Apple's iPhone Duo is official at $1,999. Touch ID, under-display camera, A20 Pro, and no SIM tray in any market.

The iPhone Duo is now on the shelf at Abufulan Store in Nairobi. On Monday 26th October the shop posted that the Duo “has finally landed”, and for the first time it put a price on it: KES 435,000 for the 256GB model and KES 475,000 for the 512GB model, in both colours, night sky and star white. It hasn’t posted prices for the 1TB and 2TB models.

When pre-orders opened on 16th October, we told you Abufulan was taking orders but hadn’t said what it would charge. Now we know. You can call or WhatsApp the shop on 0792029968, or walk in at Jamia Mall, ground floor, shop G63, off Kigali Road in the Nairobi CBD. It delivers countrywide.

How that compares

Apple sells the Duo for $1,999 (256GB) and $2,199 (512GB) in the US, or about KES 260,000 and KES 286,000.

Apple hasn’t launched the Duo in Kenya. It isn’t on Apple’s Kenyan site, Kenya isn’t among the 18 first-wave countries Apple named, and Apple hasn’t said which 28 countries get it on Friday 30th October. That means every Duo in a Kenyan shop was bought abroad and brought in, with shipping, import taxes and the shop’s margin added on top. Apple’s own supply is tight too: within half an hour of pre-orders opening, every US model showed a 25th January delivery date.

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What you’re paying for

Abufulan’s case is the shop itself. It’s on Apple’s reseller locator for Kenya, it has a fixed address you can walk back into, and every gadget we’ve bought there has arrived genuine and sealed.

That counts for more on this phone than most. Since the Duo went on sale on 23rd October, owners in several countries have reported thin cracks appearing on the inner screen along the hinge, some within hours. Apple hasn’t said how common it is, and iFixit’s teardown offers a possible cause but no answer. In the US, replacing the inner screen outside warranty costs $999, or about KES 130,000. Apple’s iPhone warranty also lets it restrict repairs to the country where the phone was first sold, and Kenya isn’t one of them.

So before you pay KES 435,000 or more, ask the shop three things: which country the phone came from, who repairs it if the inner screen cracks in the first year, and whether it will swap a unit that fails in the first days.

The Duo is also eSIM only, with no SIM tray, so your line has to move to an eSIM before the phone can make calls or run M-PESA. Safaricom does that in its shops for KES 150 on prepaid.