Apple’s September event is nearly here, and this one breaks a pattern the company has held for over a decade. For the first time, the iPhone event is going premium only. No standard iPhone. No cheap option waiting in the wings to undercut the pitch. Just the expensive end of the range, headlined by Apple’s most ambitious new product in years.
At least five new devices are expected next month, and a whole second wave of home and Mac products is lining up behind them, possibly for their own event later in the autumn. Below is everything on the table, sorted not as a flat list but by how confident we can actually be about it, because “expected” covers everything from near-certain to barely a whisper. We will start with the headliners you can bank on, work down to the maybes, and finish with the important bit most previews bury: what is deliberately not coming until spring, and why that changes how you should think about the whole event.
One theme runs through all of it. This is shaping up to be the most expensive September Apple has ever staged, and that is not an accident. Keep it in mind as the prices stack up.
The Headliners: Near Certain
These three are the core of the event, and the reporting around them is consistent enough that you can treat them as close to locked in.
iPhone 18 Pro
The iPhone 18 Pro is expected to look a lot like the 17 Pro at a glance, with one immediately visible change: a smaller Dynamic Island, reportedly around 35% smaller than the current cutout, one of three upgrades Apple has been promising for years, handing back screen space at the top of the display. Apple has even hinted at it indirectly, with Siri’s redesigned look in iOS 27 appearing to be built around the shrunken shape.
The bigger changes are inside and on the back. The Wide camera is set to gain a variable aperture, which lets the phone physically change the size of the opening that light passes through rather than relying on a fixed one. In plain terms, that means real optical control over background blur and better handling of tricky lighting, rather than the software approximations iPhones have leaned on until now. It is the most consequential camera change in years, and the one you will notice in everyday photos.
Powering it is a faster A20 Pro chip, and battery life should benefit from two directions at once: the efficiency of that new chip, and an upgraded LTPO+ OLED display that sips less power when the screen is largely static. Apple may also introduce its own C2 modem, replacing Qualcomm, along with a new N2 networking chip, both of which feed further efficiency gains. This year’s standout colour is expected to be Dark Cherry.
iPhone 18 Pro Max
The simple version: it is the 18 Pro, but bigger, with every feature above carried across. The one notable difference is physical. Multiple reports have the 18 Pro Max coming in slightly thicker than both the 17 Pro Max and the 18 Pro, and that is a good thing, because the extra millimetre is there to house a larger battery. After years of Apple chasing thinness at the expense of endurance, a phone that grows a little to last longer is a trade most buyers will happily take.
On price, brace yourself. Both the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max are rumoured to land $100 to $200 more expensive than their predecessors, which tracks with what the components now cost Apple to build. Apple already raised prices on Macs and iPads earlier this year but appears to have held the iPhone increase back for the September refresh, which tells you the rise was always coming and was simply waiting for the new models to justify it.
The Foldable, Reportedly “iPhone Ultra”
This is the reason the whole event exists in its new premium-only form. Apple’s first foldable is finally almost here, and it is the most significant new iPhone form factor since the original.
Expect a 5.5-inch display when closed and roughly a 7.8-inch display when open, with a 4:3 aspect ratio that makes the unfolded phone feel much like using an iPad mini. Apple is said to have engineered the design to minimise the visibility of the crease, historically the ugliest compromise on any foldable, and it will run a 2nm A20 chip. There are dual batteries inside to feed that large folding display.
The compromises are real, though, and worth knowing before you get carried away. The camera is limited to a two-lens rear system rather than the Pro’s fuller array. More strikingly, the phone is apparently too thin to fit Apple’s TrueDepth camera, so it is rumoured to use Touch ID rather than Face ID, a genuinely notable step given Apple spent years insisting Face ID was the future. And the price is the headline that will make people gasp: somewhere between $2,000 and $2,500, comfortably the most expensive iPhone ever made.
There is one important caveat on timing. Reports of manufacturing difficulties suggest the foldable could be introduced in September but not actually go on sale until a little later, exactly as Apple did with the iPhone X back in 2017. So do not be surprised if it headlines the event but carries a ship date some weeks behind the two Pro models.
The Supporting Cast: Likely but Low-Key
These are expected at the same event, but temper your excitement. Neither is the reason anyone will be watching.
Apple Watch Series 12
By all accounts, a quiet year for the Apple Watch. No design changes are expected. What you are likely to get is a faster S-series chip, some improvements to health and fitness features, and possibly a bigger battery for longer life. Useful if you are coming from an older model, unremarkable if you are not. Not every year is a reinvention, and this is one of the maintenance years.
Apple Watch Ultra 4
The rugged flagship returns and picks up the same chip upgrade as the Series 12. DigiTimes has claimed the Ultra 4 will be thinner with upgraded sensing functions, which would be genuinely welcome, but that particular source has a patchy accuracy record, so treat the thinner-and-better-sensors claim as a hopeful maybe rather than a safe bet.
The Maybes: Possibly September, More Likely a Second Event
Here is where a lot of previews get vague, so let me be clear about the shape of it. Apple has a substantial pipeline of home products and Macs that could arrive before the end of the year, but there is a strong chance they get their own event in October or November rather than crowding the iPhone stage. Given how many home devices are in development, a dedicated smart home event would make a lot of sense.
The standout among them is the Home Hub, a new product category for Apple. It is described as having a 7-inch square display and acting as a command centre for your smart home: controlling accessories, showing photos, making video calls, and displaying information at a glance. Crucially, it is built around full Siri AI integration and runs Apple apps, which makes it the clearest expression yet of where Apple wants its long-delayed smarter Siri to live. It could arrive as soon as 2026 or slip to early 2027.
Alongside it, several other home refreshes are in the pipeline. A new Apple TV 4K is expected with a faster chip, more RAM and a networking chip that finally brings Wi-Fi 7. The HomePod mini is due a refresh with a faster chip and new colour options, and the full-size HomePod could get a new chip of its own. Apple also has its own smart home security camera in development, which could launch alongside the hub as part of a genuine push into the connected home.
Further out still, and very unlikely to appear at the September iPhone event, are an OLED iPad mini, a refreshed 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M6 chip, an iMac with M6, a high-end OLED MacBook Pro with a touchscreen, a new Mac mini and a new Mac Studio. Exciting for the wishlist, but do not expect them next month.
What Is Deliberately Not Coming in September
This is the part that reframes the whole event, and it is why we opened with “premium only.”
There will be no standard iPhone 18 in September. There will be no iPhone 18e, and no iPhone Air 2 either. All three have been pushed to spring 2027 as part of Apple’s new split-launch strategy, which divides the iPhone year into a premium autumn wave and a mainstream spring wave. Apple is also not refreshing the budget Apple Watch SE this year.
The practical upshot matters. If what you actually want is an affordable iPhone, September has nothing for you, and no amount of refreshing Apple’s site on launch day will change that. You will be waiting until spring. For a large slice of Apple’s audience, the sensible response to this event is to note the date, admire the foldable, and quietly ignore it until 2027. That is a genuinely new situation, and it is the single most useful thing to take away from the entire preview.
It also explains the pricing. With every cheap option removed from the autumn stage, the September lineup runs from expensive to eye-watering, topped by a foldable that could nudge $2,500. This is not the event where Apple sells you a phone. It is the event where Apple sells you the dream and holds the affordable version back for six months.
When Is the Event?
The date is one of the more predictable things in technology. Based on Apple’s historical pattern, the event is most likely to land on Tuesday 8 September or Wednesday 9 September. Monday the 7th is Labor Day in the US, and Apple tends to avoid making the media travel on a public holiday, which nudges things to the 8th or 9th. Tuesdays have historically been Apple’s favourite event day, so the 8th has a slight edge, but either is entirely plausible. Expect the invitations, and therefore confirmation, roughly two weeks beforehand.
What It All Adds Up To
Strip it back and the story of this September is clear. Apple is fielding three premium headliners, led by a genuinely landmark foldable, backed by a couple of quiet wearable refreshes, with a whole home and Mac lineup probably waiting for a second event later in the year. And it is doing all of this at the highest prices it has ever charged, having deliberately cleared every affordable option off the stage until spring.
That makes this a fascinating event to watch and, for a lot of people, a frustrating one to shop. If you are after a Pro, a Pro Max or the foldable, September is your moment, though whether it is worth the upgrade depends on what you are coming from and it looks like a strong one. If you want anything cheaper, this is not your event, and knowing that now saves you the disappointment later. Either way, the invitations should land in late August, and we will know exactly how much of this holds up a couple of weeks after that.
Which of it are you most looking forward to, the foldable finally becoming real, the Pro’s camera leap, or the home hub that might finally give Siri a proper home? And is a $2,500 iPhone a milestone worth celebrating or a line too far? Let us know in the comments.
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