Apple's new iPhones and Watches are better than the last ones
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What are the biggest camera upgrades on the iPhone 18 Pro?
Welcome to the VergeCast, the flagship podcast of variable apertures and going back in time 15 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. Yeah, that's how it's gonna work. Oh wow. Dual roles. Yeah, we're gonna be talking about our iPhone eighteen 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 twelve in radiant gold. Radiant. It's it's not just gold, it's radiant gold.
Gorgeous. It radiates. Um, 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 90 Seconds on the Verge for Thursday, September 17th, 2026. The Verge's J. 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 a real. That's according to Marius Hapan, the CEO and co-founder of the third-party AI safety and evaluation firm, Apollo 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 co-founder? Steve Wozniak launched an online merch shop just for you, stocked with t-shirts, $500 carry-on bags, and was Chardonnay Vintage 2019. Now that's Waz Up. You can read more at the Verge.com. That's 90 Seconds on The Verge for Thursday, September 17th, 2026.
iPhones Alison, you reviewed the iPhone eighteen pro and the eighteen pro max. Um, you know, I have a very discerning eye. Mm-hmm. But um my discerning eye says that these phones look very similar to the seventeen pro and the seventeen pro Max. So uh what's
different? Well, you are not wrong. Okay, okay. They are very physically similar. Um the insides are very similar to, uh, with a couple exceptions. So inside the main camera on both of the phones, um, there's a new uh mechanical aperture, like a variable moving six blade aperture from the keynote, right? Where it was like six
blades.
Real James Bond stuff. Um so that has all kinds of camera things, you know, that I spiraled about. But um other than that, which you can barely see from the outside. Like if you go looking for it, you can. Um very, very similar phones to last year. They have both have the A20 Pro chipset. They both have a slightly bigger battery, which is like nothing to sneeze at, but um also probably nothing to write home about. Um and just those the little like quality of life stuff. They're shipping with iOS 27. They have a new Siri. But yeah, not too much. I did do the important test of trying to put um an iPhone 18 Pro case on the 17 Pro. That's that's what I need
to know.
And they fit.
They feel like it's fine. Thank you for your service. Yeah because the people need to know whether that's going to Cause you know, some of us may have uh bought the blue I can't get this case off, but look may have bought the dark blue iPhone seventeen and then seen the burgundy color and felt massive envy. Like it's a it's a fine blue. It is. It's a fine blue. That's the one I've been carrying around. It's it's it's quite fine. It's a nice blue, but It's no burgundy.
It's no burgundy. You are decked out in the burgundy book. I
I didn't even realize that I was wearing burgundy today.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the biggest camera upgrades on the iPhone 18 Pro?
0:02–5:20
2
How does the new variable‑aperture system work and why does it matter?
5:20–12:04
3
What new sensor array and electrode design does the Apple Watch Series 12 use?
12:04–17:37
4
How do the new heart‑rate and HRV sensors improve health tracking?
17:37–23:07
5
What are Apple’s new AI‑powered audio features and how do they protect privacy?
23:07–30:28
6
When is it worth upgrading to the iPhone 18 Pro or Pro Max?
30:28–35:44
7
Which Apple Watch users should consider the Series 12 or Ultra 4 upgrade?
35:44–42:11
8
What is the upcoming “Health Age” metric and should you care about it?
42:11–47:56