Apple has launched the iPhone Duo, its first foldable phone, at Rs 2,99,900 in India. It comes in two colours, star white and night sky, and it is the first iPhone to drop Face ID for Touch ID, which now sits in the side button.Shut, the Duo works like a normal phone. The 5.4-inch outer Super Retina XDR screen carries 90 per cent of the screen area of an iPhone 18 Pro. Open it and there is a 7.6-inch inner display, half again as large as the iPhone 18 Pro Max and the biggest Apple has put on an iPhone. Both screens share an aspect ratio, so content scales across them cleanly, and both run ProMotion and Always On at up to 3,000 nits. The inner panel gets a nano-texture finish that cuts glare and, more usefully, makes the crease harder to see.
iPhone Duo price in India and availability: Price starts at Rs 2,99,900 and pre-orders open on October 16
The Rs 2,99,900 starting price covers the 256GB model, with 512GB, 1TB and 2TB options above it. India is in the first group of markets, with pre-orders opening on Friday, October 16 and sales starting Friday, October 23. Apple has two first-party cases for it, the Duo Folio with a kickstand at Rs 14,900 and a two-part case at Rs 8,900. One thing to plan for before buying: the Duo is eSIM-only worldwide, with no tray at all, though Airtel, Jio and Vi all support it.
iPhone Duo specifications: A20 Pro chip , two batteries and a 48MP main camera
Apple has used the chip from the iPhone 18 Pro, built on a 2nm process, with a 6-core CPU that is 20 per cent quicker than the A19 Pro and a 7-core GPU up 40 per cent. A new display engine drives both screens at once, and Apple claims up to 35 per cent better sustained performance than the iPhone 17 Pro thanks to a vapour chamber bonded to the chip package. A battery sits on each side and the two behave as one, giving 31 hours of video on the inner display, 44 hours on the outer, and 24 hours of typical use when both get equal work. Charging reaches 50 per cent in about 20 minutes over cable.The rear camera is a 48MP Fusion Main with sensor-shift stabilisation and a 2x telephoto crop, paired with the same 48MP Fusion Ultra Wide as the iPhone 18 Pro. Because the phone stands on its own, Apple has built features around that: Smart Take fires the shutter when everyone is posed, Duo Preview puts a live preview on the outer screen for your subject, Kid Cue plays animations to get a child looking at the lens, and Duo FaceTime lets someone beside you join a call on the outer display. Apple Pencil support arrives later this year on either screen.Durability is the part Apple spent longest on. Under the cover layer sits a custom polymer the company says is up to 40 per cent stiffer than the industry norm, high-strength glass above and below the panel, and adhesives that let the layers slide against each other like pages so the panel does not absorb the bend stress. The hinge alone runs to more than a hundred parts. The frame is grade 5 titanium, the front carries Ceramic Shield 2, and the phone is rated IP68. On the software side, iOS 27 moves the dock and controls to the side and adds Split View, so two apps sit side by side on an iPhone for the first time.