Don't hate on the new iPhone. Don't hate on the new iPhone. I mean, come on, Lionus. It's got [music] everything that you like. A giant HDR folding display, a desktop class CPU with phase change cooling, uncompromising commitment to durability with both water resistance and exotic structural reinforcements, not to mention the triumphant return of Touch ID. >> Praise Jobs. >> Indeed. Hallelujah. So, why do I have to convince myself not to hate on it?

Well, how about the minor fact that I've already seen this movie? As someone who's been dailying foldables since long before they got actually good and cool, I've learned a lot about what works and what doesn't work. And in my opinion, Apple made a critical mistake that stands to set the entire industry on a path that makes these devices flashier and cooler, but less usable dayto-day. We're going to get to that later.

Along with the new watches, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, and near and dear to my heart, a really nice upgrade to the AirPods family that somehow isn't going to cost you extra. Just like I never charge extra for a segue to our sponsor, Threat Locker. As you deploy AI into your workforce, every AI agent that improves productivity or efficiency also brings risk. Threat Locker allows you to put controls around what your AI tools can do and access.

Learn more about how Threat Locker can help you at the link below. Bloomberg suggests that Tim Cook first became excited about the foldable form factor after a few trips to Asia in 2020. An excitement that after years of rumors finally paid off just days after his replacement by John Turnis, the former vice president of hardware engineering who oversaw this product's creation. And what a creation story it is. In a one more thing segment that felt like it went on longer than some entire Apple keynotes, Apple outlined everything that they changed to make this the thinnest iPhone ever with unprecedented performance and a virtually creaseless inner screen.

So, what are all the things they changed? Well, all of them. Starting with the screen. To get the flattest possible appearance on the inner display, Apple employed a refined nanoexture coating to reduce glossy reflections on the crease. We've seen some early hands-on footage from other reviewers who are at the event, and I got to say, looks pretty good. Not nothing, but a lot less than something. They also built each display from a 10 layer stack that can shift like the pages of a book to help reduce bend stress over time, which combined with a sophisticated hinge that gets tolerance matched to each housing using AI could help the iPhone to avoid that classic, "Wow, yeah, that sure looks great today.

Um, talk to me in a few months when it smiles at you every time you open it." Overall, it seems like Apple has taken the best of what Samsung is doing, like the titanium sub layer that we first saw on the ZFold 8, [music] and added that little bit of extra polish. Apple claims that their inner screen hits 30,000 nits of brightness and uses wide-angle OLED pixels, notably ones from the Apple Watch to help improve clarity from even extreme viewing angles.

Another fine piece of Apple forthought, both the 5.4 in outer and 7.6 6 in inner displays feature the same classic 1: 1.4 aspect ratio, which Apple hopes will make things feel more consistent when you open and close the Duo and help avoid adding two more screen layouts for app developers to just this one product. Oh, on that note, they've also published some helpful videos already guiding developers on how to best make use of this newfound screen real estate.

This kind of thing really goes a long way towards creating a consistent feeling experience. Even with a folding design, Apple has tried to focus on durability with a reinforced hinge, titanium braces that go across the frame, and reinforcements on the antenna lines. All of this is packed into a titanium frame, which I got to say, it sounds like this thing is built like a tank. Thing about tanks, though, they're kind of heavy.

At 254 g, it weighs a whopping 25% more than the competing Galaxy Zfold 8. So, with that said, there are clear benefits to Apple's approach, like going from IP48 to IP68 water and dust resistance and getting a hinge design that can hold in between positions so you can watch movies like this or type like this or have the world's most expensive alarm clock like this. Okay, the last one obviously a bit of a joke, but in all seriousness, it is a feature that I use at the gym on my Fold 7 a lot.

Not everything is roses though. While the front glass uses Apple's kind of legendary ceramic shield too, the back cover uses the last gen version and Apple isn't sharing exactly what the inner display is made of beyond that it is a custom polymer. So, our best guess from other foldables is that it's likely to be a little more prone to micro scratches than you might have gotten used to over the last couple of generations.

Personally though, I don't see this as a huge deal because 99% of my micro scratches are from debris in my pockets. And your foldable doesn't go into your pocket like this. It goes in like that. [music] Another huge win on the Duo is the lack of a hole punch or a notch in the inner screen. It's got a selfie camera, but Apple has placed it under the display using tech that in classic Apple fashion, we've seen used, but not perfected on the Android side of the walled garden.

I'm really interested to see what advancements, if any, Apple has made here, and I'm excited to see the rest of the industry push to catch up and eliminate these eyes [music] once and for all. The company's spec sheet is relatively bare about this camera. They say it records in 1080p, has ultra stabilization and center stage for video calls and wide color capture, but that's about it. And they seem to be positioning it as more of a FaceTime camera than anything else, which makes sense since the selfie camera on the front display is going to be much better.

And since you can unfold the thing anyway, you can always use the main rear cameras as your selfie shooters, assuming that you put in the 100 hours minimum that I assume it takes to get as dextrous as this guy. Man, I am not into the placement of the touch sensitive camera button here. And since we're on the subject, I'm not into the removal of the action button either. As for the other cameras, these appear to be minor upgrades compared to last year, which is to say that it should have a best-in-class selfie shooter with that awesome on the-fly aspect ratio adjustment alongside pretty much the same great 48 megapixel main camera from the iPhone Air and the same ultra wide lens and sensor combo that the company is still using on the [music] 18 Pro.

The real upgrade on the Duo is going to be on the software side where you can now use photographic styles 3 which allows you to add grain and texture to your photos if you want that look. Cool. You'll save all kinds of money compared to buying a 2000 era digital camera on marketplace. I guess really the bigger camera upgrades are going to be on the iPhone 18 Pro, which we're going to get into later. First, the rest of the Duo's hardware, which includes two rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that Apple says will last for around 24 hours of typical use. though, it's hard to tell how that's going to work out in the real world since Apple is anticipating 50% usage between the inner screen and the outer screen.

And guys, I ain't met anybody who uses their inner screen anywhere near 50% of the time. And on top of that, Apple also acknowledged that they retoled their battery testing and validation procedures this year. So, it's going to be a bit hard to know how this compares to previous iPhones until we get to test it ourselves. using the more standard streaming video playback metric. The company says we can expect about 37 hours when folded and 26 hours when unfolded.

To top up that battery, you can finally use a fast charger since it supports a 60W USB input or higher apparently, whatever that means. And on the wireless side, it's still got Magg Safe, too, which can do >> 25 W >> charging and will of course lock in conveniently with your existing MagSafe accessories. All of this is powered by the new Apple A20 Pro SOC, a two nanometer chip with [music] two desktop class super cores and four efficiency cores for a total of six on top of a better GPU than ever by a long shot apparently and [music] more neural accelerators, including a second 16 core AI engine that Apple mentioned more than once should make this new chip very well suited to running third-party local AI models. a use case that personally I [music] am really really excited about as I reach my tipping point for how much of my personal information I want in the cloud or also I guess you could just use the neural engine to generate genojis.

Moving on, this has got to be my favorite part. Apple actually called me up personally about this and they said, "You know what, Lionus? You were right about Touch ID. We were wrong. Also, you're much taller than Marquez." >> Yeah, okay. That never happened. But what did is Apple dropped Face ID on the iPhone Duo in favor of Touch ID built into the lock button. And as someone who has always preferred my biometric authentication to be built into the button that I already had to touch anyway, I see this as an absolute win.

With that said, I know that some users do prefer Face ID, and I'd love to see Apple bring that back to future Duos as well, just to give users more choice. Always a good thing. Finally, like other modern iPhones, you get access to emergency SOS features, Wi-Fi 7, Siri AI, and thanks to the new C2 modem, millimeter wave 5G. We also get eSIM, but unlike [clears throat] other modern iPhones, it's eSIM only globally, which could be annoying in some markets.

Finally, finally, Apple says support for the Apple Pencil USBC is coming soon. And there's lots to love about the software, including this glorious transition from the inner screen to the outer screen. This cute little feature that helps keep toddlers looking into the lens, a tent mode that uses standby to show you photos, widgets, or the time, and enhanced multitasking so you can use two apps at once, or multiple instances of the same app, or even tap the divider between two apps to pin them together, making it easier to go back to them. iPhone Duo sits at the top of Apple's price ladder at $2,000, but given the current climate, it could have been worse.

And I have no doubt that this thing is going to be a smash hit out of the gate, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into Apple's already stuffed coffers, which I guess finally gets me to the part that I am unhappy about, cuz everything so far was pretty good, wasn't it? the fact that I believe Apple is pushing the entire industry in the wrong direction for aspect ratio. I know that you guys tuned into this video so that you didn't have to sit through Apple's hour plus long version of it, but still [music] at least give it a scrub through.

Okay, do it. You notice that? Do it again. Do you notice they don't once show the iPhone with the keyboard open on the outer display? Why do you think that is? That's because they know the lack of vertical screen real estate means that whether it's vertical video or text or just plain navigating the web, you're going to end up feeling like you're using a BlackBerry 8300. Apple has taken steps to minimize this effect, moving the dock to the side and combining the status icons.

And who knows, maybe I'm going to discover that just like with AirPods taking away my wire and my 3 and 12 mm jack, I just need to get with the times using my voice to interact with my phone rather than my keyboard. But [music] to me, for now, the way that Apple glossed over this issue is a tacid acknowledgement that is going to be a real problem for some users and may lead to some returns. And only time will tell if this is going to be a holding it wrong iPhone 4 level of returns or a this product is cancelled vision pro level of returns.

Let's move on to AirPods and Apple watches before we unpack the iPhone that more people are actually going to buy, the iPhone 18 Pro. AirPods 5. These I like. They're an upgraded version of the company's open earphones. But this year, both the cheaper $130 skew, and the more expensive skew has active noise cancelling, which already worked better than I expected given their lack of a silicone seal last generation, and now is apparently even better.

But wait, there's more. The expensive model isn't so expensive anymore at just $150 to get the AirPods Fives and a wireless charging case and the ability to slide your finger up and down the stems to change volume. The more expensive model also gets a 5h hour battery life rating with&c compared to just four on the cheaper option. More value and more better. Man, I freaking love AirPods. Apple Watch though I could kind of not care that much about.

But hey, for those who are into them, we did get some exciting upgrades along with a really weird one. To start, Series 12 comes in a few new colors and materials. Neat. The aluminum models are still cheaper than the other materials, but they got upgraded this year with ceramic shield 2 cover glass, which should help you be able to wear them for even longer without scratching them up. The titanium and ceramic models still have sapphire front crystals, which is pretty much unscratchable if you really want a watch for the long haul.

And if you're into the watch Ultra, you'll be happy to know that it got a slight battery bump this year to around 50 hours of regular use that can be boosted to 84 when you're using it in low power mode. Inside all the watches, you'll find the new S11 chip, which unlocks new audio intelligence features. These are the kind of weird thing I mentioned earlier. This new tech records what's happening around you, allowing for users to double tap the digital crown on the watch and get a recap of what was said in the last 15 seconds or so. or and this is apparently a separate feature, [music] it can take notes on your conversations throughout the day and then give you a highle recap later.

Apple says this is secure and then you can save these conversations in the new Siri app if you want to revisit them later. Um, I'll let you guys decide what you think. Uh, building off this feature though, the watch can also alert you to specific sounds like a doorbell or a crying baby. Okay, these ones I actually kind of like and are bound to be pretty helpful for people who are hard of hearing or just ADHD. Sorry, what were we talking about?

Ah, yes. The final audio intelligence feature uses Shazam to automatically detect what songs are playing nearby. Might not sound like that big of a deal, but it's been a killer feature on Pixel phones for years, and people freaking love it over there. For the fitness-minded, Apple has upgraded the sensor array on the new watches to make them more accurate, and they can now track HRV, which lets the Apple Watch act more like a Whoop band or a modern Garmin by tracking your rest and recovery.

Combined with a redesigned health app and a more clear-cut readiness score, this should help make the Apple Watch a more fully featured workout companion [music] than ever before. Which brings us finally to the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. New colors will be highlights to people like my pre-teen nephew who noticed that I had a current gen iPhone recently just because it was a color that was exclusive to that generation.

I was like, "How do you know this?" Um, but he did. And moving on to the stuff that actually matters to me, we get the same A20 Pro chip as the iPhone Duo. So, I'm expecting impressive performance and a main camera assembly, which has been improved this year with a sixb blade variable aperture. Apple says this should result in better lowlight photography, but until we can figure out just how much larger, if at all, the main sensor is.

Um, we can't assume that the gains will be as large as some people are hoping. When you go into the camera app on the 18 Pro, you'll be able to choose between four aperture settings though, ranging from f1.8 to f4. And the camera also has the new grain and texture controls as part of the new photographic styles engine that we mentioned when we were talking about the Duo. Honestly, what will be more interesting will be to see if Apple makes them backwards compatible with the iPhone 16 and 17 series.

But then why would you buy an 18 Pro? >> Little boy dream. >> To keep up with the new manual aperture, Apple has also retoled the main camera app to give it more pro tools like white balance and shutter speed controls. These were things that you could do in many third party camera apps, but hey, it's nice to see Apple finally get back to their classic Sherlocking like they used to do. On the flip side of that, the company mentioned that it is making the APK for the variable aperture public.

So, third party cameras will also be able to control that. So, maybe not full Sherlock. If you're into mobile gaming, Apple has also upgraded the vapor chamber in the 18 Pro series to be three times larger, claiming 40% better thermal dissipation over the iPhone 17 Pro. That is a pretty big deal because peak performance means pretty much nothing to people who are gaming for long periods. And it's that sustained performance that matters.

With all that said, the biggest upgrade to me is the battery. We don't know the empirical milliamp sizes yet, but Apple claims that we should expect up to 33 hours of video streaming playback on the Pro and up to 40 hours on the Pro Max. I mean, that is some next generation binging enablement. We also get a slightly smaller dynamic island. Not as good as an in-creen camera, but I'll take small W's when I can get them.

And that should be about it. Of course, every win these days, though, feels like it comes with some losses. And in this case, we're talking a loss of $100. Apple quietly not only increased the prices of their new generation iPhones, but also increased the prices of the last gen phones that are sticking around in the lineup by $100. So, it turns out even Apple is not immune to Ramageddon. As you're deploying AI into your workforce, you know that every AI agent that you bring in to improve productivity or efficiency also brings its own risks.

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If you guys are in a folding kind of mood, make sure you check out my unboxing over on our short circuit channel of the Galaxy ZF Fold 8. Spoiler alert, it went from ick to to eh.