CNET reviewers revisit their 2007 assessment of the original iPhone, which launched at $499 (roughly $800 today) and generated comparable hype and shock to Apple's newly announced foldable iPhone Duo at $2,000. The original iPhone was praised for its innovative design and interface but criticized for missing features, network limitations, and expensive pricing relative to competitors of that era.
Apple's iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max offer internal refinements rather than dramatic external changes, featuring the new A20 Pro chip, improved cooling, and a smaller Dynamic Island, though the company's first foldable iPhone Duo may be more intriguing to consumers seeking novelty.
Apple's new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max ($1,199–$1,299) share the same A20 Pro chip as the foldable iPhone Duo ($1,999), but the Duo sacrifices camera quality and features like Face ID for its unique 7.6-inch folding display, making it best suited for users who prioritize screen real estate over photography capabilities.
Apple's iPhone Duo foldable phone succeeds through design system scalability across iPhone, iPad, and Mac rather than hardware innovation alone. By arriving seven years late with a mature software ecosystem, most apps were already compatible before the device launched. The company solved the awkward cover-screen problem by relocating navigation to the right side, allowing a near-normal iPhone canvas without requiring developer changes.
iOS 27.2 beta 1 introduces user profiles for the Apple TV app on iPhone, a feature previously available only on tvOS. The profiles support age-appropriate content filtering for child accounts and can be disabled if unused, addressing a long-standing gap in Apple's streaming platform.
Apple introduced the iPhone Duo, its first foldable phone with a starting price of $2,000, featuring two displays, an under-display camera, and exclusive camera capabilities. The device uses grade 5 titanium construction with an IP68 rating and will launch in October with iOS 27.1.
Horace Dediu analyzes Apple's foldable iPhone Duo as a shift toward gestural computing, where variable surfaces and mechanical interactions create new gesture languages beyond traditional touch. The folding mechanism represents a departure from two decades of static glass rectangles, introducing a paradigm comparable to the flip phone era, though now centered on enabling new user interactions and form factors across Apple's product line.
Apple released an iOS 27.2 beta to developers instead of iOS 27.1 to avoid leaking iPhone Duo details in code, since the device will ship with iOS 27.1. The two codebases are expected to converge eventually. iPhone Duo launches October 23.
T-Mobile offers an iPhone 18 Pro for free with any trade-in condition or up to $1,200 off the iPhone 18 Pro Max for new customers who activate a line. The devices feature Apple's new variable aperture Fusion camera, A20 Pro processor, and Siri AI, available in multiple colors including new glacier blue and burgundy options.
Apple released the first iOS 27.2 developer beta for iPhone, skipping iOS 27.1 to focus iPhone Duo-specific features closer to the device's October launch. The update includes a redesigned Apple Health app and expanded Siri AI support with multilingual capabilities rolling out over the coming months.
iOS 27 introduces a rebuilt Siri AI that answers questions and performs device actions, enhanced proofreading with grammar checking powered by Apple Intelligence, and an overhauled Spotlight search with better indexing also applied to Photos and Mail apps.
Apple released iOS 27 on September 14, bringing new features including Siri AI beta, Safari website monitoring, enhanced Photos editing tools, and system performance improvements. The update supports iPhone 11 and newer, though Apple Intelligence features require iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 models.
Apple's new iPhone models—the Duo, iPhone 18 Pro, and 18 Pro Max—now have 3D models available for viewing. The iPhone Duo features a foldable design viewable in open and closed states, while the Pro models showcase a smaller Face ID notch and new Burgundy color option. The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are available September 18, with iPhone Duo pre-orders beginning October 16 for October 23 availability.
Apple's iPhone 18 Pro features a variable aperture camera system ranging from f/1.48 to f/4, offering marginal improvements in image quality and manual exposure controls. Despite being $100 more expensive than its predecessor, the phone remains largely iterative and similar to the iPhone 17 Pro, with the foldable iPhone Duo being the more notable launch this year.
Apple's iPhone Duo foldable phone will have severely limited supply at launch due to hinge production constraints, with analyst estimates revised down to 6 million units for 2026. Pre-orders begin October 16 with deliveries starting October 23, making the $1,999 device extremely difficult to obtain.
Apple introduced Reference Image, a new camera mode on iPhone 18 Pro designed to verify photograph authenticity through a chain-of-custody system that begins at sensor initialization during manufacturing. The system uses cryptographic signing, Private Cloud Compute processing, and quantum-resistant encryption to create verifiable digital negatives while preserving photographer anonymity and protecting against manipulation throughout the editing chain.
Apple's product design follows a consistent philosophy where objects closer to the human body have progressively rounder corners, measured using a 'roundness score' formula. The article reveals that Apple uses squircles (complex curves without discontinuities) rather than simple circles, with personal devices like AirPods and Apple Watch scoring around 50% roundness, while distant objects like displays score only 2–3%, following designer Naoto Fukasawa's principle that proximity to humans correlates with roundness.
Apple introduced Apple Reference Image on iPhone 18 Pro models to cryptographically verify that photos were taken with an iPhone and haven't been edited or AI-generated. The feature boots the camera sensor into a specialized mode that signs pixel data immediately after capture, creating a secure digital negative protected from software tampering and verified through Private Cloud Compute.
Apple CEO John Ternus showcased the iPhone Duo at the Emmys red carpet, sparking online criticism about the device's dim display. However, the poor screen visibility was likely due to extreme red carpet lighting conditions, low brightness settings, and the phone's matte nano-texture design rather than a fundamental flaw.
John Gruber reviews Apple's iPhone 18 Pro keynote event, which was entirely shot on iPhone 18 Pros and featured creative fake-movie openings. The keynote marked Tim Cook's transition to chairman role with a James Bond-inspired segment introducing new CEO John Ternus, showcasing the iPhone 18 Pro's cinematic camera capabilities.