Apple unveiled its first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo, on Wednesday evening, September 9, 2026, with prices in the UAE starting at AED 8,499. The company also introduced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max at the same event, starting at AED 5,099 and AED 5,499, respectively, in the UAE.

Pre-orders for the two Pro models in the UAE will begin on Saturday, September 12. The country is included in the first wave of the global launch, covering more than 65 markets, with the phones arriving in stores on Friday, September 18.

Both models will be available in four storage capacities — 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB — and in black, silver, ice and burgundy. According to Gulf News, UAE customers trading in an iPhone 13 or newer model through Apple’s trade-in programme can receive between AED 640 and AED 3,260 in credit. The UAE is also among the markets receiving eSIM-only versions of the two models, which feature larger batteries and offer two additional hours of video playback due to the removal of the physical SIM card tray.

The iPhone Duo will arrive later than the Pro models. Pre-orders open on Friday, October 16, with sales beginning on Friday, October 23. The UAE is included in the first wave of more than 70 countries. The AED 8,499 price applies to the 256GB version, while storage options extend to 2TB. Apple will also offer a protective case and a sleeve with a built-in stand, both available to order from October 16.

The device features a 7.6-inch inner display and a 5.4-inch outer screen. Apple says the inner display is 50 per cent larger than the screen on the iPhone 18 Pro Max. The body is made from Grade 5 titanium, while the hinge comprises more than 100 components. A nano-texture coating on the inner display reduces glare and makes the crease less visible. Touch ID is integrated into the side button, the FaceTime camera is concealed beneath the display, and the device carries an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance.

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The iPhone Duo will be available in Starlight and Midnight, support only eSIM worldwide and, for the first time, bring simultaneous two-app viewing through Split View to the iPhone. Apple Pencil support will be added in an update later this year. Apple says the device offers up to 31 hours of video playback on the internal display and up to 24 hours of typical use when both screens are used equally.

The most significant upgrade to the iPhone 18 Pro is the variable aperture on its 48-megapixel main camera. The six-blade mechanism switches between four settings and opens as wide as f/1.48 in low-light conditions. Apple says the system allows around 50 per cent more light into the lens in low light, while the new Pro Controls section lets users manually adjust shutter speed, white balance and aperture. Both models feature the two-nanometre A20 Pro chip, whose seven-core graphics processor is up to 40 per cent faster than the previous generation, while its dual 16-core Neural Engine doubles AI processing performance. A redesigned vapour chamber with three times the surface area improves sustained performance by up to 40 per cent, while the new C2 modem delivers faster upload speeds and uses 15 per cent less power. Dynamic Island is smaller and can now display up to three Live Activities simultaneously. The eSIM models provide up to 36 hours of video playback on the iPhone 18 Pro and up to 45 hours on the Pro Max, while the battery can reach 50 per cent charge in about 15 minutes.

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At the same event, Apple introduced a feature called Apple Reference Image, designed to verify the authenticity of photos. The main camera’s new sensor signs the raw data, while Private Cloud Compute creates an immutable reference image that users can compare with an edited version in the Photos app. The optional feature will not be available in the European Union or China at launch. Apple also said future updates would support the SynthID standard to identify images created or edited using artificial intelligence.

This was Apple’s first hardware event under John Ternus, who succeeded Tim Cook on September 1. Ternus described the iPhone Duo as “the biggest change to the iPhone since the original.” Unlike in previous years, the standard iPhone 18 was not unveiled at the event, with Apple postponing its launch alongside the iPhone 18e and iPhone Air 2 until spring 2027. Prices for the new models in the UAE are 400 dirhams, or about eight per cent, higher than the previous generation. The iPhone 17 Pro was priced at 4,699 dirhams in Apple’s UAE store, while the iPhone 17 Pro Max cost 5,099 dirhams. Cook had previously said during an earnings call that the company expected to pay more for memory in September, while analysts had forecast before the event that the iPhone 18 Pro Max could cost as much as 6,350 dirhams in the UAE.

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Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4 and AirPods 5 were also unveiled, with all three set to go on sale on September 18. They will be priced in the UAE at AED 1,599, AED 3,199 and AED 539, respectively. Both watches feature the new S11 chip and a redesigned health-monitoring system that measures heart rate every five seconds and introduces a new readiness metric based on sleep, activity and vital-sign data.

iOS 27 will be released as a free update on Monday, September 14, while a new version of Apple’s voice assistant, called Siri AI, will be available in beta on the same day. It will initially support English only, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish to be added in October. Persian and Arabic are not among the announced languages. The iPhone Duo will ship with iOS 27.1.