Apple unveiled two very different flagship phones at its “Surprise and Shine” event on Sept. 9: the iPhone 18 Pro Max, an evolution of its familiar premium slab design, and the iPhone Duo, the company’s first-ever foldable iPhone and the biggest structural change to the product line in nearly two decades. With both now heading toward release this fall, buyers face a genuinely different kind of decision than in past years — not just how much phone to buy, but what kind of phone to buy.

Two fundamentally different designs

The iPhone 18 Pro Max sticks with Apple’s established form factor: a single 6.9-inch OLED display, an aluminum frame, and the same general shape iPhone users have grown accustomed to over the past several generations. It represents a refinement of an already mature design.

The iPhone Duo, by contrast, opens like a book. Closed, it functions as a compact phone with a 5.4-inch outer display; opened, it reveals a 7.6-inch inner screen, which Apple describes as the largest display ever fitted to an iPhone, offering roughly 50% more screen area than the iPhone 18 Pro Max. Apple built the Duo around a titanium frame rather than aluminum, and the device uses a nano-texture finish on its inner display designed to minimize glare during extended viewing.

Pricing gap is substantial

The price difference between the two phones is significant. The iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299 for 256GB of storage, while the iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 for the same base storage tier, climbing as high as $3,199 for a 2TB configuration. For many buyers, that roughly $700 gap alone may settle the decision before specs even come into play.

Where the hardware diverges

Both phones share Apple’s A20 Pro chip, though the version inside the Duo includes vapor-chamber cooling, an addition Apple says helps sustain performance inside the thinner folding chassis. Battery life is close between the two: Apple rates the iPhone 18 Pro Max for up to 45 hours of video playback, while the iPhone Duo is rated for up to 44 hours, meaning battery endurance is unlikely to be a deciding factor either way.

Camera hardware favors the Pro Max more clearly. The iPhone 18 Pro Max carries a full triple-camera system, including a telephoto lens, while the iPhone Duo’s setup — built around dual 48-megapixel Fusion cameras plus additional front and inner-facing cameras for its folding design — notably lacks a telephoto lens altogether, a trade-off Apple made in favor of the device’s foldable mechanics and dual-screen camera features like Duo Preview and Smart Take, which use the outer display to let subjects preview shots before they’re taken.

Biometric security also differs sharply between the two devices. The iPhone 18 Pro Max uses Apple’s established Face ID system. The iPhone Duo instead relies on Touch ID built into its side power button, since the folding hinge and dual-screen design made a traditional Face ID sensor array impractical to implement, at least in this first-generation model.

What each phone is built for

The iPhone 18 Pro Max is designed for buyers who want the most refined version of the traditional iPhone experience: strong all-around cameras, a proven design, broad accessory compatibility, and a form factor that fits comfortably into existing habits, cases and one-handed use, despite its already large 6.9-inch screen.

The iPhone Duo is aimed at a different kind of user entirely — someone drawn to the versatility of a larger canvas for tasks like split-screen multitasking, gaming, video-heavy work, or hands-free FaceTime calls, where the phone can stand upright on its own in a partially folded position. Apple has rebuilt core elements of iOS around the Duo’s dual-screen capabilities, including StandBy mode without requiring a charger, layouts that shift fluidly between the outer and inner displays, and multitasking features specifically designed to take advantage of the larger unfolded screen.

Trade-offs to weigh

Choosing between the two ultimately comes down to a handful of practical trade-offs. Buyers prioritizing camera versatility, particularly zoom photography, and a lower price point are likely better served by the iPhone 18 Pro Max. Buyers who value screen real estate, multitasking flexibility, and are willing to pay a premium for Apple’s first generation of foldable hardware — while accepting the absence of a telephoto lens and a shift away from Face ID — may find the iPhone Duo’s novelty and functionality worth the added cost and, in some cases, added bulk when folded.

It’s also worth noting that first-generation hardware categories often carry more risk than established product lines. As Apple’s first foldable device, the Duo represents new engineering territory, including a hinge mechanism and dual-battery system that haven’t been tested over multiple years of real-world use the way the traditional iPhone form factor has.

Release timing

The two phones are also arriving on different schedules. The iPhone 18 Pro Max opened for pre-order on Saturday, Sept. 12, with retail availability beginning Sept. 18. The iPhone Duo follows several weeks later, with pre-orders opening Oct. 16 and the device becoming available in stores on Oct. 23, giving prospective buyers extra time to weigh their decision against real-world reviews and hands-on impressions as they roll out in the coming weeks.

For now, the choice boils down to a familiar flagship refined to its highest point yet, or a genuinely new kind of iPhone built around a folding screen — a decision that, for the first time in years, is less about incremental upgrades and more about which type of device fits how someone actually wants to use their phone.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has announced the successful launch of Demat 2.0, a pilot project for tokenised corporate bonds that seeks to test a new way of issuing, holding, trading and settling bonds in India. The announcement was made jointly by RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra and Sebi Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai.

For investors in corporate bonds, the launch of Sebi’s Demat 2.0 pilot could change how bond transactions are settled and how payments are received. The tokenised bond system is designed to enable faster settlement, quicker access to funds from secondary-market transactions and automated processing of interest and redemption payments.

What is Demat 2.0?

Demat 2.0 is a new market infrastructure developed to test the tokenisation of corporate bonds.

Under the system, a bond is created as a digital token on a distributed ledger. The ledger is a shared electronic record maintained simultaneously by market infrastructure institutions using distributed ledger technology (DLT), while the ledger is owned by the depositories.

Demat 2.0 is connected to the RBI’s wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC), or e-rupee, through the Unified Market Interface.

This enables atomic settlement, where the bond and money move instantaneously.
For investors, this means the securities and corresponding funds can move at the same time, removing the gap between the completion of the two sides of a transaction.

Faster access to funds after selling bonds

One of the key changes for investors is the time taken to receive money from secondary-market transactions.

Sebi said investors can receive funds immediately in secondary-market transactions under Demat 2.0. Under the earlier process, funds generally took two to three days to be received.

The shorter settlement timeline means funds from a completed secondary-market transaction can be deployed elsewhere immediately.

Interest and redemption payments can be automated

Demat 2.0 also seeks to change how investors receive interest and redemption payments on their bonds.

Currently, the issuer or its registrar needs to obtain the list of bondholders from the depositories, calculate the amount payable to each holder and route the payments separately through the banking channel.

Under Demat 2.0, bondholder details are visible to authorised institutions on the shared ledger. Smart contracts — instructions written into the ledger that execute automatically — can trigger interest and redemption payments.

ALSO READ: Sebi launches Demat 2.0 pilot for tokenised corporate bonds

Sebi said payments in e-rupee can reach bondholders’ CBDC wallets on the due date.

For investors, this means interest and redemption payments can be processed automatically through the new infrastructure.

Settlement risk eliminated

Atomic settlement is another feature that Sebi has highlighted.

Under the system, the bond and money move instantaneously. Sebi said this eliminates settlement risk, as one side of the transaction does not remain pending after the other side has been completed.

Three issuers have raised Rs 1,025 crore

Three companies have issued tokenised bonds so far under the pilot, raising a combined Rs 1,025 crore.

REC was the first issuer on September 7, 2026. The public sector NBFC raised Rs 500 crore from 18 investors.

L&T was the second issuer on September 9, raising Rs 500 crore from four investors.

IIFL was the third issuer on September 9, raising Rs 25 crore from one investor.

The pilot is being implemented in phases. The first phase is currently focused on issuances. Later phases will extend the system to buying and selling tokenised bonds through existing request-for-quote (RFQ) platforms and eventually to retail investor access.

What Demat 2.0 means for investors

From an investor’s perspective, the pilot introduces several changes to the way corporate bond transactions and payments can be handled.

Immediate secondary-market funds: Investors can receive funds immediately from secondary-market transactions, compared with the earlier two-to-three-day timeline.

Simultaneous settlement: Atomic settlement allows the bond and money to move instantaneously.

Lower settlement risk: Sebi said settlement risk is eliminated because the two sides of the transaction do not remain pending separately.

Automated interest payments: Smart contracts can trigger interest payments on the due date.

Automated redemption: Redemption payments can also be triggered through smart contracts.

Direct e-rupee payments: Interest and redemption payments can reach bondholders’ CBDC wallets in e-rupee on the due date.

India’s approach to tokenised bonds

Sebi said tokenisation pilots and commercial launches have taken place globally, including Project Helvetia III in Switzerland and Project Evergreen in Hong Kong. Tokenised treasury bonds and bonds from BlackRock, JPMorgan and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank are also among the global examples cited by Sebi.

According to Sebi, tokenisation in these cases has largely been undertaken by individual issuers on separate platforms.

India’s approach under Demat 2.0 is to issue corporate bonds natively on a distributed ledger, with the record of ownership held by statutory depositories and funds settled in central bank digital currency within the existing regulated market infrastructure.

For bond investors, the pilot is currently focused on issuance, while future phases are expected to bring tokenised bonds into secondary-market buying and selling and eventually extend access to retail investors.

This article has been written by Kumar Gaurav, who is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or an Investment Adviser. Gaurav and his/her ‘relative(s)’ (as defined under Section 2(77) of the Companies Act, 2013) do not hold any financial interest in the companies mentioned in this article as of the date of publication. The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective SEBI-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of The Economic Times Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment.