Open any shopping app this week and the banners say the same thing: prices slashed, lowest ever, Diwali bonanza. A Redmi Note 13 Pro listed at ₹31,999 is going for ₹17,999. The OnePlus 15R is down ₹5,000. If you have been waiting for phone prices to fall, this looks like the moment.

The fuller picture is less festive. Counterpoint Research says Indian smartphone prices rose 16% on average in the first half of 2026, driven by a surge in memory chip costs, and expects pressure to last until at least 2028. The discounts are real, but they are being taken off a much higher base. Meanwhile, at the very top of the market, Apple opened Indian pre-orders for the iPhone Duo, its first foldable, today. And iQOO has confirmed most of the Neo 12’s specifications ahead of a late-October launch in China. Here is what all three stories mean for a buyer.

The Price “Crash” That Is Really a Sale on a Higher Base

The “mobile prices crash” headline mixes two things. One is festive discounting, which is genuine and sometimes steep. The other is the underlying price of phones, which has gone the other way all year. Counterpoint found that every brand except Apple raised prices on existing models between January and July, and that roughly 95% of models got more expensive, The Core reported.

Why a ₹10,000 phone got so expensive

The culprit is memory. AI data centres are absorbing huge quantities of DRAM and NAND flash, and phone makers are paying for it. Counterpoint’s Tarun Pathak told The Core that memory chip prices are up 4.5 times on a year earlier, and that memory’s share of a phone’s bill of materials has jumped from about 12% to 40% to 45%. For a ₹10,000 phone, memory that cost ₹1,200 to ₹1,500 a year ago now costs about ₹5,000. A weaker rupee has added to the bill for imported components.

That arithmetic explains why the cheapest phones were hit hardest. A budget phone has little margin to absorb a ₹3,500 rise in one component, so brands either raised prices or cut models. Counterpoint says shipments of phones under ₹10,000 fell 65% year on year in the first half, while the average selling price reached a record US$318 in the April to June quarter.

IDC counted 33.2 million phones shipped in the first half, the lowest first half in five years, and expects full-year volume of roughly 128 to 130 million. Buyers are adapting: second-hand and refurbished phones now make up about 20% of smartphones sold in India, up from about 12% in 2021, according to recommerce firm Grest.

Where the festive discounts actually are

The biggest percentage cuts in this season’s sales are on older models that brands want to clear. Newer phones see modest reductions, often reached only with bank card offers. The table pulls together prices checked by MySmartPrice and TechBytes in October.

There is a likely logic to where the discounts land. Older models were largely built before this year’s memory price spike, so they can absorb a deeper cut. New launches are priced on today’s memory costs, leaving little room. That is why a two-year-old mid-ranger can be 40% off while a phone launched this summer moves by a few thousand rupees. For a buyer, an older flagship at a deep discount can be the better deal, provided it still has a few years of software updates left.

iPhone Duo in India: ₹2.99 Lakh for Apple’s First Foldable

Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo at its 9 September event alongside the iPhone 18 Pro. Indian pre-orders opened at 5:30 pm IST today, 16 October, through Apple’s website and app, with sales from 23 October, 91mobiles reported. In the US it starts at $1,999, according to MacRumors. In India, the four storage options span ₹1.5 lakh from bottom to top.

What ₹3 lakh buys

The Duo is a book-style foldable with a titanium frame. Folded, it has a 5.4-inch display; opened, a 7.6-inch inner screen that Apple says is its largest iPhone display, 50% larger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max’s. Both screens share the same aspect ratio, so apps carry across without reflowing. It runs on the A20 Pro chip with a vapour chamber, carries 12GB of RAM according to its Wikipedia spec listing, and has a 48MP main camera, a 48MP ultra-wide and a 2x optical-quality telephoto. Apple claims all-day battery life from a dual-battery design and IP68 water resistance.

Two cautions. Repairs are expensive: 91mobiles lists ₹1,49,900 to replace the inner display and ₹55,900 for the outer display and back glass, which makes AppleCare+ close to essential. And supply may be tight. Nikkei reported in September that output was running at only a few hundred units a day in late August, so early stock could sell out.

Resale value is the other cost few buyers factor in. A June study by trade-in site SellCell estimated the Duo could lose about $1,292 in value within its first year. Foldables are still a young category, and buyers pay a premium for being early. Apple also says the Duo will support its USB-C Apple Pencil, but not at launch, so anyone buying it as a note-taking device should wait for that update.

iQOO Neo 12: A 9,000mAh Gaming Phone With a Fan

iQOO is set to launch the Neo 12 in China later this month. The company has already confirmed most of the headline hardware through teasers: a 2K display running at 185Hz, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, iQOO’s own Q3 gaming chip, and an active cooling fan it calls Ice Dome. Promotional material shows a 9,000mAh silicon-anode battery, PhoneBunch reported. 100W charging is tipped by certification listings but not confirmed.

The fan is the interesting part. Phones throttle when they get hot, and gaming phones have long used vapour chambers to spread heat. A fan actively moves air, which should let the chip sustain peak performance for longer. iQOO says more than 50 games will run natively at 185 frames per second. The trade-off is a vent in the back, which can make water resistance harder to achieve; iQOO has not said whether the Neo 12 keeps the Neo 11’s IP68 and IP69 ratings.

The battery is the other headline. A 9,000mAh cell is about a fifth larger than the Neo 11’s 7,500mAh, and iQOO says its fifth-generation silicon-anode chemistry reaches an energy density of up to 916Wh per litre, which is how it fits that capacity into a normal-sized phone. Combined with a 185Hz screen, which draws more power than a 120Hz one, the real-world gain in battery life will depend on how much of that extra capacity the display and fan consume. Independent battery tests after launch will tell.

Will it come to India, and at what price?

iQOO has not announced an India launch. In past years, Neo models have reached India later, sometimes under different names and with different specs, so the Chinese version is not a guide to what Indian buyers will get. On price, memory costs cut both ways: the Neo 11 started at CNY 2,599, about ₹32,500, but a phone with more RAM and a bigger battery launching into this year’s market is unlikely to be cheaper.

The Week’s Dates, In Order

• 9 SeptemberApple unveils iPhone Duo with the iPhone 18 Pro
• 30 SeptemberCounterpoint reports 16% average price rise for H1 2026
• 14 to 15 OctoberiQOO confirms Neo 12 specs; late-October China launch
• 16 October, 5:30 pm ISTiPhone Duo pre-orders open in India
• 23 OctoberiPhone Duo goes on sale in India and 70+ markets
• 30 OctoberiPhone Duo reaches 28 more countries

Should You Buy Now or Wait?

With prices rising underneath and discounts on top, timing matters more than usual. This ladder is our editorial suggestion, not a forecast.

• Under ₹15,000Buy in the sale if a model you want is discounted. Counterpoint expects memory prices to stay high until at least 2028, so this segment is unlikely to get cheaper.
• ₹20,000 to 60,000Compare festive price with last month’s price. Cuts of 4% to 8% on new models are modest; older flagships at 30% to 45% off can be better value.
• Foldable, ₹3 lakhEarly buyers pay the most and face the highest repair costs. Waiting a few weeks for reviews costs little.
• Gaming, Neo 12Wait for the China launch and price, then for any India announcement.

• Compare sale price with 30-day price history
• Check which bank card the discount needs
• Confirm the model year, not just the name
• Get a trade-in quote before assuming the maximum
• Price AppleCare+ into any foldable budget
• Check how many years of software updates are promised
• Consider certified refurbished, now 20% of sales
• Read no-cost EMI terms for any processing fee