A new variety of duplex steels with superior mechanical properties has been studied. They exhibit a very interesting combination of strength (tensile strength of 680 MPa) and ductility values (more than 45% total elongation) due to the competition between different plasticity mechanisms. These steels contain two phases: austenite and ferrite and are characterized by low stacking fault energy at room temperature. In this work, four duplex steels with different chemical composition and phase volume fraction are studied. Residual and internal stresses in each phase were determined using the classical X-ray diffraction sin(2)psi method. In the as-received state, both longitudinal and transverse residual stresses are in compression (until -350 MPa) for the ferrite and in tension (until +410 MPa) for the austenite. However, residual stresses in the austenitic phase decrease when its volume fraction increases. Moreover, internal stress distribution in one alloy was determined by X-ray diffraction during an in situ tensile test. The austenitic phase stress along the loading direction is higher than the macroscopic applied one, which is higher than the ferritic stress state, verifying a mixture rule and consistent with the initial residual stresses. For an applied macroscopic strain of about 1%, the austenite phase is subjected to a stress of about 600 MPa whereas the stress in the ferritic phase is about 300 MPa. It was also observed that as macroscopic strain increases, stress difference between the austenite and the ferrite decreases.