iPhone 17 Pro Max Storage Mods Save $800 in ‘Apple Tax’ But Require a Steady Hand, Patience, and Expensive Machinery

Apple has pretty much increased the number of barriers for consumers to be smart enough to avoid paying the company premium prices for storage and RAM upgrades, thereby forcing them to pay huge amounts of money. For example, the 2TB version of the iPhone 17 Pro Max costs a whopping $1,999, making it more expensive than the company’s high-end MacBook Pro models. Luckily, one brave modder found a way to save $800 and perform this complicated procedure. But keep in mind that he was only successful because of the availability of complicated tools combined with his unyielding patience.

Apart from requiring a special NAND flash module to increase the 256 GB storage on the iPhone 17 Pro Max to 2 TB, the involvement of precision machinery is also required, which is not available to ordinary users.

The 256GB NAND flash on the iPhone 17 Pro Max is Toshiba’s and uses the part number ‘K5A4.’ On YouTube, DirectorFeng revealed that physically formatting a flash drive to make way for a 2TB upgrade is impossible without machine intervention, and even using this equipment requires years of experience and knowledge. Next on the storage upgrade, we see that the 2 TB and 1 TB NAND modules are the same length, but not the same thickness or width.

Thankfully, the difference in dimensions didn’t seem to cause any problems for the modder because he managed to solder the 2TB Toshiba ‘K6B3’ module to the iPhone 17 Pro Max logic board using tin embedding, followed by fusing with rosin, and finally installing the NAND flash. Unfortunately, the process is far from complete because although the chip is now attached to the logic board, it must be securely fastened. By using BGA black glue and placing the components into the reflow soldering equipment, the temperature was set to a consistent 100 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes.

Finally, all the pieces are then put back together into the iPhone 17 Pro Max case, and it’s time to connect Apple’s latest and greatest flagship product to the Mac to start flashing iOS. This process was successful, unlike the last time the same modder tried to increase the storage on the iPhone Air, but this may have been due to a NAND flash chip incompatibility. It’s worth mentioning that when running storage-centric benchmarks, the iPhone 17 Pro Max with a 2TB upgrade scored higher than when featuring a 256GB module.

Looking at the complexity of this modification, we are sure that iPhone 17 Pro Max owners will not try this upgrade themselves. Alternatively, they will look for skilled individuals who are familiar with the trade to carry out the operation without any hassle.

News Source: DirectorFeng

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