favorite place to launch iPhone, and I'm sure we'll have some happy customers.”

It’s a potentially reassuring comment if you’re currently waiting online or preparing to camp overnight, or even if you’re planning to arrive early at a store on launch day tomorrow, October 23, 2026.

I’ll be with Joswiak, other Apple employees, and who knows how many customers outside the flagship and iconic Cube store on 5th Avenue in NYC.

Previously, Apple has said it would have limited supply for walk-ins, but Jos offers a bit more, noting that the Duo will be available in stores. And while demand for the iPhone Duo for online orders and pre-reserves has been impressive, leading to long lead times, he reiterated that Apple still has some set aside for folks who want to try their luck going to a store or even trying to lock in a unit for pickup.

On overall demand for the iPhone Duo, Joswiak notes, “Well, I think you saw the pre-order demand last week was extraordinary.”

He continued, “People got it. They understood what we were doing. The people who, like yourselves, who saw it early on were quite taken by it.”

You can read TechRadar’s full review of the iPhone Duo here, and I’ve gotten the chance to spend some more time with it this week since the original unveiling in September. It’s still an incredible form factor, one that feels excellent in the hand and ultimately feels like a premium iPhone.

More recently, I’ve gotten to see more applications running on it — like Edits taking advantage of the bigger internal screen, the impressive reflections rendered in real time in Netflix, and the epic DeckMan, which turns the Duo into a cassette player. Still early days, but it really shows off some unique experiences designed for the Duo.

Another exemplary example is the MLB app, which is launching its iPhone Duo update on Day One with pretty spectacular timing. You see, the World Series kicks off tomorrow, and if you have an iPhone Duo and an applicable account, you can watch it in grand style. On the cover screen, or, if you flip it open, in a full-screen, TV-like treatment. Even neater, if you fold it like a book or mini laptop, you can have the broadcast on top and box score on the bottom. You can even split the screen for the broadcast on the left and another app on the right.

Joswiak noted the importance of MLB and sports at large: ”Sports are important to us; it's important to our users.” The relationship is so tight that the iPhone is in the Baseball Hall of Fame, specifically a Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Pro Max that was used to broadcast Friday Night Baseball.

So, if you’re lucky enough to get an iPhone Duo tomorrow, you can tune into the World Series on its impressive new display. But if you’re still hoping to get your hands on Apple’s first folding phone, don’t count yourself out just yet. Despite online orders slipping to January, Joswiak says Apple will have units available in stores tomorrow. Your best bet? Get there early.

• Lenovo's Snapdragon-based IdeaPad Vibe 14Q8X12 is on sale a month before its promised date
• US pricing starts at $799.99 for 8GB and 256GB, $100 above both Lenovo's IFA promise and the base MacBook Neo
• It beats the Neo on ports, keyboard backlighting, colors, and RAM ceiling, but its memory is soldered, and its 400-nit, 45% NTSC screen trails Apple's device

Lenovo's IdeaPad Vibe 14Q8X12, the Snapdragon-powered version of the colorful laptop it pitched at IFA 2026 as an answer to Apple's MacBook Neo, is now on sale through Lenovo's own web stores in the US, UK, Canada, the Eurozone, Malaysia and Singapore.

That puts it just barely a month ahead of the November 2026 window Lenovo gave in Berlin in September, as Notebookcheck reports, with pre-orders due to start shipping on October 28.

The early arrival is the good news, but its price tag is the catch. Lenovo announced the Vibe range at $699.99, matching the MacBook Neo to the dollar. In the US, the Snapdragon model actually starts at $799.99 on Lenovo's product page, with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.

A month early, a hundred dollars late?

The timing of Lenovo's original price matters. Apple launched the MacBook Neo at $599 in March, then raised it to $699 on June 25 as the AI-driven memory shortage pushed up component costs. Apple said it had "never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly." Lenovo's $699.99 arrived in September as a deliberate match for the post-hike Neo.

At $799.99, the Vibe now costs about $100 more than the base Neo, and the same as Apple's 512GB model with Touch ID, which doubles the storage Lenovo gives US buyers. Lenovo has not directly addressed the increase. TechRadar saw this coming when the Vibe leaked in August, betting that even after Apple's price rise, "the Lenovo machine's going to be a fair bit more expensive." In the US, at least, our assessment has come full circle.

The math is kinder elsewhere, often helped along by Apple's pricing: Lenovo sells the laptop for £780 in the UK, and outside North America it ships with 512GB of storage by default. That is £81 more than the base Neo's post-hike £699, but with twice the storage. Canadian buyers pay CAD 1,099, Eurozone pricing runs from €849 to €999 depending on the country, and Malaysia and Singapore are priced at MYR 4,939 and SGD 1,379, respectively. Some Eurozone markets are limited to 8GB of RAM, and a few UK configurations currently quote four to five weeks for delivery.

For perspective, the AMD-powered 14-inch Vibe, which arrived on schedule this month, starts at $899 in the US with a Ryzen AI 7 445, the same 8GB of RAM, and 256 GB of storage. The Snapdragon model is the cheapest route into a 14-inch Vibe in the US; it's just not as cheap as was originally promised.

Upgradeability was a big part of Lenovo's pitch, and the AMD Vibe models deliver it with two SO-DIMM slots, while the Snapdragon model does not. This makes it a no-upgrades-possible offering right now, so the base 8GB is more of a commitment than it looks.

Stacking against the incumbent: Apple's MacBook Neo

The Vibe ekes out some impressive wins; it beats the Neo in connectivity: the Vibe has two USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, HDMI, a microSD reader, and a headphone jack.

The Neo makes do with two USB-C ports, one of them running at USB 2 speeds, plus a headphone jack, an allocation we have previously criticized as the bare minimum. Lenovo also offers an optional backlit keyboard, something the Neo lacks entirely, and a memory ceiling of 24GB against the Neo's fixed 8GB.

The Vibe comes in seven Pantone-developed shades, from Spicy Gold to Zen Green, with color-matched keycap sets sold separately.

"Color is the most personal design decision people make when choosing a device," Lenovo's Brian Leonard said at launch, that "versatility is certainly the big advantage of the IdeaPad Vibe" over Apple's machine.

Build quality is less clear-cut, however: metal configurations use aluminum for the lid and base, but the palm rest, keyboard deck and trackpad are plastic, and cheaper builds swap in a plastic bottom cover. HotHardware, which handled it at IFA, judged that the Vibe out-specs the Neo but added, "I don't think it feels as premium, and that's unfortunate." The Vibe also uses a fan, whereas the Neo is silent, opting for a fanless design.

The Neo set a high bar; we previously called it "the best budget laptop you can buy right now" at launch, though the $100 increase has since made it harder to recommend to everyone, with a potential argument that can be made that multiple budget Windows 11 laptops are now often the better buy.

At $799.99 in the US, it is a tough sell as a MacBook Neo alternative. For the same money, you get a Neo with 512GB of storage and Touch ID, a sharper, brighter screen, and Apple's arguably more mature software running on its own silicon. The Vibe's case rests on ports, a backlit keyboard, a slightly larger screen, and the option of 16GB or 24GB of RAM, which the Neo cannot offer at any price. If those matter to you, it is a reasonable Windows laptop with a lot of personality. It is just not the $699 Neo-matcher Lenovo announced earlier.

• The UK government wants more Apple Pay alternatives for consumers
• It’s proposing opening the technology up to other companies
• It also wants Apple to charge lower fees for access

If you pay for an item using the contactless tech on any of the best iPhones, you’re locked into Apple’s way of doing things. But the UK government’s competition regulator — the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) — is proposing new rules that could blast open the way you pay using your iPhone.

According to a press release on the UK government website, the CMA believes that “Apple’s fees and rules are blocking UK fintechs and other businesses from innovating and growing” and that its proposed changes are “expected to result in substantially lower access fees, helping make it commercially viable for more businesses to innovate and compete.”

The CMA pointed out that no rivals to Apple Pay exist in the UK, as opposed to in the EU, where several alternatives can be used. The CMA believes this is due to both high fees charged by Apple and restrictions placed on certain technology by the Cupertino giant.

For instance, while Apple allowed third-party companies to offer Apple Pay alternatives in the UK back in 2024, one condition was that these firms had to use Apple’s Secure Element, which encrypts important payment card information during transactions.

In the EU, however, European Union-wide rules mean that Apple must let companies use host card emulation (HCE) for free instead of the Secure Element, if they wish. The CMA wants that kind of technology to be available in the UK and says it does not believe that doing so would raise any “inherent security concerns.”

Commenting on the CMA’s move, Mattias Eld, CEO & Co-founder at contactless firm Fidesmo, said: “Buying an iPhone should not mean handing Apple the keys to your wallet. Consumers should rightly choose how they pay, and banks should choose who they work with. But for over a decade Apple has honed its domination over tap-to-pay, through the careful and deliberate stifling of its competitors. This has allowed Apple to charge banks inflated transaction fees, with the threat of exclusion from such a vast market leaving them little choice but to pay.”

Apple pushes back

The CMA says that while it isn’t seeking to dictate the prices or terms that Apple must set, it wants to propose “principles for how this should be determined, with the expectation that charges would be substantially lower than Apple’s current fees while still fairly rewarding Apple for providing access.”

However, Apple has pushed back against the CMA’s proposals, telling Reuters that “We do not believe the CMA should require ​Apple to adopt an approach with lower privacy and security protections. We will continue to engage constructively to reach ​an outcome that is in the best interest of our users.”

Why does Apple restrict access to contactless payment tech? One answer might simply lie in the almighty dollar: as with the App Store, Apple charges third-party firms for access and likely doesn’t want to give up that revenue stream.

I’m not entirely convinced that that’s the main reason, however — after all, Apple is one of the wealthiest companies on the planet and makes huge profit margins on every product it sells. Is nickel and diming really such a core strategy when its iPhone revenue alone jumped 21% to $54.25 billion in the third quarter of 2026?

Analysis: Apple fears it could pay the price

To me, a stronger argument centers on something else: control. This has been an obsession for the company since the days of Steve Jobs, and Apple is acutely, painfully sensitive to how its products are perceived.

If Apple loosened its grip on something so vital to the user experience as payments and financial services and a third-party contactless provider then got hacked or scammed customers, Apple fears that that will reflect badly on itself as a company. For the perfectionists at Apple, anything that lessens the user experience due to Apple’s actions is an absolute no-go. By taking payments entirely under its own aegis, Apple reassures itself that nothing will go wrong.

There’s a degree of logic to that. Apple has proven its security credentials and works harder than many companies to keep its systems incredibly safe. Going with a third-party means trusting someone else whose track record might not be as strong. But that certainly doesn’t mean that only Apple can safeguard your payment information — or indeed that only Apple should be allowed to even try.

If the CMA gets its way, Apple might be forced to change its ways. The company has already been forced to crack open its contactless walled garden in the EU, and the UK might soon follow. The way you pay using your phone might look very different as a result.

Apple iPhone Duo: Two-minute review

In the early days of the iPhone, seeing one in the wild, usually in a brave early adopter's hands, was like spotting a unicorn. The excitement was palpable. Over the years, though, as every smartphone has become a glass and metal slab, making it difficult to tell one iPhone release from another, the excitement has diminished. Where I used to keep my 'regular' iPhone review units out of sight, I now casually carry them around in a case, and no one is any the wiser.

That, though, is not the case with the iPhone Duo. In my effort to spend as much time using the new folding iPhone as possible, I carried it everywhere, including to a wedding party for my friend's son. My iPhone Duo test unit was somewhat disguised by being clad in a Taupe Folio with a Kickstand case, but as I held it aloft to photograph the newlyweds, the bride's eyes grew wide.

"Is that...?!"

My eyes darted from her to the phone in my hand, and I considered stuffing it back in my pocket, but I was intrigued by her reaction. I hadn't seen this level of interest and excitement in years.

I nodded wordlessly; the newlyweds started peppering me with questions, and as I folded and unfolded it, and they glimpsed the inner display, the bride's jaw dropped. She asked if I liked it. I mumbled, "Yes, I think so," without offering much more information.

I was determined to use the iPhone Duo's two external 48MP cameras to photograph the event, which meant this scenario repeated itself more than once.

It was obvious that, unlike every other iPhone of the last decade or so, the iPhone Duo could not travel incognito; people were, it seemed, intensely interested in Apple's first truly new iPhone form factor in basically forever.

The interest is warranted.

The iPhone Duo is not simply an iPhone folded in half. I'd argue it's only marginally an iPhone and more of a hybrid, splitting the difference between a sub-sized smartphone and a slightly larger, 8-inch iPad mini.

From the highly polished titanium frame to the curves and pitch-perfect tolerances, the iPhone Duo's design is Apple at its best, and while it doesn't reinvent the genre, the nano-texture finish on the main display cannily solved the chief folding phone complaint: that darn crease. It's not that the crease is completely gone, but in daily use it's virtually invisible. As an added bonus, that matte finish kills reflectivity in bright sunlight, and makes almost everything look better.

Apple includes four cameras, three of which are powerful enough to produce high-quality photos across a range of styles. I saw excellent color accuracy and low-light performance, and the ultra-wide camera feels expansive. The inner-display camera is, it appears, just 4MP, but it does a good job with casual selfies and FaceTime calls.

Apple has almost stuck the landing here, but there is a slight step backwards. I'm fairly certain its decision to move the status bar and dock to the right side of the 5.4-inch outer screen, and therefore shrink the width of most apps, will divide opinion. I like how this makes it easy to tap an app with your right thumb, but the remaining screen real estate makes some app experiences look and feel cramped.

Then there's the lack of Face ID on the cover screen, which means this is the first iPhone in ages that I have to use my finger to unlock.

I'm also less than thrilled that a nearly $2,000 / £1,999 phone starts with just 256GB of storage; although, to be fair to Apple, the $1,899.99 / £1,699 Galaxy Z Fold 8 also starts with the same amount.

Those small nits are like pointing out the missing eyelashes on the Mona Lisa, though. Overall, this is a fantastic entry into the folding phone space, offering the dual capabilities of a glanceable and attractive iPhone that fits in any pocket or hand, and a versatile 7.6-inch tablet.

Not everyone needs two screens in one device, or wants to pay as much as they would for a home appliance for their next smartphone; but for those who feel confined by the boundaries of a typical iPhone and want to do more in less space, the iPhone Duo, which starts out smaller than your average smartphone but unfolds to reveal an almost twice-as-large tablet display, is well worth your consideration.

Apple iPhone Duo review: Price and availability

• From $1,999 in the US
• From £1,999 in the UK
• From $3,499 in Australia

Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first folding phone, as its "one more thing" during the Surprise and Shine event on September 9, 2026.

The list price is $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,499 for the 256GB model, which is in line with most of its folding competitors from Samsung, Huawei, Motorola, and Oppo. It's available in storage configurations up to 2TB for $3,199 / £3,199 / AU$5,899.

The iPhone Duo is the most expensive iPhone Apple has ever made, but we should put this in context. Like most foldables, this is a two-in-one device: a pint-sized smartphone with a 5.4-inch 4:3 screen, and a 7.6-inch tablet. Unlike the Galaxy Z Fold 8, which has a similar passport-style shape, and even the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which is a more conventionally sized and shaped foldable, the iPhone Duo's larger main screen supports digital pen input (this wasn't available for my testing period, but it's expected by November).

You may also be able to soften the price blow a bit with a trade-in; or you might want to look at Apple's leasing program, which will run about $57-to-$83 / £47 to £66.63 / AU$97.19 to over $161 a month for the base model.

In total, the iPhone Duo is probably better value than you think.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Apple iPhone Duo review: Specs

These are the key specs of the Apple iPhone Duo:

Apple iPhone Duo review: Design

• Polished titanium
• Exquisitely engineered hinge and folding operation
• Unfolds flat
• IP68
• Thicker and heavier than nearest competition
• No Face ID

'Satisfying' is the best way to describe the feeling of repeatedly opening and closing the iPhone Duo. It's as if Apple inadvertently created a digital fidget spinner — the more I carried around the iPhone Duo, the more I found myself absentmindedly folding and unfolding the phone.

Apple's exceptional engineering makes it possible to unfold the phone initially, with almost no effort (it almost springs open at the slightest intentional touch), before the internal torque kicks in to allow for the Duo to be opened to almost any angle between zero and 180 degrees (flat).

While you can't see the work that went into making this hinge, the effort is evident in every single touch and move. Inside are hundreds of magnets and other components that keep the phone securely closed, but never get in the way of an easy opening. More so than with any folding phone I've tested, the hinge essentially disappears when the iPhone Duo is unfolded flat.

At 5.2mm thick, the fingerprint-attracting polished titanium iPhone Duo is the thinnest iPhone ever. At least that's how Apple markets it, but that's in tablet mode; I do like the sound of a 5.2mm-thick tablet. The 7.6-inch device is thinner than the 8-inch iPad mini (6.3mm). Folded, the iPhone Duo is 11.3mm thick, almost 2mm thicker than the folded Galaxy Z Fold 8. And at 254g, the iPhone Duo outweighs the Galaxy Z Fold 8 by a noticeable 53 grams. It's even slightly heavier than the iPhone 18 Pro Max, which weighs 249g.

The upshot of all this is that while the 4.64-inch by 3.31-inch folded iPhone Duo fits in even the smallest pocket, you will feel its heft, especially if you pop, say, a Folio with Kickstand case on it.

The iPhone Duo stands out in a way few iPhones have in recent years. Folded, it's closer to square than rectangular in shape, resembling a squat iPhone Pro Max. Plus, the asymmetry — flat and square on one side and curved on the other when folded — means the Duo cuts a unique profile among smartphones.

It does feel good in the hand, though the wider body might take some getting used to. I like the Ceramic Shield 2 front and back, especially the matte-finished back, which makes the Duo almost slip-from-your-hand-proof. The large dual-camera array bump is reminiscent of the iPhone Air, though the similarities end there.

The volume buttons live on the top edge, another departure from the traditional iPhone, and indeed from smartphone design in general — I'm not sure I love that decision. On the right is the long Touch ID-enabled power/sleep/Siri AI button, and below that is the Action button. I often forget that last button exists on my iPhone 18 Pro Max, and I wonder if it was truly necessary here.

I appreciate the inclusion of Touch ID (I registered my index finger and thumb), but the lack of Face ID is frustrating — I had no idea how much I relied on it for quickly unlocking my phone until it wasn't there. Multiple times I've stared at the iPhone Duo's cover screen waiting for something to happen, forgetting that I have to intentionally touch the Touch ID button. A nearly $2,000 device lacking Apple's most powerful biometric security feature is close to unforgivable — I'll probably set up a workaround so that I can unlock the Duo via my Apple Watch.

Along the bottom edge are the USB-C port (the phone ships with a charging cable but no power adapter), the speakers, and the mics.

Unfolded, the iPhone duo feels like a thin, compact tablet — I hesitate to say 'iPad' since the operating system is essentially iOS with some small adjustments for the new form factor.

Remarkably, Apple comes out of the folding gate flourishing an IP68 rating, which means the iPhone Duo is protected against dust and even water. Naturally, I submerged the Duo under a running faucet, and it was none the worse for the experience.

Overall, I like the design and form factor, but it's different from a traditional iPhone, so it does take some getting used to. I struggled, for instance, to figure out the best way to hold the phone for photography. Do I need to turn it into landscape mode, or should I just hold it the way I hold a 'regular' iPhone? I do wonder how many will choose to unfold the phone, and shoot pictures in the same way they might with their iPad.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Apple iPhone Duo review: Displays

• Adorable and unusually shaped 5.4-inch cover display
• Industry-leading 7.6-inch foldable internal display
• Crease is canily hidden via a combination of expert engineering and a nano-etched display
• Bright, sharp, fluid screens

Credit to Apple for not skimping on either of its iPhone Duo displays. Both the 5.4-inch outer and the 7.6-inch flexible inner screens are Super Retina XDR-class OLED panels, both with variable refresh rates up to 120Hz, always-on functionality, and up to 3,000 nits of brightness.

Both displays look impressively sharp, and actually offer slightly higher resolutions than the comparable displays on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8.

The iPhone Duo's 5.4-inch cover display has a 2034 x 1398 resolution (compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 cover display's 1972 x 1248), and the 7.6-inch Inner display is 2670 x 1878 (compared to the Z Fold 8's 2448 x 1848 main display).

At first glance, the iPhone duo Cover screen is instantly recognizable as an iPhone, but close scrutiny reveals some interesting adjustments for the relatively short and wide display. First, the pill-shaped Dynamic Island sits in a vertical space along the right side, and when you look at the home screen, the dock is stacked vertically below the time and a status button (a single tap on it expands it to show connectivity and battery, and also drops down the full Control Center).

The Duo takes that right-hand space and rarely gives it up, which means that websites can look cramped in Safari, and some apps like TikTok, and even Apple's native ones, like Sports, can feel a bit squeezed. There are exceptions, like when you use the screen as a viewfinder in the Camera app, or look back at images in the Photo Gallery. In those cases, the imagery fills the entire screen.

I'm less conflicted about the glorious main screen. It's big, it's responsive, and the matte, nano-texture covering almost completely hides the crease by dispersing any light bouncing off it, instead of directing it right back to your eyes. The display looks and feels perfectly flat, plus that matte covering kills all reflections, and makes every image look almost magazine-quality. It could be argued that a tiny bit of visual punch is lost in the texture, but I really enjoyed everything I viewed and did on the screen. It feels wonderful to the touch, and I had fun playing games like PUBG, browsing the web on a big screen, watching Netflix, reviewing and editing my photos, and multi-taking (more on that later).

Unlike the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and 8 Ultra, the iPhone Duo's inner display supports a stylus, specifically the USB-C Apple Pencil. That support is not yet live, but I can't wait to start drawing on the Duo. I did attempt some Procreate Pocket sketches with my finger, and it didn't go well, which is mostly a me problem. However, I had slightly better luck with an analog stylus (see below).

Apple hides the 4MP inner FaceTime camera behind a handful of pixels, but they don't appear to have the exact same mix of matte and pixel density as the rest of the display, and as such are easy to spot. I wonder if Apple should have just gone with a standard, albeit smaller, cutout.

As on the cover display, Apple has positioned the status and dock vertically on the right side of the main display. I wonder why, in Tablet mode, Apple didn't simply copy the iPad and put this bar at the base of the screen. Still, I noticed that the dock disappears when you're in apps like Safari.

There's more to say about app compatibility with this platform, which I'll get into later in the Software section of this review.

I especially like the redesigned Standby feature, which takes advantage of the Duo's multiple displays and foldable nature. You can prop up the phone like a tent and have the Standby display appear in landscape mode. If you flip the phone up so it's standing on your desk like an open book, the Duo knows to switch Standby to the inner display. At one point I popped the Duo onto my old Belkin MagSafe charger, and used it as a nightstand clock. It's so smart and useful.

What we have here are two excellent displays with a wide array of capabilities in one device. It's both a tiny iPhone and a mini tablet, with two screens that should please both the iPhone and iPad crowds. I have my reservations about the cover screen, but as an overall multi-display package, I'm impressed with the Duo.

• Display score: 4.5 / 5

Apple iPhone Duo review: Cameras

• Two strong 48MP cameras
• Excellent 12MP Center Stage camera
• Inner camera is lower-resolution but effective for FaceTime
• No telephoto camera

It's been a long time since I've reviewed an iPhone on which camera considerations come second to design and mechanical engineering, but the excitement revolving around the iPhone Duo is about its folding capability, creaseless inner screen, and unique-among-iPhones form factor.

Even so, there's no indication that Apple has skimped on three of the four cameras. Yes, the inner camera is just a 4MP shooter that's primarily devoted to FaceTime calls, but the rest of the lenses — 48MP f/1.6 Main, 48MP f/2.2 ultra-wide, and 12MP f/2.2 Center Stage — are all excellent.

While I haven't had a lot of time with the iPhone Duo, I have managed to shoot in a variety of conditions and situations, pushing the cameras on speed, image quality, color, and low-light performance.

The two external cameras default to shooting at 24MP, which means each photo has effectively twice as much information per pixel (the process is called binning).

I was particularly impressed by the level of detail in the main-camera shots — just look at the specks of pollen on the marigold flower in the gallery below. That same image shows an exceptional balance of shadows and light; the sunlight bleed on the right does not overwhelm the exposure of the rest of the image.

In a challenging social-club environment, the main wide and ultra-wide cameras acquitted themselves nicely, making exposure adjustments to capture the moment without too much grain. Obviously, there was some motion blur, but I think it added to the emotional weight of the event.

With the iPhone duo, Apple has introduced Smart Take, which I liken to your own personal fashion photographer. The setting lives under the grid menu (drawer) in the Camera app, and once it's on, you can set the phone folded at 90 degrees on a desktop, start posing in front of the camera, and Smart Take will capture the 'best shots.'

When I used it, I noted that while I was trusting the phone to take some decent photos of me, I couldn't see a display to keep track of what it was capturing (Smart Take is not supported on the 4MP inner camera). Still, I started striking poses, assuming that the camera would deem those best. It kind of worked, though I think Smart Take would work best if you're able to put the iPhone Duo up on a tripod or shelf to make sure the camera is closer to eye level.

Similar to what we've seen on other foldable phones, Apple has included a camera mode, Duo Preview, that lets you use the best main or ultra-wide camera while still using the cover display as a viewfinder. It's a useful table-stakes feature that I'm glad Apple included, especially since the inner camera is so underpowered.

Apple says you get 2x effective optical zoom on the main camera, but that's a sensor crop. Yes, the pixels and image information will be real, but I prefer a proper zoom lens. To be fair, the iPhone Duo camera array is quite similar to the 50MP pair on the Galaxy Z Fold 8, which also lacks a telephoto lens.

I also used the cover screen Center Stage camera to shoot some portrait-mode selfies. They were, as you might expect, impressive (not the subject, just the brilliant bokeh).

The iPhone Duo's trio of high-quality cameras meets, in my estimation, the high watermark set by lenses on previous iPhones, including the iPhone 17 Pro (the 18 Pro models come with a variable aperture).

• Camera score: 4.5 / 5

Apple iPhone Duo review: Software

• An iOS tablet hybrid that somehow works
• Dock position will split some
• Split screen for multitasking
• Third-party app support is a work in progress

With the iPhone Duo, iOS officially means multiple things. Where it was once a smartphone platform, it's now a multi-hardware-configuration operating system that can, depending on where it's installed, fork appropriately.

Instead of the iPhone Duo unfolding and converting into an iPad, it remains steadfastly an iPhone with tablet-like capabilities. This has resulted in some odd decisions on Apple's part, like hiding some of the ever-present status-bar information, including battery life, and rotating and moving the dock. Even the iPad doesn't put the dock on the right-hand side.

On the cover screen, the status bar and dock placement cut into screen real-estate for some apps and browser experiences; this is less of an issue on the larger inner screen.

Since this is not pure-play classic iOS, there is some discontinuity in third-party app support. During my testing, Gmail and LinkedIn didn't look great. The former is stretched wide but doesn't fill the full depth of the display; LinkedIn floats in the middle.

For unoptimized apps, I did have the option of using the very iPad-like 2x zoom icon, which stretched the app to fit more of the screen. In some instances, apps appeared to work, but some features were broken. When I played Asphalt Legends on the inner display, tilt-to-steer was broken, though it worked perfectly on the cover display.

Some third-party apps, including Netflix (clips looked pretty good on the Cover display), and first-party apps like Safari and Messages, look great, and effectively use all the 7.6-inch display's real estate. There are even some apps that are already custom-designed to take advantage of the dual-display setup.

One of my favorites is a game called Toastie. On the inner screen, you butter your bread, add cheese and other ingredients, then hit grill, at which point you fold the phone closed, and it gently pulses for each second of cooking. You have to decide when to stop. To see your grilled cheese sandwich, you open the phone — I did this a half dozen times before I had a virtually edible sandwich.

Deck-Man is also a cute concept; this turns your iPhone duo into a classic cassette tape player, complete with the static you hear when the player is on but not playing a tape. When the iPhone is open, you choose a cassette and virtually put it in the player, then you close the phone to access the player controls. I especially liked how "rewinding" the tape reproduced the classic sounds of a physical tape rewinding in an old-school player.

I also played Battle Fleet, which is a Battleship knockoff, and works well when you set up the phone in 90-degree opened desktop mode.

These are all clever apps, though I wouldn't argue that any are the Duo's 'killer app.'

The 7.6-inch inner display is also a good canvas for multitasking. You split the screen by swiping up from the bottom of the display and slowly dragging an app left or right. Inside each pane, you can swipe up to choose a different app. I used this to have Messages and Safari side-by-side, and also for the drawing app Procreate on one side and a reference image from Safari on the left.

Unlike on the Galaxy Z Fold 8, you can't run three apps, though the iPhone Duo will let you add picture-in-picture video on top of two apps you have open.

The iPhone Duo is a good showcase for Apple's growing AI ambitions. Siri AI now knows more about me and my smartphone, so when I ask if there are any emails I should know about, it automatically accesses 'Priority Mail' in the Mail app, and quickly starts reading off the first crucial message. Siri AI is better at maintaining context, so I don't have to restate myself, but it's still not foolproof. I asked Siri where I had been yesterday, and it showed me a picture of myself and listed my age. Siri AI should, though, get better as it continues to index my system.

In general, iOS 27, which is more customizable that ever, has useful widgets and more powerful AI features, and is the perfect platform for Apple's biggest iPhone design leap. It may not have all the design elements right, and the app support is lagging a bit behind, but these are all minor, and I think easily adjustable or fixable, issues.

• Software score: 4.5 / 5

Apple iPhone Duo review: Performance

• Powerful A20 Pro CPU
• 12GB RAM
• Smooth performance across the board

Apple smartly put the same CPU, the 2-nanometer A20 Pro, in the iPhone Duo as it did in the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. As a result, the performance on its first foldable device is equally impressive. In Future Labs benchmark tests, the A20 Pro on an iPhone Duo beat the Galaxy Z Fold 8's Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy in Geekbench 7 single- and multi-core tests, and it also edged out the Qualcomm chip in most of our graphics tests. None of this was by a wide margin, and I'd challenge anyone to notice the difference in real-world scenarios. Still, it's nice to know that the Duo is cooking with gas, just like its Pro counterparts.

In my experience, the iPhone Duo is fast and fluid. Speaking of which, it's fun to start with some third-party apps on the cover screen, and then flip open the iPhone Duo to see the virtually seamless graphics handoff from the smaller display to the larger one. It's both a software and performance feat that nothing stutters or stalls in the handoff process.

The larger inner screen will probably encourage many to try even tougher tasks, like editing 40K 60fps video. I used CyberLink PowerDirector to do so, and while the system and app handled the task fine, the non-optimized app couldn't properly fill the 7.6-inch display.

The back of the phone, near the camera bump, can get a little warm during gaming and other CPU-intensive operations, like recording the aforementioned 4K video, but not uncomfortably so.

Apple's A20 and the 12GB of RAM on board seem well suited to local tasks like photo editing in Cleanup, and both realistic and fanciful image creation in Image Playground.

The iPhone Duo starts with 256GB of storage, which matches the Galaxy Z Fold 8. At this price, though, I think it should start with double that. You can expect strong connectivity across the board from the iPhone Duo. Inside is Apple's C2 modem for better 5G connectivity. Plus, there's support for WiFi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Messages via Satellite.

Apple iPhone Duo benchmark scores

• Performance score: 5 / 5

Apple iPhone Duo review: Battery

• Solid all-day battery life
• Fast wired charging

Apple reportedly squeezed a fairly large, almost 5,000mAh, battery into the iPhone duo, and is promising some pretty impressive battery-life numbers based on fairly specific types of usage. Video playback, which doesn't rely all that much on energy-draining resources, can, Apple claims, go for an eye-watering 44 hours, or 31 hours on the larger inner display.

In more varied use, Apple is claiming a full day of battery life on a charge. In my real-world tests I got around 14 hours, and in our more stringent Future Labs tests, we got 13 hours. That's commendable performance, but not as good as what the same Future Labs tests show for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, which managed 14.33 hours.

I still think the iPhone Duo's numbers are good, especially because my experience was easily cruising through a full day of phone activities, without any concern that I needed to plug in.

The phone supports fast charging and, with a 45W charger, I charged to 60% in 30 minutes. The MagSafe back also supports fast wireless charging.

• Battery score: 4.5 / 5

Should you buy the Apple iPhone Duo?

Apple iPhone Duo scorecard

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Apple iPhone Duo review: Also consider

How I tested the Apple iPhone Duo

I used the iPhone Duo for almost a week for everything from social media to Slack and email. I perused websites, watched videos, played games, followed maps and turn-by-turn directions, and took photos. In short, I tried ot use it as my primary device

Read more about how we test

First reviewed October 2026

• Bluesound is adding fully integrated Apple Music support, on top of existing AirPlay support
• This is rare in streaming systems — Sonos has basically had a monopoly
• Available now via free software update

If you want to play Apple Music natively, in high resolution, on multi-room audio equipment the choice has largely been Sonos, Sonos or Sonos. That's now changed, and direct integration with the Apple Music service is coming to the Bluesound platform and BluOS software as a free upgrade.

That's a big deal because in addition to Bluesound's own products, the BluOS operating system also powers devices from big audio brands including NAD Electronics, PSB Speakers, DALI, Cyrus, and Monitor Audio.

It's a significant upgrade, because like Spotify and TIDAL, Apple Music is now fully integrated into the BluOS platform rather than supported indirectly via AirPlay 2. That means the audio is streaming directly to your player rather than via your phone, tablet or computer, so there's no compression, as there is over AirPlay or Bluetooth.

When is the Apple Music upgrade coming to BluOS?

The update is available from today, 20 October 2026, and you can get it by updating the BluOS software on your device. You'll then be able to use the BluOS Controller app to select your streaming, whether that's to a single device or a multi-room setup.

In the case of multi-room setups you'll be able to share Apple Music to specific rooms and audio zones, or have the same music playing everywhere.

Although the update itself is free, Apple Music is of course a subscription-based service, though you don't have to pay extra for higher quality or ad-free streaming.

It's a major win for Bluesound as the key Sonos alternative. There's obviously a lot of crossover between the the slickness the Sonos system has been known for and what people expect from Apple products.

When Sonos had its major software issues in 2024, Bluesound and WiiM emerged as the two multi-room systems hoping to benefit most from it, but WiiM has a strange relationship with Apple. None of its products support Apple Music natively, and many of its products don't even support AirPlay.

So this is a big win for Bluesound with Apple fans, especially since it's always been considered the more audiophile-led alternative to Sonos — now Apple Music can be a source for that.

I've finished my weekly search across the web for all of the best laptop deals available right now, and I've whittled it down to 12 top picks in the US and the UK.

Whether you want a super-cheap option, a great value budget machine, or a performance powerhouse, there should be an ideal laptop for you right here — with several choices that would work well for work, school, college, or home use.

If I had to pick one, then this Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x at Best Buy for $549.99 (was $849.99) is my top recommendation in the US. It's a powerful and modern machine with a super-efficient Snapdragon CPU that ensures great performance and exceptional battery life.

For the UK, I'd go with this Lenovo IdeaPad Chromebook at Argos for £269 (was £399). It's definitely a more entry-level choice, but it offers a surprising amount of power for the price, including 8GB of RAM, so it can more comfortably handle everyday jobs and light work.

Those are just two of the best laptop deals I've found this week that I think are worth the cash. Have a browse through all of my top picks below for more.

US laptop deals

UK laptop deals

Nvidia's RTX Spark laptops hit the shelves last week, led by Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra, and the chip supports up to 128GB of memory.

This laptop starts at $2,599.99, but does its performance justify the price tag?

I took a look at some of the earliest in-depth reviews of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra to ascertain what this device offers and whether it is worth every penny.

What reviews say

The prowess of the RTX Spark laptop was acknowledged, but all the reviews agreed on one thing: it’s not foolproof and has some downsides.

“It's a beast, but not at everything,” said Zac Bowden of Windows Central, while Tom's Guide went further, calling it “not a MacBook Pro killer but something much weirder and wildly powerful.”

The praise is concentrated in one area: local AI models. Every outlet that tested them put the Surface ahead of Apple's M5 Max and AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395, the most powerful mobile chips for laptops.

Its gaming performance, however, did not exactly get much praise – while some said it is just okay, others think it’s a weak spot.

Price

Cost is the sticking point for RTX Spark. Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,599.99 for the 18-core model with 24GB of memory and 512GB of storage.

The 20-core, 128GB, 1TB configuration tops out at $5,899.99, and the lead times on this model already stretch to late December.

The jump is steepest where the platform is strongest. The 64GB to 96GB of GPU-accessible memory that lets 35B-parameter models run well only comes with the 128GB build, and a 32GB or 48GB Surface won't fit the same models.

Tom’s Hardware warns that “sky-high DRAM and NAND price hikes” will be a headwind for the platform in the near term. That is a lot to spend, and you need a local AI workload to justify it.

The biggest challenge is the “eye-watering price tags,” since that money still buys “a lot” of cloud tokens from OpenAI and Anthropic, as Tom's Hardware puts it.

As Windows Central notes, comparable devices offer just enough and cost less.

CPU

Multi-core speed is the strength, and single-core speed is the weakness.

The 20-core N1X pairs 10 performance cores with 10 efficiency cores, targeting heavy multi-threaded work.

In single-core tests, it was found to “edge” the Dell Pro Precision 5 16S, scoring 558.5 against 534.8 in Cinebench 2026.

But across the wider suite, single-thread results, StorageReview says it “sit 15 to 30 percent behind the x64 field,” which is “just okay.”

Moving to multi-core, the Surface is an absolute "beast", finishing “34 percent ahead of the Razer Blade 16.”

Compared with Apple, however, it “simply doesn’t compete with Apple’s latest Max chips,” consistently trailing the M4 Max and M3 Ultra.

Under a heavy all-core CPU workload (an OpenBLAS double-precision solve), this device lost power repeatedly, though most buyers will never run anything like it.

On real-world work, it “won nearly every multi-threaded CPU test,” compiling LLVM in 206 seconds against 327 for the next-fastest system.

But there are weak spots: its Arm64 SVT-AV1 encoding managed about “a fifth” of what the x64 systems produced, and memory latency of 251 ns was the “worst in the group.”

That’s not to say it’s slow. Day-to-day use “feels fine,” and even emulated apps feel native. But for single-threaded, browser-bound work, “the x64 field is likely the better buy.”

GPU

The 6,144-core Blackwell GPU is the real engine of the chip, with 5th-generation Tensor Cores built for AI workloads and up to 96GB of memory to draw on.

In local AI tests, it was “the fastest overall” at agentic tasks, finishing about 25% quicker than the M5 Max MacBook Pro.

In Stable Diffusion 1.5 INT8, it scored 11,294 and “substantially outperformed” the RTX 5080, 5070 Ti and 5060.

However, for models that fit in 24GB, the Razer Blade 16’s RTX 5090 generates tokens “2.3x faster,” and video rendering trails even the RTX 5060.

Gaming is a secondary strength. Performance is “similar to an RTX 4070 or 5060,” and Cyberpunk 2077 held 60fps at 1440p with frame generation.

But shared memory bandwidth and input latency are limited. Its shared memory bandwidth hit 300GB/s, below the 384GB/s on a mobile RTX 5060.

Gears of War: E-Day averaged 77.7 fps with 1% lows of 39.9 fps and 83.5 ms of latency. Control Resonant reached 109.2 fps, but only with 3X frame generation.

If AI is not your thing and you need low latency and top performance, “a separate gaming laptop with a dedicated RTX 50-series GPU will still provide a superior experience.”

AI

Nothing else in a laptop gives a GPU this much room to work with. The RTX Spark pairs its Blackwell GPU with up to 128GB of unified memory, and 64GB of it, adjustable up to 96GB, can go straight to the GPU.

That is “more than any NVIDIA laptop GPU before it,” and it is what lets 35B-parameter models run at up to 89 tokens per second. Models up to 120B parameters can fit entirely on the GPU.

In agentic tests it was “the fastest overall,” finishing about 25% quicker than the M5 Max MacBook Pro and in roughly half the time of the Ryzen AI Max+ 395.

Quantized models are where it truly leads, with Stable Diffusion 1.5 INT8 scoring 11,294 and “substantially outperforming” the RTX 5080, 5070 Ti and 5060.

It also makes local agents practical. Hermes Agent organized a cluttered downloads folder and built a website without sending any data to the cloud, so “you are no longer constrained by usage limits.”

That’s not to say it beats everything. For models that fit in 24GB, the Razer Blade 16’s RTX 5090 generates tokens “2.3x faster.”

Still, for those running models locally all day, it is “king”.

This, then, is a machine for the local AI believer, built for privacy, offline use and tinkering.

Who should buy it

Nvidia has built a compelling workstation for certain AI workloads, although conventional laptop buyers have several reasons to remain cautious.

Developers and analysts running 20B to 35B models locally are the clear audience.

Gamers, browser-heavy users, and anyone whose models fit in 24GB are better served by a laptop with a dedicated GPU.

Verdict

The good

· Strong multi-threaded CPU

· Up to 96GB of GPU memory runs 35B models at up to 89 tokens per second

· Fastest in agentic AI tests

The bad

· Expensive, from $2,599.99 to $5,899.99

· Weak single-thread speed and high memory latency

· Gaming is only decent, with high input latency

The verdict

Grab it if local models above 24GB are your daily work. Opt for a dedicated-GPU laptop for everything else. Avoid it if gaming is your focus.

• Apple tells us it will 'Pro and Tell' on October 28
• The touchscreen MacBook Pro, an iMac with M6, and an iPad mini with an OLED screen are likely incoming
• It comes in the middle of an incredibly busy product cycle for Apple

Apple’s on a roll! Just eight days after dropping the HomeView, HomePod mini 2, and Apple TV 4K, and four days before the iPhone Duo starts shipping, the Cupertino-based technology giant is teasing more.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Apple’s SVP of Marketing, Greg Joswiak, writes, “Can’t wait to pro and tell next week,” alongside an Apple logo being drawn. The same graphic was also posted to @HelloApple on Instagram with the caption, “About next week…” The latter gives us the timing and leaves us marking our calendars for a reveal similar to Apple’s recent home product launches. However, Joswiak’s post teases something Pro that could be on the horizon.

Alongside the teasers, Apple has also sent media invites for an experience in LA on October 28, 2026. That’s the same wording the company used to describe its ‘Welcome Home’ event, so I’d suspect there won’t be a formal keynote, but there will be plenty of hands-on time.

The teaser depicts the Apple logo being drawn using an array of colors, mostly silver, white, and blue, with small, vibrant pops of red, orange, and yellow. To me, it looks as though a finger could be drawing the logo, given the overall shape, or perhaps a brush of some sort is being used to create it.

Either way, it points to the likely arrival of new Macs or iPads. Remember, like most of Apple’s products, these devices feature an Apple logo on the back.

There’s been no shortage of rumors, and it’s likely that Apple will drop a significant update to the MacBook Pro family next week, finally delivering a touchscreen laptop.

That’s something the company has been pretty firm about ruling out, but it seems to have turned a corner if recent reports are to be believed. Both the new 14-inch and 16-inch models are expected to pair the first touchscreen on a Mac with an OLED display, delivering the same vibrant, rich viewing experience as an OLED iPhone or iPad Pro, all within a redesigned, slimmer notebook.

Under the hood, these flagship MacBooks will likely get Apple’s best chips, whether that’s the M6 or the M5 Ultra, which premiered with the Mac mini and Mac Studio in August 2026.

Recent reports also hint that the M6 could be coming to the iMac, which is due for an upgrade after launching with the M4 in 2024. A new entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro could also arrive with a design similar to the current generation, likely featuring the M6 chip instead of the M5 for better performance across the board, particularly for AI tasks.

Alongside the Mac, the iPad could also be in the mix, potentially hinted at by the vibrant colors and what appears to be a finer, brush-drawn Apple logo. Coming shortly after the iPhone Duo starts shipping, a major iPad mini upgrade is also rumored. It could carry a considerably higher price — a reminder that the current model starts at $699 / £699 / AU$949 — and add a ProMotion OLED display, a redesigned body, and a more capable chip under the hood.

I’ve been wishing for a redesigned iPad mini with Magic Keyboard support and a better screen for a while, so this would be music to my ears, and likely to many others’ too. The iPad lineup is still in pretty good shape, with the Air and Pro models already receiving updates with better processors earlier this year. Besides the iPad mini, the only other model likely due for an upgrade is the entry-level iPad, but it’s unclear whether it will be updated next week.

Either way, we only have a few more days to wait to see what Apple has been working on. After all, the company has promised to ‘Pro and Tell.’ Let me know what you’re most excited about in the comments below.

Apple’s new AI-powered home hub, the HomeView, is officially shipping on November 13. Featuring a 7-inch touchscreen, and coming in wall-mounted or tabletop versions, the new must-have Apple device seems a snip at just $299 / £299 / AU$449 — but that price doesn't reflect the true cost of accessing its best features.

One of the things that really makes the HomeView unique is that it recognizes your face, then adapts its display so you see your personal content in apps like Messages, FaceTime, Calendar, Reminders, and Find My. It’s a great feature, because having to keep logging in manually all the time would be a real time-consuming turn-off for a device that’s used by all the family.

But a note on the Apple newsrooms page about HomeView says “Apple HomeView setup and multiuser support require a compatible iPhone or iPad running the latest software.” It goes on to say that “Personal Context requests require a paired Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad running the latest software version with Siri AI turned on and set to a supported language.”

You need a modern iPhone or iPad

Apple’s wording features two overlapping statements. A compatible iPhone or iPad is required to set up the HomeView, but one that runs Apple Intelligence is required for Personal Context requests. In practical terms, you need an iPhone 15 Pro, any iPhone 16 or newer model, an A17 Pro iPad mini, or an M1-or-newer iPad. The standard iPhone 15 does not qualify.

The Apple HomeView isn’t useless without those devices — it can still answer general-knowledge questions, control compatible smart-home products, and offer improved music discovery. However, it won’t be able to process requests involving personal information, such as finding details in Messages or Calendar and taking actions across apps, which require a modern iPhone or iPad. Siri AI must be enabled, and the HomeView and paired device must use a supported language.

But there is one even narrower requirement: customizing Siri’s expressiveness and speaking speed requires an iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone Air, iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone Duo, or an M4-or-newer iPad with at least 12GB RAM. Obviously, that's a small voice-personalization feature, not the threshold for ordinary Personal Context requests, but it’s still worth noting.

The complete Apple AI home costs considerably more

When we look into the HomeView’s smart-home features, which are part of Apple’s wider smart-home ecosystem, things get even more complicated. With a compatible HomeKit Secure Video camera, Apple Intelligence can do the following, genuinely useful, things:

• Summarize recorded activity: Instead of merely saying “Motion detected,” the Home app can describe what happened, such as a person leaving a package or a dog entering the garden.
• Search recordings conversationally: You can search using requests such as “Show me when the parcel was delivered”, or, “When did the children get home?”, rather than manually scrolling through clips.
• Connect related activity: The Home app can group or surface significant moments captured across different cameras.

Once again, an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone or iPad is required — this time to set up and enable the camera-intelligence features. Apple says footage is processed locally by the home hub or using Private Cloud Compute, rather than simply handing the analysis to the paired iPhone.

The complete list of what you need for these features to function is: a HomeKit Secure Video-compatible camera, HomeView or another compatible Apple home hub, an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone or iPad, and an eligible iCloud+ subscription. In other words, simply buying a HomeView alone does not give you the AI camera summaries or searchable recording history.

iCloud+ plans start at $0.99 / AU$1.49 for 50GB of storage a month, then $2.99 / AU$4.49 for 200GB and $9.99 / AU$14.99 a month for 2TB. Recorded HomeKit Secure Video footage is retained for 10 days, and does not count against your normal iCloud storage allowance.

Of course, you can still view a compatible camera’s live feed and receive basic accessory notifications without paying for recorded history, but you need that iCloud+ subscription for HomeKit Secure Video storage, and for AI features that analyze and search those stored recordings.

At $299 / £299 / AU$449 the HomeView therefore doesn’t independently provide the complete experience Apple demonstrates. Owners of an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 or another qualifying device may already have everything they need for Personal Context. But people using a standard iPhone 15 or an older model could discover that their new household AI device is considerably less personal unless they upgrade their phone too.

That may suit Apple perfectly: HomeView isn’t just another product, but another reason to keep every device in your home relatively new, compatible and attached to an Apple service. For buyers who haven’t studied the footnotes, however, the difference between what HomeView can do alone, and what Apple shows it doing, could prove frustrating.

• iPhone Duo shipping dates have slipped to January worldwide
• Stock may be limited if you're trying to pick one up in an Apple Store too
• Retail availability and the first preorder shipments due on October 23

We've already had one indication that iPhone Duo sales were going rather well when shipping dates for preorders started slipping into next year, and now Apple is apparently telling retail staff that availability will be limited inside stores too.

According to Apple Store employees speaking to MacRumors, Apple has said that customers without a preorder should be warned against heading to their local outlet in the expectation of picking up an iPhone Duo on Friday, October 23.

That's the designated day when online preorders are due to start shipping out to buyers, and when — in theory — the iPhone Duo becomes available to buy in store. This latest report suggests that might not be possible right away.

It isn't clear if the instructions given to the Apple Store employees speaking to MacRumors apply across the US or globally, but set your expectations accordingly: don't assume you'll be able to walk into an Apple Store on Friday and get yourself a shiny new iPhone Duo.

Keeping up with demand

With shipping times for online preorders now slipping into 2027, it's possible there will be quite a few Apple fans interested in the iPhone Duo who are thinking about taking the walk-in retail route — but it seems stock will be very limited there too.

Before the phone was unveiled, there had been some chatter around a launch delay due to production problems, and this may be following on from that. Whatever the full story, Apple apparently can't keep up with demand for the time being.

The iPhone Duo is Apple's first foldable phone, and starts at $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,499. A quick check on the Apple site at the time of writing shows preorders scheduled to ship in January for the cheapest 256GB model in the US, UK, and Australia.

In a statement shared with CNBC, Apple had previously described iPhone Duo preorder levels as "nothing short of extraordinary". If you have decided that the iPhone Duo is the handset for you, we've rounded up the best preorder deals currently available.

• For now you need to build the feature yourself on a Mac
• Native Player delivers similar audio but isn't open source
• Proposed as an extension to the Nuvio media player

A clever developer has come up with a way to deliver lossless Dolby TrueHD movie soundtracks, complete with Dolby Atmos effects, to home theater speakers from the third-gen Apple TV 4K.

The Apple TV only officially supports Dolby Digital Plus, which is the more compressed Dolby audio codec used by streaming services to reduce the amount of data used, while Dolby TrueHD is used on Blu-rays where bandwidth isn't a problem. So it makes sense for the Apple TV 4K to only use Dolby Digital Plus, since it's a streaming device — but that doesn't stop the enthusiasts from wanting the flexibility of playing files with TrueHD audio on their devices.

The system that Reddit user Agathorpt used to deliver Dolby TrueHD through the Apple TV 4K requires not actually delivering it in TrueHD at all, but converting it to other formats, converting the Dolby Atmos positional data into other formats too, then recombining them in a format that the Apple TV 4K can deliver, but in a higher quality.

How they got TrueHD Atmos on the Apple TV 4K

As mentioned above, the audio takes a bit of a journey here. The path is:

TrueHD Atmos → decoded audio + timed object metadata → fixed 9.1.6 speaker render → APAC → native tvOS playback.

APAC is Apple's Positional Audio Codec, and while it's not truly lossless (the source audio, TrueHD, is a lossless format but APAC is not) the consensus is that the results here are really impressive.

Basically, the system decodes the audio and the 3D Atmos positioning data separately, creates a new audio system where the Atmos effects are mapped to a 9.1.6-channel speaker configuration, then converts that to Apple's own proprietary spatial audio codec, which can then be played by the Apple TV 4K.

The goal was to replicate the audio functionality of a closed-source app called Native Player with an open-source alternative because "keeping the implementation closed… leaves everyone dependent on that vendor for fixes and future support," Agathorpt says. "Other players can't reuse or improve that code, and the community can't independently inspect how it handles the audio."

"The spatial audio has been working amazingly well for me," Agathorpt says. "It sounds excellent on my setup." Other redditors have tried the same software and are reporting great results too.

In order to copy what Agathorpt has created, you'd need several things: a Mac; Apple's Xcode development software; and your own Apple development account to sign an app: the full steps they went through are detailed here. The Apple TV 4K needs to be running tvOS 26 or later, and of course you'll also need movie files with 48kHz TrueHD Atmos audio.

There is hope from home theater enthusiasts that Agathorpt's project will be implemented in the Nuvio player for everyone and in other tvOS apps too, but for now you'll need to build it yourself. It doesn't seem too difficult to do, but if you're not the technical type you might want to wait for it to roll out as part of the app. It's been proposed for addition so hopefully that won't take too long.

Agathorpt is at pains to point out that they didn't write the software projects used in this process. It builds on the work of others, especially Superuser404notfound's work on the AetherEngine media engine and LibTrueHD object audio decoder.

One assumes that this will work with the new Apple TV 4K (2026) that Apple just announced too, though its price hike and lack of big new AV features means fans aren't particularly enamored.

Thinking of buying a new TV?

Try our TV size and model finder! You tell it how far you sit from your TV, we'll tell you what size to buy based on viewing angle advice from image quality experts, and we'll recommend our three top TVs at that size for different prices.

Well, that went fast. We’re now five hours past when the iPhone Duo, Apple’s first folding phone, went up for pre-order, and shipping estimates for every storage configuration in both colors — Star White and Night Sky — have slipped to January 2027. That’s well past the holiday season and into the new year.

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!

• OpenAI says an ex-worker took 100+ secrets about unreleased hardware to Apple
• The complaint forms part of an ongoing lawsuit, in which Apple made similar complaints
• Apple just lifted the wraps off its own, brand-new AI-powered hardware, including the HomeView

OpenAI has accused a former employee of taking more than 100 highly confidential files of unreleased hardware to Apple.

The ChatGPT maker said the worker transferred top-secret files to a personal account before returning to work at Apple – this particular worker was said to have worked at OpenAI for a six-month stint between two separate stints at Apple.

But crucially, the OpenAI complaint actually stems from a much broader case in which Apple originally sued OpenAI and two former Apple employees for similar reasons relating to trade secrets.

Apple and OpenAI embark on a tit-for-tat lawsuit

In response to the Apple lawsuit, OpenAI accused the worker of transferring detailed images of unreleased hardware, confidential engineering and manufacturing information, supplier details and more. The company even accused the worker of delivering a presentation about OpenAI's product plans to senior Apple execs, including Apple's VP of Operations in Asia.

OpenAI is especially concerned about its foray into hardware and Apple's simultaneous foray into AI-powered devices, but after raising the issue directly with the iPhone maker, it didn't get the assurances it requested.

The company wants the court to establish wether its confidential information did indeed reach Apple, and to determine whether there are grounds for further legal action.

"Apple said it has policies and procedures in place to ensure new employees do not use confidential information from previous employers and it has found no evidence to support OpenAI's allegations," Reuters reported shortly after the news broke.

The complaint is especially timely given Apple's recent smart home product announcements, including the AI-powered HomeView display.

As for what's next, the ongoing case between the two companies continues, with both facing complaints from the other party about how they handled confidential information.

It’s been a big week for Apple Home. The entirely new HomeView is the company's first smart display, and it seems purpose-built as a stationary, in-home hub for Apple’s ecosystem. Meanwhile, refreshes to the HomePod mini and Apple TV 4K promise to bring Siri AI to other devices around the home.

I’ve already written at length about HomeView, and why it’s the smart display and home hub I’ve been waiting for. Now, I’ve had the chance to spend more time with it. Not quite enough time for a full review, and I haven't tested it in my own home yet, since all my hands-on time has been in Apple’s demo space. But I’m still optimistic about what it could offer.

I already have a connected home of sorts. For me, though, it’s still very fragmented. I have HomePods, HomePod minis, and Apple TV 4Ks, but I mostly use them for quick questions, timers, taking calls, or media playback. I’ve also tried Echo Shows, Nest Hubs, and myriad other smart home gadgets like cameras, bulbs, and sensors, but none of those has really stuck, because they aren’t part of my core ecosystem.

Amazon’s ecosystem is heavily focused on commerce and shopping. That’s not necessarily a complaint, but the experience can also feel cluttered with targeted ads, and privacy concerns can be a sticking point.

Given Apple’s broader commitment to privacy and its carefully curated user experience, HomeView could help it carve out its own smart-home category. For people already invested in Apple’s ecosystem, it removes some of the friction that has kept other smart displays from becoming a central part of the home.

With an Echo Show or Nest Hub, someone who primarily uses Apple’s suite of services may have to move photos to another platform or service if they want to display them. The same goes for calendars, calls, and even music, depending on the services and features being used. And those devices don’t integrate with your iPhone the same way an Apple-made display can.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but when a smart display is something you might buy for a family member, a parent, or a friend, those differences can make for a less cohesive experience.

When you factor in the setup, the effort required to get everything working together, and the ongoing upkeep, some of the convenience promised by an Echo Show or Nest Hub starts to diminish. That’s what I’ve encountered in my own experience.

HomeView could help solve that disconnect. While the wall-mounted options seem like a less compelling value proposition to me, I can easily picture the speaker-base version sitting on a kitchen island or side table and becoming the household's hub device. And if you already know Apple’s ecosystem and its software, the learning curve should be much less daunting.

I’d seen HomeView before, but this time I got to interact with it, starting by swiping between its different faces; I almost called them watch faces, and for good reason.

HomeView feels like an Apple Watch on steroids, with a supersized, customizable watch face essentially plopped onto a display. That’s not a knock. The interface feels familiar, and is easy to get the hang of.

I especially like the Snoopy face, which offers a fun way to keep an eye on what’s happening throughout the day. You can check the weather as it rolls in, see an upcoming calendar event, or simply glance at the time with a little help from Snoopy and Woodstock. You can also go for something more functional, with modular faces that pack in widgets, or, as Apple calls them, complications, for things like your calendar, reminders, and the weather.

Swipe past those faces, and you arrive at the HomeView home screen. And for once, Apple’s answer to a shared household device isn’t to force you to buy one for everyone in your home. HomeView can recognize up to six people, effectively switching between their individual accounts and surfacing what matters most to each person while keeping their personal information private.

In my case, I could see myself having a HomeView setup that brings together quick controls for my thermostat, the weather, a rotating selection of photos, and, of course, a Bruce Springsteen playlist. The idea is that HomeView can surface a personalized experience when it recognizes you, with your iPhone playing a role in that process.

Privacy is central, too. If I open Messages, respond to someone, and walk away, HomeView locks the app when someone else approaches. It’s a small but important example of how Apple is thinking about a shared screen: convenient when it’s yours, but not an open book.

HomeView doesn’t feel exactly like iOS, iPadOS, or watchOS. Instead, it feels like a combination of all three, with familiar elements pulled together into something designed for a display you interact with throughout the day. App icons are larger, and I’d expect the interface’s emphasis on glanceable information to be particularly useful here. Widgets, in particular, seem designed to put the details you need front and center.

Swipe up, and you’ll find the App Drawer. There’s a selection of built-in apps, but notably, no App Store. I’m actually a fan of that approach. I don’t want to be glued to HomeView; it shouldn’t become another blue-light-filled screen demanding my attention. Instead, it should be actionable and glanceable, helping me get things done without becoming another device I have to manage.

Apple has a selection of core apps ready for HomeView, including Home, Intercom, Music, News, Photos, Safari, FaceTime, Messages, Calendar, Alarms, Timers, Find My, Podcasts, Reminders, Settings, and Weather. Developers can’t build dedicated apps for HomeView, but Apple can bring compatible experiences over from the iPhone. That includes apps such as Apple TV, Audiobooks, Apple Music Classical, and News.

There’s a distinction here: some of these experiences are effectively extensions of the iPhone, rather than apps running independently on HomeView. And while Apple supports third-party media apps that work with CarPlay, I wouldn’t count on specific apps such as Spotify arriving until Apple or the developers confirm compatibility. Still, the approach makes sense for a home hub. I like the idea of a curated selection of apps rather than hundreds of downloads competing for space and attention.

Music is one area where HomeView already makes a strong impression. Album artwork looks great on the display, and you can follow lyrics in real time. The built-in speakers also deliver clear, crisp, vibrant audio, although the volume wasn’t quite as powerful as I’d hoped during my time in Apple's demo space.

Even better, music doesn’t disappear into the background when you switch tasks. If you swipe over to another app, such as a cooking feature, a makeshift Dynamic Island appears at the top of the screen, giving you easy access to music controls. It’s a thoughtful touch that makes HomeView feel less like a collection of separate apps and more like a device designed around the way you actually use your home.

Smart home control is another central part of HomeView’s value proposition. Rather than opening the Home app on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, this is a dedicated device designed to make controlling your home a more immediate, everyday experience. The Home app has been customized for the display, with larger touch targets and key information highlighted, and it looks nice.

You can move around elements within the app or bring them into other parts of the interface, adding controls as complications on your chosen clock face or widgets on the home screen. That flexibility means you can make HomeView work for the way you live, whether you want quick access to a few favorite accessories or a more comprehensive overview of your home.

The interface is the same whether you opt for HomeView on its speaker base or mount it on the wall. The latter does come with a trade-off, though: you lose the speakers in the base and have to pay separately for the wall mount. That makes the wall-mounted setup feel like a less compelling deal, at least to me.

Still, I can see the appeal of turning HomeView into a dedicated control panel near the front door, where it could become a natural first stop when you arrive home. It also feels like Apple is catering to people who have already invested in wall-mounted iPad setups for smart-home control.

You can interact with HomeView directly through its touchscreen, which reaches up to 500 nits of brightness and can dim as low as 0.3 nits — the lowest brightness Apple has engineered for a display. But touch is only part of the experience. Four built-in microphones are designed to pick up your voice while reducing background noise, whether you're making a FaceTime call or asking Siri for help.

Siri is central to the experience, and it’s clear that HomeView is designed with Apple's new Siri AI capabilities in mind. My time testing them was brief, and I sometimes had to repeat a request, but I was able to ask Siri to handle basic smart-home controls, start routines, and play music, as well as tackle more involved requests.

On my Mac, I enjoy typing to Siri for several tasks, including creating calendar events based on what's on my screen, but on the iPhone or iPad, I use it for multistep or topic-specific tasks. It is not always the fastest, but it is night and day over the former.

During my time with HomeView, I saw a similar approach in action for more complex questions. I saw a demo of Siri being asked what time someone was landing at an airport, then asked when that person would arrive home if they took a train. After a few seconds, Siri answered by drawing on information from Messages, its broader knowledge, and estimated transit times.

It was a brief demonstration, but I could immediately see how useful this could be for quick questions and more involved requests. For instance, my friend Benjamin and I love sharing music. If I missed a song he recommended, I could imagine asking Siri to identify that Chuck Berry track while cooking dinner or getting on with something else around the house.

That’s where I think HomeView could really distinguish itself from the ever-popular Echo Show. Amazon's displays can connect to a range of services and smart home devices, but for someone already invested in Apple, they remain part of a separate ecosystem. HomeView, by contrast, is designed to work with the devices, services, and information you already use. If Siri can reliably bring all of that together, HomeView could be considerably more useful than a smart display that simply answers questions or controls a few connected devices.

That integration extends to moving between devices, too. When I get home, I could transfer whatever I'm listening to on my iPhone simply by tapping it against the front of HomeView. That's iPhone Handoff, and it's a brilliant implementation of a feature that makes the most of Apple's hardware working together. The same idea extends to calls, episodes of content, and even Safari webpages, making it easier to pick up where you left off without having to start over on another device.

An ambient smart display, rather than another screen demanding attention

A few other details from my brief hands-on stood out. For one, HomeView doesn't have notifications, and I actually like that decision. It means there's less reason to linger in front of the display or constantly check it for updates. Instead, HomeView feels like an ambient device, designed to be useful when you need it and easy to ignore when you don't. It's arguably Apple's strongest implementation of that idea yet, and it already feels more purposeful than StandBy on the iPhone.

It still has familiar Apple touches, of course. You can pull down from the top-right corner to access Control Center and quickly reach key settings. The built-in 12-megapixel camera, which recognizes users and serves as the main lens for FaceTime, can also make HomeView double as a mirror. Who knows, perhaps the Photo Booth could return and find a home here, too.

I still need to spend more time with HomeView, and in my own home, before I can say whether it delivers on all that promise. But after getting hands-on with it, I'm even more convinced that Apple is approaching the smart display from the right angle. Rather than giving me another screen to manage, HomeView looks set to bring together the devices, services, and everyday tasks I already rely on. And for someone who's been waiting for Apple's smart home to feel more connected, that's an exciting prospect.

Of course, Siri AI still needs to deliver on that promise, but after the long wait, it's encouraging to see Apple finally moving in the right direction.

• Nothing's CEO has called the iPhone Duo "a waste of money" for having a premium price while lacking core features
• These include a telephoto camera, a good selfie camera, and Face ID
• Despite that, there's enough demand that we're seeing pre-order bots emerge — which you absolutely shouldn't use

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.

• Siri AI is coming to Apple TV 4K 2nd and 3rd Gen
• Free software update arriving later this year
• Update will be available in select countries and territories

While much of the attention on the new Apple TV 4K — now in its fourth generation — may focus on the sticker shock of the $299 / £299 / AU$449 price, it also brings some notable features. Siri AI offers a more robust personal assistant experience via the Siri Remote or the box's far-field microphones. It also has a faster processor to speed things up and supports four HomePod 2 or HomePod mini 2 speakers in a surround setup.

But if you were really hoping to use Siri AI on Apple’s streaming box, maybe to pull up recommendations friends might have suggested or to figure out whether a character is based on a real person, and you don’t want to spend the extra cash on an upgrade, I've got good news.

Alongside announcing the Apple TV 4K (4th generation), Apple has confirmed that Siri AI will arrive on older Apple TV models via a forthcoming software update. The release note reads, “Siri AI is available as a beta on Apple TV 4K (2nd generation or later), and is available at launch in the U.S., Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and the UK in English.”

That means the AI-powered, more personalized Siri will arrive on the Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen, 3rd Gen, and the new 4th generation, which begins shipping on November 13, 2026. And since the newest model will launch with Siri AI, that might hint at when Apple will roll out the tvOS 27.2 software update to the other two models. As a reminder, the 2nd Gen shipped in 2021, and the 3rd Gen launched in 2022.

That’s excellent news, because the new Siri AI isn’t just better at basic tasks; it also brings broader knowledge and personal context. So whether it’s pulling up an album your best friend recommended weeks ago that you can’t quite remember, or trying to recount a specific episode you and a family member were up to, the assistant can tap into that info to answer the query.

I saw a few demos of that on the new Apple TV 4K, and even though these older models have less power under the hood, Apple hasn’t said that Siri AI’s features will be limited. So while they could be a hair or two slower, it should still be a strong experience.

If nothing else, it’s a free upgrade that gives you another way to interact with Apple TV and find content. Beyond the added personal queries, you can also get richer recommendations and suggestions when you ask Siri for content.

Further, if, beyond Siri AI’s arrival with the Apple TV 4K 4th Gen, you were also enticed by the new Siri Remote, which adds a speaker to make a chirping sound when you’re trying to track it down, or the ability to use Precision Finding for exact directions on how to find the remote when it’s deep in couch cushions with a compatible iPhone, you can purchase the upgraded remote with UWB (ultra-wideband) and the speaker from Apple, and it works with previous-gen Apple TVs. Apple's already taking orders for the updated Siri Remote for $59 here, and it's on Amazon.com for the same price here.

So, with a free, forthcoming update for Apple TV 4K 2nd and 3rd Gen that’ll bring Siri AI to select areas, and the fact that you can get the Siri Remote for a price, these two additions will bring some new features and could very well make the Apple TV 4K feel fresh again.

We'll report back once Apple announces when this update will arrive, but for now all we know is that tvOS 27.2 is coming.

• Counterpoint Research reports a 20% decline in smartphone shipments compared to this time last year
• That puts this period at the lowest level in 14 years
• The RAM crisis is largely to blame, but consumers may also be holding on to their phones for other reasons

This year seemingly hasn’t been a vintage one for phone companies. According to Counterpoint Research, global shipments are 20% lower this quarter than in the third quarter (Q3) of 2025, making this the lowest Q3 in 14 years.

You can probably guess the main reason for that, as the ongoing RAM crisis is both pushing up prices and leading to component shortages. That means disrupted shipments for phone manufacturers — causing some models to be in shorter supply — and higher prices for consumers, which can make the prospect of an upgrade less appealing or affordable.

Still, this 14-year low might not be purely down to the RAM crisis, as Counterpoint additionally claims that consumers are “holding on to their devices longer than expected.”

Now obviously, high prices could cause people to hold off on upgrading, but presumably the RAM crisis was factored into consumer behavior, so if people are holding onto their devices for longer than expected even with that factored in, then there might be something else at play too.

What could that be? The report doesn’t take a guess, but it might be that phones are simply less interesting or flawed than they once were. These days, even quite low-end phones are often highly capable, and run well for years — which wasn’t always the case.

At the high end, it’s increasingly hard for manufacturers to offer meaningful upgrades and differentiation when the best phones already have more power than most people need, along with superb screens and cameras.

Apple and Samsung are picking up market share

In any case, according to this report, Apple and Samsung seem the most resilient to these challenging times, with Samsung actually increasing its market share to 23%, despite a 3% decline in shipments compared to this period last year. That’s in large part apparently due to the success of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8.

Apple also grew its market share, rising to 22% despite also selling fewer phones than this time last year. It’s likely that the brand would have done even better had it shipped a base iPhone 18, rather than waiting until next year for that.

Other brands like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo meanwhile saw sharp declines in shipments and a drop in market share alongside that, allowing Apple and Samsung to increase their own market shares in turn.

But across the whole industry it seems fewer phones are being sold — and while things might improve once the RAM crisis is over, they might not completely return to ‘normal’ if there are other reasons for this change in customer behavior, too.

I love my Apple TV 4K, which I think is the best streaming device you can buy if, like me, you're already all-in on Apple. But while my Apple TV 4K (2022) is great, it's also four years old. That's an eternity in TV tech, so I was excited to see what new features and capabilities the new Apple TV 4K announced today would bring.

Unfortunately, there are hardly any new features or capabilities. But the new Apple TV is much more expensive, so… uh, thanks?

What I saw today was a bit like if Apple took four years to make a new season of Pluribus, restricted it to a new Apple TV tier costing twice as much, and it turned out to be identical to Season 1 but 3% brighter and 5% faster.

I'm not the only Apple TV fan to be disappointed. Reddit is unhappy too.

The 2026/2027 Apple TV 4K: the good, the bad, and the ugly reaction

I'm not an Apple TV newcomer: while I've used lots of different streamers I've had an Apple TV for everyday viewing for over a decade.

I bought my first Apple TV in 2012 for £85, and I'm currently on the 2022 Apple TV 4K. That came in two versions, one with Ethernet and one without, and the cheapest one was $129 / £149 / AU$219. Now there's only one version, and it's $299 / £299 / AU$449.

Apple was already more expensive than most rival streaming models, but not terrifyingly so — and fairly, given that the price wasn't subsidized by ads.

Now, though, it's way more pricey than its best competitors. Yes, there's a component shortage that's putting prices up. But that's affecting rivals too, and they're yet to up their prices so dramatically.

That raised price makes it a much tougher sell to newcomers, as the cost of entry has more than doubled. And it's a tough sell to existing owners because while the price has more than doubled, the spec and feature list… hasn't.

There are two key improvements here: four-speaker surround via HomePods (but not the first-gen models) and integrated Siri AI. There are also some other changes including hardware AV1 video decoding, and the ability for the remote to make a noise so you can find it if it's misplaced (and precision location tracking using UWB tech), which is welcome.

But if you're not doing the HomePods thing (my HomePods are elsewhere; I have wired speakers and an AV receiver for my TV) then this is pretty disappointing for three hundred bucks.

I'm not sold on the need for AI assistants in TVs, and Siri isn't impressing me much on any platform. I've been using the latest Siri since the iOS/tvOS 27 developer betas, and for me at least it's hopeless: simple tasks take forever to complete if they complete at all, and it's far and away my most sworn-at tech product.

The new built-in microphones might make Siri less cloth-eared than in the Apple Remote, but my problems are with what Siri does, or doesn't do, after it's finally listened to me. Most of the time using or trying to use Siri makes my TV experience worse, not better.

The reaction on the various Apple subreddits chimes with mine. On r/apple Santathe1 suggested that "somebody’s gotta pay for all the useless Siri AI no one likes", while Kaiathebluenose said that "Improving Siri for my Apple TV is at the bottom of my list for improvements." Heyboychica says "they've lost their minds with that price," and PuyoDead agrees: "The only upgrade is a microphone I don’t want, and AI I’m never ever going to use? No thank you, I just picked up a refurbished third gen from their store instead."

Other Redditors were disappointed that the Apple TV is still limited to 60Hz, not 120Hz, with comments including "60Hz for 300 bucks lol. No thanks", "being capped at 60Hz seems like a DOA", and similar sentiments, though I think that last one is a bit extreme for a device mainly used for 24fps and 30fps video.

To an extent, Apple is a victim of its own success here: the Apple TV 4K (2022) is a brilliant streaming device. Unfortunately it's so good at what it does that it would need some pretty major upgrades to persuade existing owners to buy a newer one — and this model doesn't seem to have anything to get seriously excited about. As redditor 17chan put it: "The good news is this saves me money. The bad news is it saves me money because I'm super disappointed and totally not buying this."

We will of course be reviewing the new Apple TV 4K and we'll give you our verdict very soon.

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After treating us to the grand unveiling of the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and iPhone Duo handsets in September, Apple returned in October to launch some notable device upgrades in the smart home and streaming categories.

There are refreshed versions of the Apple TV 4K and the HomePod mini, plus an Echo Show-style smart display called the HomeView. The HomeView is evidence of a renewed focus on the smart home from Apple, as are the devices being made by LG Electronics and Schneider Electric that the HomeView can connect to.

We've also got Siri AI rolling out across the board, which in theory should mean more intelligent and more useful AI conversations. Here's our full recap of what was announced, with links to specific articles if you want to read more.

1. The HomeView is Apple's first smart display — and it comes in two versions

Apple just jumped into smart displays: the HomeView is a competitor to the Amazon Echo Show and the Google Nest Hub, giving you a 7-inch screen that lets you control smart home devices, chat to Siri AI, play music, and much more. You can choose between a HomeView on its own rotating stand, or a HomeView designed to be wall-mounted.

A curated list of Apple apps can run on the HomeView, including Calendar, Safari, FaceTime, Weather, and Apple TV. If you like what you see, the HomeView costs $299 / £299 / AU$449 in Silver, Starlight, Rose Pink, or Space Gray. Preorders are open today, with sales and shipping starting on Friday, November 13.

• Read the full story: I've seen Apple's HomeView smart display in action — it looks like the Apple Watch and classic G4 iMac had a baby, and it could make the Echo Show irrelevant

2. You need an iPhone or iPad to use the HomeView

Before you put your cash down for Apple's new smart display, read the small print. You need to have an iPhone or an iPad handy to set it up, and these connected mobile devices also provide a lot of the HomeView's personalized context — your messages, appointments, reminders, podcasts, and playlists for example.

3. The Apple TV 4K has finally been refreshed (with a big price hike)

We're pleased to see the launch of a brand new Apple TV 4K, but less enthused about the increased price: the new model will set you back $299 / £299 / AU$449, up from $199 / £199 / AU$299 (Wi-Fi) and $249 / £249 / AU$399 (Wi-Fi and Ethernet) for the old models, which are no longer going to be on sale from Apple.

You do get more for your money though. The upgrades here include a new Siri Remote that can make a sound when you're trying to find it, Siri AI on board, a faster processor, and three far-field mics for more "hey Siri" voice control options. Preorders are opening today, with a shipping and on-sale date of Friday, November 13.

• Read the full story: New Apple TV 4K finally brings HomePod Dolby Atmos surround sound and a Siri Remote you can’t lose — but its price has been hiked to $299

4. The new Siri Remote works with older Apple TVs

The fourth-generation Siri Remote that comes with the 2026 Apple TV 4K — the one that can make a sound when you're trying to find it, and can be tracked down using Precision Finding on the latest iPhones — is compatible with older Apple TV models too.

That means it'll work with the Apple TV HD and previous Apple TV 4K models. It'll be available to buy separately, but we're still waiting on pricing details.

5. You can pair the new Apple TV 4K with four HomePod speakers

One of our favorite new features on the Apple TV 4K is the ability to pair it with up to four HomePods as its audio system.

That could be four 2nd-gen HomePods, four HomePod mini 2s, or two of each, it's up to you. Naturally, that could be a pretty pricy combo if you're starting from scratch though — an Apple TV 4K and four HomePod mini 2 units would cost $895 / £895 / AU$1,365, for example.

Still, you're still able to use a single HomePod or a stereo pair with the new Apple TV 4K as well, just like before.

6. The HomePod mini 2 is here, but it doesn’t have Siri AI (yet)

Considering the first HomePod mini launched in November 2020, an updated version was well overdue, and it's now arrived. It comes with a speedier chipset, and a modest price bump to $149 / £149 / AU$229. Preorders are open now if you want to put your money down, with the speaker shipping and going on sale on Friday, October 30.

You've also got new colors to pick from — Green and Pink models are available, alongside the previous White, Midnight, and Blue (Yellow and Orange get dropped) — and the LEDs on top of the speaker can change color to match the artwork of whatever you're listening to. Siri AI is supported as well, but it's coming in a future software update (there's no confirmed date yet).

• Read the full story: The HomePod mini 2 is here, but while the upgrades are subtle, the price hike isn’t — and you'll have to wait for Siri AI

7. There’s no Siri AI update for the second-gen HomePod

While the HomePod mini 2 will get the all-singing, all-dancing Siri AI update eventually (Apple hasn't set a specific date), the 2nd-gen HomePod launched in 2023 won't be getting the smarter AI.

Apple hasn't yet said why, but presumably the on-board processor just isn't fast enough for the extra demands of the AI.

8. Apple has co-designed new smart home gadgets with LG and Schneider Electric...

It's fair to say Apple's smart home ambitions have been limited somewhat by a lack of compatible gear — there's just not the range of products you get that work with Google Home or Amazon Alexa for example — but improvements are coming. A new doorbell and smart lock, plus cameras, sensors, and thermostats, are on the way.

These new gadgets are appearing under the label of the Apple Home Collection, though these are actually joint efforts between Apple and both LG and Schneider Electric. It means if you do buy a new HomeView smart display, you're going to have a wider choice of smart home devices to connect it to, and more hardware is likely to be in the pipeline.

• Read the full story: Apple Home is getting a new doorbell, cameras, and smart lock — but Apple isn’t making them

9. ...but you won’t be able to buy them everywhere

When it comes to the availability of the Apple Home Collection, these devices might not be sold as widely as we might like.

Shipping is scheduled for December across the board, but it looks like the LG Door Lock will only be available in the US and Canada, while the doorbell and cameras are limited to the US and the UK — at least for now.

Having largely stayed out of the smart-home space until now, Apple today jumped in with both feet, unveiling the Apple HomeView, its first smart display — introduced alongside the Apple HomePod mini 2, a new Apple TV 4K, and a range of smart-home devices — including a video doorbell — produced by partner brands LG and Schneider Electric.

The Apple HomeView is a modern, cute 7-inch Liquid Retina display and smart-home hub that enables you to use the touchscreen or Siri AI voice commands, to control connected devices, play music, check the weather and more.

There are two models: a version with the display sitting atop a speaker unit (shown at the top of the page), to which it's attached by an adjustable arm that enables you to tilt and rotate the display; and a screen-only model that's designed to be wall-mounted.

The HomeView starts at $299 in the US, £299 in the UK, and AU$449 in Australia, with preorders opening today (October 13) ahead of a November 13 on-sale date.

It comes in familiar Apple colors: Silver, Starlight, Rose Pink, and Space Gray. That price is actually more competitive than I expected, given that rumors had pointed to a price around $350.

While $299 is still $100 more than the Echo Show 8, Apple is clearly pitching the HomeView as its alternative to Amazon's devices — and if you’re already in the Apple ecosystem, there are some compelling reasons to consider it.

As for the hardware, you get a 7-inch Liquid Retina display, a 12MP Ultra Wide Center Stage camera, a four-microphone array, and a multi-driver speaker system in the model with the speaker unit.

Apple’s A18 processor powers the HomeView, though the platform is not iPadOS, tvOS, or iOS — it’s all-new HomeView Software.

The HomeView has features that can rival the likes of the Amazon Echo Show or Google Nest Hub. And when it comes to the former, it might have the edge for two key reasons: privacy, and integration with the Apple devices you already use every day.

As the rumors and reports suggested, HomeView is reminiscent of the iMac G4 of yesteryear, but feels more refined. It starts with a face you can set to a variety of clocks — think an Apple Watch face or the screensaver interface on an Apple TV 4K — and some will feel familiar if you’ve used an Apple Watch, though with distinct differences.

Snoopy is back with fresh adventures, and the Flow face is reimagined here so that, rather than simply grooving like a lava lamp, its colorful shapes respond to what the camera up top sees. You can add complications such as your calendar, to-do lists, and weather, with information adjusting from a general view to more specific details as you approach.

The HomeView can recognize up to six family members using its integrated camera, which helps it personalize the experience for whoever is interacting with it. Each family member can customize their own face, apps, and widgets, and here the interface resembles iOS, even to the degree that you can tint the icons.

The similarities extend to privacy, too. Apple says personal information stays personal, meaning another family member shouldn’t be able to walk up to HomeView and access your messages or see who you’re texting.

Siri requests aren’t recorded, according to Apple, and personal data isn’t stored directly on HomeView itself. It also has no ads, unlike the Echo Show, which makes it feel more like part of your home than a billboard on your kitchen counter.

You'll need an iPhone or iPad to set it up, and doing so unlocks much of the HomeView’s personal context.

You won’t find an App Store on the HomeView. Instead, Apple curates the experience around the apps and features it thinks make sense on a shared home display. Those include Apple’s own apps and services, such as Messages, Music, Weather, Reminders, Calendar, Safari, Find My, FaceTime, Apple TV, Podcasts, News, and the Home app.

Apple also shared that select third-party media apps that already work with CarPlay will be supported, potentially bringing more of your favorite audio services, such as Spotify, into the experience.

You can’t just download whatever you want, but Apple has clearly thought about how people will use HomeView throughout the day, whether that’s for checking the weather, catching up on messages, playing music, or controlling connected devices.

Siri is central to HomeView, and the integration with Apple’s broader ecosystem is where the experience starts to feel more ambitious than a typical smart display.

HomeView can draw on personal context to help with requests that go beyond simple commands. During a demonstration, I saw how it could help find a recipe a friend had recommended, or one your mom had sent, or pull up a song a friend had texted you about.

It can also handle more involved requests. For example, you could ask when your dad’s flight lands, work out how long it will take him to get from the airport to your apartment, and then look for brunch recommendations. Rather than treating each question as a separate task, HomeView can use context to help connect the dots.

It’s not just about asking Siri to turn on a light or set a timer; Siri AI on HomeView seems purpose-built for personalized, multi-step assistance — much like what Apple promised with the next-generation personal assistant.

The HomeView isn’t just a screen with a speaker attached. Apple has built a more considered audio setup into the device, with two custom drivers for high notes in the screen, alongside a down-firing woofer and two other force-canceling woofers in the base of the speaker-mounted version.

During a kitchen demonstration, I heard a Bad Bunny track playing on Apple Music, and HomeView got impressively loud without distorting. Lyrics appeared on the screen, too, making it feel like a natural fit for a kitchen island or another shared space where music is part of the routine.

The speaker-mounted version feels especially suited to the kitchen, where you might angle the screen toward yourself while cooking, then turn it toward someone else when they walk in. As mentioned, there’s also a wall-mounted option, with audio tuned specifically for that placement, though I didn’t get to demo music on that model.

One of the more practical features is how HomeView works with your iPhone. If you’re looking at a recipe on your phone, you can tap or bring the phone close to HomeView to hand it off to the larger screen. You can also switch a FaceTime call or music in the same way.

With a recipe, Safari can show the important details, including ingredients and step-by-step instructions. You can work through the recipe as you go, with timers available along the way.

Siri AI adds another layer. You could ask it to add ingredients to a shopping list, set a reminder, or help find a nearby grocery store for something you need. It’s the kind of connected workflow that makes sense on a display designed to live in a shared space, rather than one that’s just a smaller tablet sitting on a counter.

The HomeView also feels like a natural extension of Apple’s smart-home ambitions. The Home app enables you to control compatible lights, thermostats, door locks, and cameras, while smart home widgets put your most-used controls closer at hand.

You can receive doorbell alerts and view live camera feeds, with support for up to nine camera views at once. Existing Apple Home-compatible and Matter-compatible devices will work with it, naturally, giving HomeView a clear role as a central smart home hub.

The HomeView will arrive ahead of Apple’s new Home Collection, a range of smart home products made in collaboration with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric, that are expected to arrive in December. These will include a video doorbell, a smart lock, and various security cameras and sensors.

As mentioned, you can choose between speaker-mounted or wall-mounted versions of the HomeView. The wall-mounted option feels like a replacement for touch controls for an automated home system — the feel will be similar to a smart thermostat, too.

The speaker-mounted version feels much more like a communal, catch-all device. Both versions have their appeals, but you will need to give this some thought before you buy.

The HomeView has fewer features than some rivals, and as mentioned it’s not an entirely open software experience. I think that’s a two-fold decision: it enables Apple to deliver a compelling, well-thought-out experience built around what HomeView is designed to do at launch, and to put privacy front and center.

The HomeView will be central to controlling your smart home, but it also ventures closer to being a personal assistant around the house, thanks to its integration with Apple’s broader ecosystem. The HomeView isn’t a standalone device in the traditional sense given that it requires you to have and iPhone or iPad, but if you’re already invested in Apple’s ecosystem it could also mean that you're reaching for your iPhone a little less.

It’s taken Apple a long time to enter the smart-display category, but after seeing HomeView in action, I think the wait has been worth it. This feels like one of Apple’s strongest new category entries in quite some time. Apple has used its ecosystem strengths to give HomeView a clear purpose: a shared display that still feels personal, a smart-home hub that doesn’t require you to reach for your phone, and a genuinely useful extension of the Apple devices you already own.

The Echo Show has been a familiar fixture in the smart home for years. But now Apple has finally arrived on the scene, with a product that feels distinctly Apple — and if you already have an iPhone at the center of your life, I can see the HomeView making a lot of sense.

• The new Apple TV 4K is official and starts at $299 / £299 / AU$449
• It has microphones built-in for hands-free Siri control and supports HomePod surrounds
• The updated Siri Remote can chirp to help you find it, supports Precision Finding, and works with older Apple TV models

I fondly remember when Apple brought the price down on the Apple TV 4K box, and then I also remember the unfortunate price hikes from earlier in 2026. That pushed the Apple TV 4K without Ethernet to $199 / £199 / AU$299 and the one with Ethernet to $249 / £249 / AU$399.

Now, alongside the HomeView and the second-generation HomePod mini, Apple is ushering in the new Apple TV 4K and sunsetting the previous models. It keeps a similar shape — it's still a black square with curved edges and a logo up top — but there are some new tricks here.

It also carries a new price point: the Apple TV 4K (2026) comes in one version and costs $299 / £299 / AU$449. That’s a big jump, especially when compared with competing Roku players and Fire TV Sticks. It’s actually the same price as the new Apple HomeView, which includes a screen and speakers. Still, it's up for preorder now — beginning October 13, 2026 — and ships on November 13, 2026.

I’ve spent a bit of time with the refreshed Apple TV 4K, seeing it work through some Siri AI tasks and hearing its new audio capabilities, which include the ability to work with up to four HomePod speakers in a surround setup.

That could mean two second-generation HomePods up front and two HomePod mini second-generation as rear speakers, four full-sized HomePod 2 units, or four HomePod mini 2 units.

By far the most meaningful upgrade, and the one that shows Apple’s listening to customers, is the new Siri Remote. Now in its fourth generation, it can finally chirp and emit a sound when you can’t find it. So you can ask, “Hey Siri, where’s my remote?” to no one in particular (the Apple TV 4K box's microphones will hear you) and the remote will emit a sound.

It’s pretty loud, though Apple isn’t sharing the exact decibel level, and it should be very audible even if the remote is stuck deep between couch cushions, in a pile on the floor, or somewhere else entirely.

If you also have an iPhone 17 or newer, iPhone Air, or iPhone Duo, you can open Find My, tap Devices, and then use Precision Finding to help you locate the remote. These are both super-helpful features, and you don’t need the new Apple TV 4K to take advantage of them, as this remote is backwards compatible with the Apple TV HD and previous Apple TV 4K models. I’m still waiting for price confirmation, but for reference, the current Siri Remote is $59 / £59 / AU$89.

As someone who’s bought into the sound quality of the HomePods since the first generation, which sadly isn’t supported here, this is a welcome upgrade. But you do need a lot of new hardware.

Theoretically, that’s $895 / £895 / AU$1,365 for an Apple TV 4K and four HomePod mini 2 units, or $1,695 / £1,695 / AU$2,645 for four second-generation HomePods and the Apple TV 4K, or $1,295 / £1,295 / AU$2,005 for two HomePod mini 2s, two second-generation HomePods, and an Apple TV 4K.

I heard a brief snippet of Widow’s Bay, which streams on Apple TV, with the latter setup: two full-sized HomePods next to a TV and two HomePod mini 2s a bit farther back behind a couch. It sounded really good, and compared with just two HomePods, the full setup offered a much wider experience that excelled at showing off both the low and high ends, from a quieter scene that ramped into a more vibrant one. This combo packs a punch.

There's no doubt that $299 / £299 / AU$449 for a streaming box, even with that audio capability, is a lot. But the Apple TV 4K does pack in a few other bells and whistles. Under the hood, it should be speedier, with quicker app launches and more runway into the future thanks to the A19 processor.

The new Apple TV 4K also supports Siri AI at launch in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, the UK, the US, Singapore, and South Africa.

This lets you ask questions with personal context, like, “Hey Siri, what was the episode of Star Wars Rebels I was talking about with Max?” or “What was that show that Benjie recommended a few months back in the group chat?”

Leaning on personal context from a connected iPhone, it can deliver those results, and it worked quickly in a demo, pulling up an episode of Ted Lasso in short order.

That about wraps up the new Apple TV 4K — it replaces the previous-generation models, though if those get discounted, they’re definitely worth a look. It’s available to order now ahead of its November 13, 2026 launch.

It’s a sizable price increase, and I wish Apple still offered the previous generation as a more affordable option, something like an entry-level iPad equivalent or an “e” option, similar to the iPhone 17e.

It’s clear that this is a higher-end, premium streaming box, but we’ll need to spend some time with it to see how it compares and whether the $299 / £299 / AU$449 price point is worth it. Let me know what you think in the comments below, particularly your thoughts on that higher price and feature set.

• Apple's HomePod mini 2 freshens the smart speaker with new colors and a few new tricks
• The top LED glow can now mirror the colors of album artwork
• The smart speaker will get Siri AI in a future software update

Techtober is marching on in a pretty big way, and this week it's Apple leading the pack. Alongside its first-ever smart display, the HomeView, Apple is also upgrading the speaker that serves as the entry point to its smart-home lineup.

The HomePod mini 2 is a refresh of the smart speaker that’s been a workhorse in Apple's lineup since it launched in 2020. For this second generation, Apple isn’t changing much: there are new colors, a better processor under the hood, and a new trick with the glowing LED on the top, though Siri AI is coming… but only via a future software update.

It also comes with a notable price hike. In the US, the first-gen HomePod mini jumped from $99 to $129 in June, and now the HomePod mini 2 costs $149.99 — so that's a 50% upgrade over the price the original cost just five months ago. It’s up for preorder now, and will begin shipping on October 30. It's priced at £149 in the UK, and AU$229 in Australia.

Looks-wise, the HomePod mini 2 is still about the size and shape of an tennis ball, but with a flat top and bottom. Alongside White, Blue, and Midnight, new arrivals Green and Pink aim to offer a fresh pop of color. Fans of Yellow and Orange, which were options for the first HomePod mini, will likely be missing those — myself included.

Still, I’m a fan of the fresh Pink here. I saw it demoed in a stereo pair alongside the pink iMac, and there’s definitely some Cupertino synergy here. Beyond the fresh paint jobs, the HomePod mini 2 will still ship with a color-matched cord and USB-C power plug.

Under the hood, Apple has made the jump from an S5 chip to the S10 chip, which premiered inside the Apple Watch Series 11, Ultra 3, and third-generation SE.

The new chip will be faster for processing, and will also improve connectivity, allowing for improved latency when the HomePod mini 2 is used as a dedicated speaker for a Mac — a new capability for this model. It can also be grouped with other HomePods as a surround sound setup for the new Apple TV 4K.

The S10 chip will also power a forthcoming free update to bring Siri AI to the speaker. When it does arrive, you can opt into the new, more personalized Siri through the Home app on your iPhone. The update will apply to your account, and if you’re in a shared household, other users will be able to make the jump too.

As with the Apple HomeView, you’ll need an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence and the new Siri, and that has recently connected to your Wi-Fi network. Once enabled, you can ask for more personal information from Siri, whether that’s finding a song your friend texted you, pulling information from your calendar, or handling any number of other tasks. There will be a bit of a wait for these Siri features, though, with no confirmed date.

The other big change is a fun one. The HomePod mini 2’s top is still a circular touch surface with LEDs underneath, but it's been updated. No, it’s not a full Liquid Retina display as on the HomeView, but the LEDs are more precise, and can now color-match the album art of whatever you’re listening to.

Think of the colorful glow in the iPhone’s Dynamic Island when a Now Playing widget is active. Whether you’re listening to Apple Music or Spotify, that color-matching effect can now translate to the top of the HomePod mini 2.

It’s a neat update, though the lights don’t get all that bright. In a demo, they matched the blues, whites, and violets of Olivia Rodrigo’s latest album while it was playing.

Potentially more interesting is that it works with soundscapes, too. I currently have two original HomePod minis on my nightstands, and use rain sounds to fall asleep, so the idea that the new model can visually reflect the pitter-patter of raindrops is intriguing. In a dark room, that gentle glow could be a soothing touch.

Aside from that, the HomePod mini 2 still offers the same rich, vibrant, and surprisingly loud playback experience for audio, podcasts, and other content. It’s again powered by a full-range driver, and dual passive radiators.

It sounded pretty great in the demos, and I’m especially pleased that two of these can be combined with a pair of second-generation HomePods for a full surround sound experience with the Apple TV 4K. You can of course also pair this HomePod with any other AirPlay speakers or the HomeView, too.

Apple is taking preorders for the HomePod mini 2 now, with shipping from October 30. That’s right before Halloween, and while Orange isn’t in the lineup anymore for a pumpkin look, you'll be able to ask Siri to serve up some spooky tunes.

• The Apple Home Collection is a new set of smart-home devices made by LG Electronics and Schneider Electric
• The new devices have been designed in partnership with Apple
• The smart locks, video doorbell, and sensors, among other devices, are designed to work seamlessly with Apple Home

While there are lots of smart-home of gadgets that work with Apple Home — or HomeKit, as it was once called — Apple has never really taken the next step of designing and building its own devices, like doorbells, sensors, thermostats, and locks. That’s still the case, but alongside unveiling the Apple HomeView smart display, with features that clearly make it a smart home hub, the tech giant is also moving into the smart-home device space, in collaboration with partner brands.

Rather than simply certifying devices for Apple Home — and those options aren’t going away — Apple has been working with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric to design and build several devices that will serve as a new flagship standard for gadgets in Apple's ecosystem. They'll start shipping in December.

The new doorbell, indoor and outdoor cameras, thermostats, and various sensors represent a set of gadgets that not only work seamlessly with Apple’s home hubs — Apple TV 4K, HomePod, HomePod mini, and the new HomeView — but also integrate with the broader Apple Home ecosystem, allowing Siri to be central to controlling them.

All these new devices look and feel modern and well-made. Take LG Electronics’ Video Doorbell, for example: it’s a wired option priced at $249 in the US and £229 in the UK. It’s a sleek, matte-silver cylinder with a classic doorbell button, microphones, a speaker, and two cameras. One camera faces outward to give you a view of who’s at your door or what’s happening on the street, while the other faces downward, so that you can see whether a package has been dropped off.

There's also an LG Door Lock, which will work in the United States and Canada, and conforms to the deadbolt lock standard in North America. This is priced at $199. Like the recently launched Ring Smart Lock, it supports UWB — ultra-wideband — and Apple Home Key, so as you approach the door with your iPhone or Apple Watch, it can sense your arrival and automatically unlock the door. You can also enter a code using the keypad, or slide the panel to the side to use a physical key.

Another potentially over-engineered, but pretty sleek, option is LG’s Indoor Camera. This cylindrical camera sits in a mini drum connected to an arm, and when you set it not to be in use — such as when you arrive home, or according to a schedule — it swivels downward so the lens faces the floor. There’s no physical shutter here, but it’s a unique and visible approach to privacy, and you can also activate it on demand with a button on the top. It’s priced at $199 in the US and £179.95 in the UK.

These are just three of the devices in the collection. LG is also making an Outdoor Camera, with or without a floodlight, while both LG and Schneider Electric offer smart thermostat s, and Schneider Electric is making a variety of sensors. It’s likely that these are just the start of a much larger range, but they cover some of the basic building blocks of a smart home.

While these new devices aren’t made directly by Apple, this partnership arrangement is similar to how Apple worked with LG on the original UltraFine 2K and 4K monitors for MacBook Pro users, or how Belkin has become a featured partner for accessories such as the MagSafe mount that lets you use your iPhone as a webcam for your Mac.

I think it’s also a tell about exactly where Apple wants to play within the smart home. For instance, there are no smart lights here, likely because a handful of lighting brands already support Apple Home, from Nanoleaf to Philips Hue.

As mentioned, these new devices won’t launch until December, with exact availability still to be confirmed, but I’ll be curious to see how they perform.

One unique aspect of these devices is that you'll be able to set up and pair them much like AirPods or an Apple Watch. You’ll see a splash screen appear on your iPhone when you bring it close to the device, whether that’s a doorbell, camera, thermostat, sensor, or smart lock.

That’s a slicker approach than the sometimes-arduous process of setting up other smart-home devices. It’s also clear that Apple is building on the foundations of the Matter standard, and making that experiences feel more seamless within its own ecosystem.

If you're looking for a powerful laptop that can handle demanding AI workloads without relying entirely on cloud services, Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra is available to pre-order now. Aiming to be a MacBook Pro killer, it combines Nvidia RTX Spark processing, Blackwell graphics, and a high-resolution touchscreen in a portable design.

The Surface Laptop Ultra is designed to handle demanding AI applications locally, with Nvidia Blackwell graphics and unified memory options reaching 128GB. That could make it an alternative to cloud processing or a dedicated desktop workstation for certain workloads.

• Best for: AI developers, researchers, creative professionals, and businesses looking for a powerful laptop capable of running compatible AI models locally.

• The deal: The base configuration Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra is available to pre-order from $2,599.99 at Microsoft. In the UK, the pre-order is priced at £2,599.99.

Why we recommend it

Microsoft describes the Surface Laptop Ultra as its most powerful Surface Laptop yet thanks to the inclusion of Nvidia's RTX Spark N1X processor. The entry-level model combines an 18-core CPU with a 5120-core Nvidia Blackwell RTX GPU. A higher-end version increases that to a 20-core CPU and 6144-core GPU.

The platform can deliver up to one petaflop of AI compute and run models containing as many as 120 billion parameters locally. The size of the models you can realistically run will depend on the configuration and software.

The laptop uses LPDDR5x unified memory shared between the processor and graphics hardware, with consumer configurations offering 24GB, 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB. The Ultra features a 15-inch PixelSense Ultra touchscreen with a 3270 x 2180 resolution and a dynamic refresh rate reaching 120Hz. It supports 100% DCI-P3 color coverage, Dolby Vision IQ, and peak HDR brightness of 2,000 nits.

Connectivity includes three USB4-capable USB-C ports, HDMI 2.1b, USB-A 3.1, an SD card reader, and a headphone jack. You also get Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, a 1080p webcam, and a precision haptic touchpad.

Microsoft quotes battery life of up to 15 hours for local video playback or 12 hours for active web browsing, although intensive AI processing will obviously place heavier demands on the battery.

Price context & historical value

The Surface Laptop Ultra, with Windows 11 Home, starts at $2,599.99, with the 18-core Nvidia RTX Spark N1X processor, 5120-core GPU, 24GB unified memory, and a 512GB Gen 4 SSD. Models with a 1TB SSD start at $2,999.99, while the higher-end Nvidia RTX Spark N1X processor, featuring a 20-core CPU and 6144-core GPU, starts at $3,699.99.

Consumer models with 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB memory include Windows 11 Pro and storage options include removable 512GB Gen 4 and 1TB or 2TB Gen 5 SSDs.

Microsoft also offers a Surface Laptop Ultra for Business, with commercial support and service options. Its available configurations and included accessories may differ from the consumer models.

Should you buy it?

✅ Buy the Microsoft Ultra RTX Spark if...

You're an AI developer, researcher, or business professional who needs powerful local processing capabilities and access to substantial amounts of unified memory. Its high-resolution touchscreen, wide connectivity, and Windows 11 Pro options also make it well suited for demanding professional environments.

❌ Skip the Microsoft Ultra RTX Spark if...

You mainly use Microsoft 365, web applications, email, and video conferencing. A conventional business laptop would be considerably more affordable and more than capable of handling those tasks.

Where were you when the first iPhone went on sale back in 2007? I remember clearly that I was working for Phones4U — a third-party phone reseller in the UK — and the iPhone launch completely decimated the business, as suddenly Phones4U wasn't a reseller of the most popular phone on the market.

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 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).

The Garmin Fenix 9 Pro and Apple Watch Ultra 4 are two of the best (and most expensive) smartwatches to come out this year. But just how accurate are they?

Much has been made of Apple's redesigned Health Sensing System, supposedly the most accurate ever on a wearable. It certainly measured my sleep well enough, and Apple says it tested its accuracy by pitting it against an electrical heart rate monitor — which, funnily enough, is my process for reviewing smartwatches too.

I set out to find out how accurate Apple and Garmin's best smartwatches were by putting them against each other in a head-to-head battle, wearing them both during a 30-minute run, one on each wrist. To create a benchmark, I wore an ECG-capable electrical heart rate monitor on my chest, just like Apple's own tests; I used the Frontier X2.

The 30-minute run was more challenging than usual, because it was a very hilly route with a long incline as the midpoint — it certainly made my heart rate spike.

The figure I'm most interested in during these tests is average heart rate. I recognize that different companies use different processing algorithms, so you'll never get a 1-1 match on all heart rate data points: all you can look for is consistency in your wearable of choice, and to make sure it's generally telling the same story as a benchmark-level tool such as a chest-mounted electrical HRM, which are generally more reliable than LED-based sensors.

The closer the average heart rate, calculated by the wrist-based LED-using wearables, can get to the average heart rate calculated by the electrical HRM, the better.

Generally, I classify under 5 bpm of difference as an insignificant margin of error, meaning that's a device I'd happily keep using and recommending to others. Under 10 bpm is generally fine for light or occasional exercisers for general trends, but not one I'd recommend to fitness buffs who care about things like heart rate zones.

Anyway, on to the results — how did the Apple Watch Ultra 4 and Garmin Fenix 9 Pro stack up?

The results

The results were excellent. It’s really cool to see the Frontier X2 heart rate monitor, Garmin Fenix 9 Pro and the Apple Watch Ultra 4 all within two beats per minute of each other on average.

From left to right in the screenshots above, the Garmin Fenix 9 Pro measured 159 bpm, while the Apple Watch Ultra 4 measured 160 bpm. The Frontier X2 measured 158 bpm.

All the devices being within 2 bpm of each other is a wonderful indication of accuracy across the board. Algorithmic processing differences aside, all three devices are telling the same story about my body during that 30-minute session of exercise.

Other metrics between the two watches are similar, too. Calorie counts for example, which can vary wildly between devices, look similar as both devices estimate a burn in the high 300s — 388 vs 375.

The Frontier X2 also estimates a calorie count that's very different than the watches, but I'm discounting that as the watches collect far more information to draw from. I'm only trusting its heart rate numbers.

So, I'm more than happy with the ratings I got from these watches, and can continue to recommend them as extremely accurate health and fitness tracking tools.

So, which do I prefer? Even though both watches are very accurate, they're tailor-made for serious sports and endurance, and they're both packing dive modes and satellite communication features, they're not quite made equally.

The Apple Watch's software, third-party apps and smartwatch functionalities far outshine the Garmin Fenix 9 Pro, while the Garmin watch is built with a longer-lasting battery (10 days vs Apple's 48 hours) and features more survival tools, such as the LED flashlight.

If you're a multi-day adventurer type, I'd opt for the Garmin every time, but for day-to-day wear and shorter excursions, the Apple Watch is nicer to use — even if, unfortunately it'll need a charge every other day.