Apple's new iPhones and Watches are better than the last ones
Episode
46 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Productivity, Health & Wellness, Design & UX
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓Variable Aperture Reality Check: The iPhone 18 Pro's six-blade mechanical aperture ranges from f/1.48 to f/4, but the practical difference is nearly invisible to most users. Smartphone sensors are so small that depth-of-field changes are marginal. The genuinely useful upgrade is the wider f/1.48 maximum aperture, which improves low-light performance by reducing required night mode exposure time.
- ✓Upgrade Threshold — iPhones: The iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 and the Pro Max at $1,299, each $100 more than predecessors. Camera gains are marginal, battery is slightly larger, and the dynamic island shrinks to fit three simultaneous live activities instead of two. Only upgrade if your current device is three or more years old; last year's refurbished model remains a strong value.
- ✓Series 12 Sensor Overhaul: The Apple Watch Series 12 features a 32-electrode sensor array replacing the previous two-electrode design, delivering heart rate sampling every five seconds — a 60-times increase — and a 24-times increase in heart rate variability data. A new recovery HRV metric, measured during sleep, is positioned as a more accurate daily stress indicator than the existing baseline HRV.
- ✓Siri AI Practical Use Cases: The updated Siri demonstrates genuine utility when integrated with CarPlay, allowing hands-free navigation updates based on texted addresses while driving. Cross-app indexing of messages and emails takes days to complete initially. Users should experiment with Siri shortcuts for automated tasks, such as scheduled deletion of screenshots, as the most reliable productivity gains come from personalized automation.
- ✓Upgrade Threshold — Apple Watch: Series 9 and newer owners should hold off on upgrading to the Series 12. Users on Series 6 or older have sufficient reason to upgrade. Audio intelligence features — including live conversation rewind and Siri recap — are opt-in, not enabled by default, and not yet available at launch, so privacy concerns alone should not drive purchasing decisions.
What It Covers
Senior reviewers Allison Johnson and V Song evaluate the iPhone 18 Pro and Apple Watch Series 12, covering the new variable aperture camera system, updated Siri AI capabilities, Series 12 health sensors with 32-electrode design, new audio intelligence features, and upgrade recommendations across both product lines for September 2026.
Key Questions Answered
- •Variable Aperture Reality Check: The iPhone 18 Pro's six-blade mechanical aperture ranges from f/1.48 to f/4, but the practical difference is nearly invisible to most users. Smartphone sensors are so small that depth-of-field changes are marginal. The genuinely useful upgrade is the wider f/1.48 maximum aperture, which improves low-light performance by reducing required night mode exposure time.
- •Upgrade Threshold — iPhones: The iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 and the Pro Max at $1,299, each $100 more than predecessors. Camera gains are marginal, battery is slightly larger, and the dynamic island shrinks to fit three simultaneous live activities instead of two. Only upgrade if your current device is three or more years old; last year's refurbished model remains a strong value.
- •Series 12 Sensor Overhaul: The Apple Watch Series 12 features a 32-electrode sensor array replacing the previous two-electrode design, delivering heart rate sampling every five seconds — a 60-times increase — and a 24-times increase in heart rate variability data. A new recovery HRV metric, measured during sleep, is positioned as a more accurate daily stress indicator than the existing baseline HRV.
- •Siri AI Practical Use Cases: The updated Siri demonstrates genuine utility when integrated with CarPlay, allowing hands-free navigation updates based on texted addresses while driving. Cross-app indexing of messages and emails takes days to complete initially. Users should experiment with Siri shortcuts for automated tasks, such as scheduled deletion of screenshots, as the most reliable productivity gains come from personalized automation.
- •Upgrade Threshold — Apple Watch: Series 9 and newer owners should hold off on upgrading to the Series 12. Users on Series 6 or older have sufficient reason to upgrade. Audio intelligence features — including live conversation rewind and Siri recap — are opt-in, not enabled by default, and not yet available at launch, so privacy concerns alone should not drive purchasing decisions.
Notable Moment
V Song argued that "health age" metrics — which compare physiological age to chronological age across wearables — are largely misleading. People only share results when the number skews younger, and a favorable score does not reliably indicate actual health, making the metric more motivational theater than clinical insight.
Episode Transcript
Welcome to The Vergecast, the flagship podcast of variable apertures and going back in time fifteen seconds. I'm senior reviewer Allison Johnson. And I'm senior reviewer V Song. And today, we are each the host of the show and the guest. Wow. Yeah. That's how it's gonna work. Oh, wow. Dual roles. Yeah. We're gonna be talking about our iPhone 18 pro review. That would be me and the new Apple Watches. Apple Watches. The I only got one of the Apple Watches on me right now, but it's the series 12 in radiant gold. Radiant. It's it's not just gold. It's radiant gold. Gorgeous. It radiates. So that's what we're gonna get into. But right now, here's what's happening today on The Verge. I'm Josh Cajas, and this is ninety seconds on The Verge for Thursday, 09/17/2026. The Verge's Jay Peters tested out the specs, Snap's new $2,200 smart glasses. With these glasses, you can play dominoes in augmented reality and watch YouTube videos while people are talking to you. And with how big these frames are, they'll notice for sure. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel says he's looking to create computers that support more natural human interaction. Jay's not so sure that the specs achieved that vision. Snap specs launched sometime this fall. Next, shit is getting real. That's according to Marius Hapan, the CEO and cofounder of the third party AI safety and evaluation firm, Palo Research. This is just one of the many warnings AI researchers shared with The Verge's hidden field in her feature on the explosive world of AI safety. It seems like OpenAI's hugging face hack back in July was just the tip of the iceberg that we could see from the outside, with related incidents having happened for a while inside OpenAI. If that's not bad enough, Andrew Webster sat through and reviewed a two and a half hour AI generated Odyssey movie this week. His thoughts? It's pretty bad. And finally, have you ever wondered where you can get a colorful shirt of an Apple cofounder? Steve Wozniak launched an online merch shop just for you, stocked with t shirts, $500 carry on bags, and Woz Chardonnay vintage 2019. Now that's WozUp. You can read more at theverge.com. That's ninety seconds on the verge for Thursday, 09/17/2026. You know that feeling. Too many updates, too many meetings, too many things falling through the cracks. Monday.com was built for that gap. The AI work platform designed from the ground up for people and agents to work side by side and deliver more together. Drafting the brief, flagging risks, running a competitive scan, your agent can do it all. And the best part, anyone can build one, even you. Try it. Create your first Monday agent today at monday.com. If your best finance people are doing expense reports, chasing receipts, or spending time on month end close, It's time to get Brex AF, agentic finance that eliminates that work before it starts. Learn more …
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Gear
by Apple
“Senior reviewers Allison Johnson and V Song evaluate the iPhone 18 Pro and Apple Watch Series 12, covering the new variable aperture camera system, updated Siri AI capabilities.”
by Apple
“Senior reviewers Allison Johnson and V Song evaluate the iPhone 18 Pro and Apple Watch Series 12, covering the new variable aperture camera system, updated Siri AI capabilities.”
by Apple
“The iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 and the Pro Max at $1,299, each $100 more than predecessors.”
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