Apple: upcoming drops, prices and release details

Next configuration release

Mac Studio with M5 Ultra has a late-October 2026 512GB memory option following the September 22 general launch. It requires the 36-core CPU / 80-core GPU. An exact day and configured price are not announced.

Current hardware releases

• iPhone 18 Pro — US $1,199 starting price; 256GB through 2TB.
• Apple Watch Series 12 — US $399 starting price; case and connectivity choices affect pricing.
• AirPods 5 — US $129 USB-C case / $149 Wireless Charging Case; ANC on both.

These September hardware launches are distinct from later software features. Use the exact product pages for compatibility and configuration details; store stock and delivery depend on the selected model and location. Apple US store · Configuration comparison guide.

Collector context

The iPhone Pro line combines a smaller Pro with a larger Pro Max, but their configuration boundaries can move. In the 17 Pro launch, the largest storage option belonged only to Pro Max. With 18 Pro, both sizes reach that option. That history makes the exact generation important when interpreting a familiar product name. For someone who prefers the smaller format, capacity parity changes how the Pro/Pro Max pairing works: a storage requirement need no longer dictate the larger body.

Apple Watch has a separate hardware and software rhythm. The Series 12 announcement lists watchOS 27 support for Series 9 and later, SE 3 and Ultra 2 and later. Yet Apple’s Readiness reference names Series 12 and Ultra 4 for that feature. A shared operating-system release therefore does not make every watch generation equivalent. The Series 12 entry follows the relationship between a new sensing system and the information an owner can actually use.

Mac Studio began in March 2022 as a compact desktop offered with M1 Max or M1 Ultra, alongside the separate Studio Display. Its defining choice was already about scaling the silicon inside a desktop footprint. UltraFusion connected two M1 Max dies while presenting one chip to software; CPU, GPU and Neural Engine could access a shared memory pool. That is useful context for the unusually large unified-memory configurations associated with this family.

Generation numbers alone do not describe the whole Mac hierarchy. The 2025 Studio refresh paired M4 Max with M3 Ultra in the same release. Reading that pair as simply “four beats three” would miss their different intended workloads and resource limits. The current M5 Ultra entry continues that configuration-focused history. Browse the iPhone, Watch and Mac Studio reports for the specific changes, or use the configuration guide to compare an upgrade by the task it unlocks.