Apple's iPhone 18 Pro launches with a Siri that's still in beta

Apple spreads its fall release across five product lines, but only the phones get a staged pre-order. The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max open for pre-order on Saturday, September 12, at 5 a.m. PT. The rest of the lineup is already available to order.

The Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4, AirPods 5, Mac mini, and Mac Studio can all be ordered now. The watches and earbuds reach stores on September 18, the same day as the new iPhones. The two desktops follow on Tuesday, September 22. It is the launch shape Sony used for its six-piece Wolverine PS5 line, where one flagship carries the announcement and cheaper add-ons ride along.

The phone specs read like a standard refresh: a 48MP Fusion Main camera with variable aperture, Pro controls in the Camera app, the A20 Pro chip, a next-generation vapor chamber, and iOS 27. Apple says the iPhone 18 Pro Max carries the largest increase in battery life ever on an iPhone, without attaching a number to it. Finishes are black, silver, glacier, and burgundy. The release also claims AirPods 5 cut up to 50 percent more external noise than AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation.

The lease terms are where the price actually changes

The part of the release that moves real money is the payment stack. The terms nudge buyers toward recurring monthly payments, and that tilt runs across Apple's business, where even a top daily puzzle game moved behind a subscription: Block Blast!+ gave up its ads for an Apple Arcade slot.

Apple Upgrade, a leasing program provided by Klarna, covers the iPhone and Apple Watch on 12- and 24-month terms. A 24-month lease on an iPhone 18 Pro with 256GB of storage starts at $34.99 a month, before taxes and any trade-in credit, against a listed purchase price of $1,199. An Apple Watch Series 12 leases from $11.99 a month on a 24-month term, against a $399 price. Mac Studio leasing runs 24 or 36 months, starting at $48.99 a month for a $2,499 configuration.

At the end of the term, Apple says eligible customers can upgrade to the latest generation, buy the device with a one-time payment, or return it and leave the program. The release notes that a leased iPhone stays unlocked, and that buyers must pick AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon, with prepaid plans excluded.

A second route, Apple Card Monthly Installments, offers U.S. customers 0 percent APR along with 3 percent Daily Cash back, applied when a buyer selects it at checkout. Both routes pull the phone deeper into the role of payment hub, a direction Apple is charting in its 2027 services overhaul.

Financing route	Term	Entry price
Apple Upgrade lease, iPhone 18 Pro 256GB	24 months	$34.99/month
Apple Upgrade lease, Apple Watch Series 12	24 months	$11.99/month
Apple Upgrade lease, Mac Studio	36 months	$48.99/month
Apple Card Monthly Installments	Installments	0 percent APR, 3 percent Daily Cash

Two trade-in ladders, two different ceilings

Apple runs two trade-in offers, and they do not match.

Trading in directly with Apple earns $175 to $885 in instant credit for an iPhone 13 or higher. That credit can go toward lowering monthly payments under Apple Upgrade, ACMI, or a carrier deal. Through select carriers, an iPhone 14 or newer in any condition earns up to $1,200 toward an iPhone 18 Pro or Pro Max.

The two ladders use different minimum devices and different maximums. The release does not break down which phones land at the top of either range, so a buyer comparing the offers has no published valuation table to consult.

Siri AI ships in beta, with conditions attached

Siri AI is the software headline. Apple calls it "a profoundly more personal, capable, and conversational assistant," then states that it rolls out in beta with iOS 27.

The rollout carries restrictions. Siri AI needs an Apple Intelligence-enabled device set to a supported language, and it starts in English. Apple says Siri AI will not be initially available in the EU on iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS, and that features depending on it will be missing there too. Features that rely on server-side models, Siri AI among them, are subject to daily usage limits, and Apple says expanded access will come for a fee in the future. Siri AI is not available to users under 13. The EU gap arrives as the bloc's AI rules tighten, the same regime behind Anthropic's decision to watermark Claude's output for the EU AI Act.

The multipliers and the footnotes behind them

The desktop figures are the most checkable claims in the release. The Mac mini with M6 delivers up to 4x faster AI performance, 2x faster storage and graphics, and 40 percent faster CPU performance than the previous generation. The Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra reaches up to 4.3x faster AI performance, up to 2x storage, up to 1.8x faster graphics, and up to 1.3x faster CPU speed.

Both multipliers rest on a footnote. Apple compares the Mac mini against an M4 model and the Mac Studio against an M3 Ultra model. Those are real baselines, and they also describe the hardware being replaced more than the hardware being sold.

For the phones, Apple supplies no multiplier at all. The A20 Pro powers what the release calls the highest sustained performance yet, with nothing to measure it against.

For anyone planning to order on Saturday, the details that matter sit outside the spec sheet: the lease terms, the trade-in valuation, and the regions where the assistant will not work at launch. Apple gives buyers until 9 a.m. PT on Friday, September 11, to set up trade-in and financing and save a shopping bag in advance.