Indians fly to Dubai for iPhone 18 Pro: Cheaper even with flight, visa

The buyers cited a significant price difference with India. (Photo Courtesy: Gulf News)

For most people, buying a new phone means opening an e-commerce app, comparing prices and perhaps waiting for a sale. For some Indian iPhone fans, the latest upgrade came with a rather different itinerary: pack a bag, board a flight and head to Dubai.The reason? The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are significantly cheaper in the UAE than in India, according to prices cited by Gulf News. And for some buyers, the difference is large enough to make even the cost of flying to Dubai part of the calculation.As the new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max went on sale at the Apple Store in Dubai Mall on September 18, Indian shoppers were among those joining the launch-day crowd. While most customers appeared to be UAE residents, many Indian buyers also travelled to the UAE with the new iPhones on their shopping list.For Mumbai resident Aman Solanki, the maths was simple. He said the phone would still cost him less in Dubai even after adding the cost of his flight and visa.“Even with the flight ticket and visa cost, it is still cheaper for me to buy the phone here in Dubai than compared to India where the additional taxes cause it to be very expensive,” Solanki told Gulf News.“For me, it’s actually about ₹50,000 to ₹60,000 more expensive in India than here.

I’m also buying two more phones for family, all iPhone Pro Max, so keeping that in mind I came to Dubai,” he said.

The price gap that triggered the trip

Apple’s UAE starting price for the iPhone 18 Pro is Dh5,099 (approximately ₹133,339), while the iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at Dh5,499 (approximately ₹1,43,648.56). Both models are available in storage configurations ranging from 256GB to 2TB.In India, the iPhone 18 Pro starts at ₹1,64,900 and the Pro Max at ₹1,79,900.At the exchange rates,, the UAE starting price works out to roughly ₹1.32 lakh for the Pro- around ₹33,000 less than its Indian starting price. For the Pro Max, the UAE price converts to about ₹1.42 lakh, creating a difference of roughly ₹38,000.That difference becomes even more noticeable when more than one phone is being purchased.

‘I’m saving around ₹20,000 to ₹30,000’

Mohammed Sayed from Kerala was another Indian buyer who compared the two markets before making his purchase.Unlike Solanki, Sayed was already in Dubai to visit family. But after checking the prices, he decided that the new iPhone should come home with him too. “I actually came to visit my family here too but decided to buy the phone here after comparing the cost between UAE and India. For me I’m saving around ₹20,000 to ₹30,000 for the new iPhone. The taxes really increase the price,” he told Gulf News.The new iPhone may have been launched as a smartphone, but for these buyers, the first upgrade was perhaps not the camera or the processor. It was the destination on the boarding pass.