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 going to work.
Yeah. We're going to be talking about our iPhone 18 Pro review. That would be me and the new Apple watches.
The Apple watches. I only got one of the Apple watches on me right now, but it's the Series 12 in radiant gold.
It's not just gold. It's radiant gold.
Um, so that's what we're going to get into. But right now, here's what's happening today on The Verge.
I'm Josh Kahas, and this is 90 seconds on the Verge for Thursday, September 17th, 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 achieve that vision. Snap specs launch sometime this fall. Next, is getting real. That's according to Marius Haban, 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 Woz Chardonnay vintage 2019. Now, that's Woz up. You can read more at theverge.com. That's 90 seconds on the Verge for Thursday, September 17th, 2026.
iPhones. Allison, you reviewed the iPhone 18 Pro and the 18 Pro Max. Um, you know, I have a very discerning eye, but um, my discerning eye says that these phones look very similar to the 17 Pro and the 17 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 too, 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 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 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 what I need to know. And they fit like it's fine. Thank you for your service because the people need to know whether that's going to, because you know some of us may have, uh, bought the blue, I can't get this case off, but may have bought the dark blue iPhone 17 and then seen the burgundy color and felt massive envy. Like it's a fine blue.
It is. It's a fine one I've been carrying around. 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 today.
I didn't even realize that I was wearing burgundy today. Wow. It's very unusual.
Subconsciously, I don't want to get rid of the case.
But I would like maybe, normally I don't upgrade, but yeah. Um, cameras, cameras are the main feature of this. And like you mentioned it, the variable aperture for a photo-taking dum-dum where I just go, me point, me shoot. Um, what is a variable aperture? Why do we care? Like are we excited about this?
It's like a big deal that's actually a small deal. I think an aperture is a thing. It's like an opening in a lens in any camera system that lets light in and it opens up, traditionally opens up and closes down. That's how you kind of change how much of your scene is in focus. It's letting in more light or less light. Um, smartphone cameras are teeny tiny. They're little babies and they, um, almost exclusively have an aperture that doesn't move. It's just fixed at one, um, f-stop, f1.8 in the case of the iPhone for many years. Um, and then it changes all the other exposure controls to like change the brightness of your situation. So, um, a couple of other companies have tried this before. Um, Xiaomi most recently I think had a variable aperture that moved. Um, Samsung ways back had one that was like two different stops. Um, but the kind of perplexing thing is like an aperture that moves makes a ton of sense. You need one on a bigger camera system. You could be dealing with a very small amount of depth of field, which is the range of your photo that's in focus. So, if you think of like a beautiful portrait that has that like nice dreamy background and there's not much in front of them or behind them that's in focus. It's like just them. Um, that's an aperture, like a wide aperture. Uh, and you stop that down, close it down to get more in focus. So, that works on a big camera with a big sensor. On a little camera with a little sensor, you're already working with, um, a ton of depth of field. There's just like the way you can compare it and think of it is as if you had like an f5 lens, like just from the get-go on your iPhone. So everything, like most things are in focus most of the time.
Okay. Like this is probably not a problem for you where you're walking around, you're like, 'Oh, I wish the background of my photo was more in focus.' Like, right? And there's like usually different like features where you press and you can autofocus the area you like a bit more. So, it's a little more point-and-shoot, me dumb, me take photo friendly. Um, but then you know, there was a chance while we were in Cupertino where I got to play around with some of these like features and I was like, 'Oh, everyone was so excited about these variable apertures. Let me play around with them.' And to my very trained and discerning eye, I was like, 'I can't tell the difference between these different photos that I took.' You are not wrong. This is the reality. So, this was kind of my question going in. I'm like, it's such a small sensor. There's already so much in focus. How much change will there really be? You know, the other thing about this aperture is that it goes a little wider.
Okay. Um, so it's a little brighter, f1.48 and then goes down to f4. So you get those four stops. Um, and you have to look very close, especially if you're taking a photograph of a scene where the subjects are farther from you. If you're like real close on something, then you can start to see like things in the background will sharpen up if you go to f4 or get a little blurrier at f1.48. Um, but again, like you, it's kind of the extremes where you would even really notice it, right?
Yeah. It's sort of like, oh my gosh, there's a whole new like hardware mechanism on this phone camera, on the iPhone camera for the first time. Like that's cool. They did all that stuff where it's like the blades were cut by lasers and they're as thin as a human hair. Like it's objectively like a cool thing. Um, but the benefits are kind of marginal and the whole thing is, um, automatic. Like you don't have to know about apertures. You don't have to go in there. Um, by default it will be changing to accommodate different scenes. Um, but it's a very subtle thing. It's like if you have people kind of lined up in a group shot, it'll drop down to a smaller aperture. So, the person in the back is a little bit sharper than they would have been. Okay. So, it's sort of just like if you're a pro, maybe you'll catch it earlier, but if you're just me point, me shoot like me, you're probably not going to think about it too hard. That sort of, okay. And you don't need to. It just, and you don't need to. Good. Okay. And so the one question I have is like, um, we have this laser-thin-as-a-hair blade, six blades on there. Do we have any durability concerns about that because you are adding a new kind of mechanical component to this camera?
Yeah, that's what I wonder about honestly. And I know that, um, you know, iPhone cameras and phone cameras in general, the glass that they put on those lenses is super, super durable. Um, I think it's all sealed up in there, you know, so I don't think there's any more risk of like dust getting in and jamming it up than there was with, you know, it's all pretty airtight to begin with. But yeah, I think it, I mean it has to add some level of complexity to putting this phone together, um, and to it operating correctly for the next seven years or so, you know. So, um, it's one of those things. It's like we will kind of just have to see and find out if it ends up failing for some people. Yeah. So, Antonio, who's the other camera nerd on the reviews team, wrote that the variable aperture isn't the cool part of the iPhone 18 Pro's camera. The new f1.48 lenses. What does this mean? So that is the, um, the ability of this aperture to go a little bit brighter and I totally agree with Antonio. Um, so the old, the aperture on the previous iPhones, f1.8, this one goes a little wider. Um, for all the reasons we talked about earlier, that doesn't make a huge difference to what's in focus and what's not. Um, but it is a benefit in low light, um, to be able to let more light into the sensor and more light just helps, you know, even if you're using, um, night mode, you can get away with like, it'll, um, do maybe like a two-second night mode instead of a four-second one. Um, so better chance of like people being, uh, like freezing motion in your photo, less noisy maybe. I mean phones, it's again, it's a marginal improvement. Like if you compare between an f1.8 photo and an f1.48 photo, I'm like, these are both pretty good honestly. Like we were doing a good job with f1.8 and night mode. Like there's so much computation magic happening anyway. But it is just a little bit better for those reasons.
A little bit better. Uh, so another camera question since I feel like probably the camera is the big thing with these phones is, um, pro camera controls. Like, um, again I was playing around with in the little sandbox demo that they had us have and you know, you can, seems like there's more controls that I can do now, like white balance, um, shutter speed, focus. Is that exclusive to the 18 Pro? Is that coming to older phones? What's the dealio? Do they work? Are they good? Are you like, 'Wow, this has changed my shot on iPhone life forever.' Or you're like, 'Eh, fine.'
It is — this is so annoying, but it is a big deal and a small deal, I think.
It is like they've been a long time coming for the main — for the native iPhone camera app. So it is cool that you can finally like change the shutter speed yourself, you can change focus manually in that way, and white balance. You've been able to download a third-party app, and a lot of people have favorites, that will give you those same controls, right?
So it's a little bit of like, oh, people probably already go to like a particular app for that kind of thing, but it's nice that it's baked into the actual camera app. Now, my complaint is that they are teeny tiny. [laughter] So the actual — they kind of sit in this little bar at the top of the screen, which is actually an iOS 27 feature. Like, everybody's going to get that. And you can customize what controls go up there. So if you're turning your flash off, if you want to like force night mode on, all that stuff will go up there.
If you have the 18 Pro or the Pro Max — and it does seem to be just those two phones — you get the aperture control, of course, and then the shutter speed and all that stuff is up there. But they're little, little tiny baby icons, and I keep having to be like — and I'm on the Pro. Maybe the Pro Max is a little better, I don't know. But you have to really focus. I'm like, 'Okay, that one's a shutter speed.' And then you're doing your little shutter speed, and then it like takes you out of it a little bit, right? And most people are just using these to point, shoot, get photo. I don't know why I've turned everyone into a caveman photographer, but that's just kind of how I use my phone a lot of the time. So that's all right.
Okay. So, you know, obviously Siri AI is big. Is there anything notable in your time testing that you're like, 'Ah, yes, Siri AI, mwah mwah mwah mwah mwah' [laughter] 'this is going to change how I do everything from now on'?
I wouldn't say change everything. It has gotten to that point where I'm like, it is good, I will trust it with certain things. And you know, we've kind of been testing it all summer with the betas. It's finally like out now. The way that it kind of has access to information across the system does all indexing of like your messages and your emails and stuff. And if you have like decades' worth of that, it takes days and days.
The initial beta over the summer took over a week to index.
We're at the bleeding edge with the betas, but it changes the things. I'll do that kind of mental calculation where I'm like, think of the question. I'm like, oh, I need to sit down and like Google it or whatever, or like check my calendar. I'm like, 'No, actually, I can ask Siri.' And I give it a shot and it works.
And I don't have to like babysit it, you know? I'm like, 'Okay.' And it turns into like a little bit of a feedback loop of like, I'll go do that more. I haven't relied on it a ton for searching messages, but I hear that's like a killer use case, especially if you're in the car.
So in testing, I think the time I've used Siri the most is one, with CarPlay, and two, there was a situation where my spouse was supposed to pick me up from a place, and then I was like, 'Actually, I have to go. They're kicking us out, so I have to go to a different address.' And they were driving, and they just asked Siri to like update the driving directions to the place that I had texted them, and it was able to do that. And afterwards we were like, 'That's cool. That's awesome.' That's, you know, quite helpful because when you're driving in New York City traffic, you don't want to have to like look at the thing and put in the — you might get someone going, 'I'm walking, you definitely shouldn't do that.' So that was actually quite — yeah, because we all do that in New York.
I have experienced this every single day.
That I think has been the most useful thing that I've seen. Okay. Have you had this where it's constantly suggesting that you send money to people?
No. Oh my god, that's so —
Like someone will mention — we'll be answering a question about like how much something costs, but it's tangential. It's not like, 'Let me send you that money now,' and Siri will come up with 'Send with Apple Cash, send $5 right now.' I'm like, no, no, no. Like, calm down.
That hasn't come up for me, but the Genoji prompts are very aggressive, where it's like, 'Would you like to create a Genoji for this very cursed thing?' Because I say cursed things in my text apparently. And I was like, 'One, I don't think that you were going to allow this to actually be generated.' And multiple times it was like — it did not turn Jalen Brunson into Hello Kitty, despite multiple [laughter] attempts. But yeah, so AI —
Real mixed bag. There's some real promising stuff that I think maybe Siri can earn some trust from people. We relegated it to like, it's going to set timers and that's about it. But you know, it's coming back. I think it's — I've definitely found it more useful for sure.
Well, I think our listeners should absolutely write in for what they find useful with the new Siri AI as it gets out there, because I don't know, I think it's interesting to hear how other people are using it. Like, the new Siri AI shortcuts — my spouse is like, 'Babe, babe, I just created a shortcut that deletes all the random-ass screenshots I take during the day at the end of the night.'
And I was just like, can you share that with me? That sounds smart. When I think of that — so in that spirit, I think it's cool if some of our very smart listeners tell us how they're using Siri AI. But to that point, this is the almighty question every single time we do review season: who should upgrade? Is it those of us who were like, 'Maybe phone better if burgundy'? Who should upgrade this year?
Well, the bad news is they are $100 more expensive.
Yeah. So you're starting at $1,199 for the Pro, $1,299 for the Pro Max. A lot of people love the Pro Max for the big screen size. So it's just wild to be like, 'Yeah, your baseline is $1,300.'
Oh my gosh, that is a lot.
Yeah, but you know, we pay for our phones through mystical means with our carriers and all that stuff. I think the gains are really marginal. They're good. They are better phones. We're not getting just nothing for a price increase, for sure. The aperture is cool. An underrated thing you can do with it is you get little sun stars if you stop it down, because there's real aperture blades now. So you can do artsy little things like that.
If you're someone who's like way into that and that sounds super cool, like you'll have a good time with this. I don't think just anybody should run out. It's not a drastically better camera. It's not, you know, for any reason that you would be like, 'Well, my old phone is kind of on its last legs.' Like, yeah, it's probably time, and you will enjoy a lot of things about this one. Last year's model as a refurb is always going to be a good deal, a good find.
You know, obviously very much the same as last year's model, same shape. But the usual upgrades: there's an A20 processor in both of them, Pro and Pro Max. They both have a slightly bigger battery, which is nothing to sneeze at. That's always going to be good. And the Dynamic Island is a little bit smaller, which is something that I constantly forgot [laughter] as I was using the phone. And I've been jumping back to the 17 Pro. It hasn't occurred to me a single time, but you can fit an extra live —
I guess it's for people who are really on the go, right? They're like, I need my plane and my Uber and my sports car in three live activities rather than two.
The serious multitaskers.
The serious multitaskers. Okay. Yeah. I mean, the camera is the big update, and there's a lot to unpack there, but there are a few other things, you know, to consider.
But I don't have any concerns or complaints. And if you're more than like three years out from your old phone, you have my blessing to start looking at this one. [music]
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So, we're back and I'm going to take off the host mantle. And you are now the host. Thank you. Um, it's great to be here with you. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I am going to ask you the same question in that I can never remember what, uh, model watch I have until I take it off and look at it. Um, because they all seem to be very visually the same. Um, but I know there are new things going on here. So what's new on the Series 12?
So really to see what's most new on the Series 12, you kind of have to take it off and look at the sensor array which is on the bottom here. Let me just get this Milanese loop to not...
It is. So, this is the radiant gold for the Series 12, which Apple said is the most gold that they've ever golded.
Golded. It's the goldest of the golds.
Which, you know, sure, I'm more of a silver girly, but like if you look at this new sensor array here, you can kind of tell that it's very different from the old one. And I'll just show it to camera as well. There is something that they call a 32-petal design for the electrode. So instead of, if you have an older watch, it's just two of the electrodes that come out and now there's 32. The arrangement of the optical sensors, so like the photodiodes which receive the light and the light-emitting diodes which shine the light down, they've kind of been concentrated into this center section which is supposed to be more energy efficient and less light leakage. Which I can say I have noticed slightly less flashing from this side of my body at night versus the Oura Ring 5, which I see flash green quite frequently when I sleep.
