Probably not for me. My iPhone 12 Pro storage report:
33.9 GB of 128 GB Used

I took the screen off my 27" iMac several times for hardware upgrades. I thought that was terrifying since a mistake could have cost me $2k.

Until I saw this video.

This takes some serious skill.

Another case of it pays to have the correct tools.

Modern tech design is so amazing. It's also amazing what you can do with the right tools (and know-how). I especially liked the rotary tool he used to clean off the sealing residue.

I don't know why they still make devices this size with such small memory banks. It's not like there isn't space AND people will pay the extra for it. I wonder if anyone is doing this aftermarket and how much they charge.

Will it void the warranty?

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
Modern tech design is so amazing. It's also amazing what you can do with the right tools (and know-how). I especially liked the rotary tool he used to clean off the sealing residue.

I don't know why they still make devices this size with such small memory banks. It's not like there isn't space AND people will pay the extra for it. I wonder if anyone is doing this aftermarket and how much they charge.

They make smart phones with small internal memory and sell them at a lower price to push people into paying for more cellular data, more cloud storage, and more streaming. Apple gets the cloud storage money and some of the streaming money, while the telecom gets the data money.

I always get the maximum memory on my iPhone.

In the video, the most interesting thing was end milling out the old NAND chip, cleaning up the remaining solder, and then using a powered substance (flux? solder?) and a heat gun to solder in the new NAND. Never would have thought of that.

Also surprising is that Apple M-Silicon is the entire system and storage on one chip. The A series seems to have separate storage which I didn't know before.

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:

They make smart phones with small internal memory and sell them at a lower price to push people into paying for more cellular data for cloud storage and streaming. Apple gets the cloud storage money, the telecom gets the data money.
<snip>

I think you’re wrong. Cloud storage is no substitute for on-board memory, and few people could be convinced that it is.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:

They make smart phones with small internal memory and sell them at a lower price to push people into paying for more cellular data for cloud storage and streaming. Apple gets the cloud storage money, the telecom gets the data money.
<snip>

I think you’re wrong. Cloud storage is no substitute for on-board memory, and few people could be convinced that it is.

I agree personally that onboard storage is best, and I have a 1TB iPhone 15 Pro.

But many people buy the cheapest phone of a given model, and there are often bigger promotions on the low memory phones. People who really can't afford the phone at all, who have bad credit, etc. I am not talking about people who think everything through and make the best total cost decision.

Apple has done a lot of things that result in more cellular data usage, which pushes people into higher cost unlimited plans. You have to change a lot of default settings to minimize data use. Since I travel internationally and roaming historically has been expensive and/or limited on data until you get throttled down, I pay close attention to things like this.

I'm sure this is in cooperation with the telecoms...

Very cool especially if you have the knowledge and tools, but I would rather just buy the 1TB model and not risk screwing it up. Good to know it can be done though.

I put NAND chips on and off all day long by hand. Generally it's for engineering changes or tests of suspect NAND chips when I do it. We have a hot air/infrared rework machine that will do it precisely, but it's slower than using a heat gun, so most of the time, I pull them by hand. There are also laser machines that will do it too, but I don't need that level of precision and complexity, since for me it's about turnaround time.

That powder was a type of flux. I personally use liquid flux though as it's not as messy and flows into tight spaces better. The NAND chips come balled (hundreds of little bumps of solder) when new. Once it heats up, the balls melt and flow to the solder pads on the board. With the help of the now melted flux, the surface tension of the solder joints will pull the NAND chip to perfect alignment, even if it was off a tiny bit at the beginning as the chip kinda floats on melted solder and flux. On a fancy rework machine, there is a camera that helps you perfectly align the pads and solder bumps and places the chips on the board perfectly for you.

As for mechanically removing that chip with the CNC router, we sometimes use similar mechanical methods on chips that have had underfill (glue filled for mechanical strength/stability) squirted around the chips. The underfill stuff does not melt at the same temp as solder so even if you get the chip hot and solder melted, you can't easily pull it off. A CNC router helps getting that circuit board cleared off. Other times we use a mechanical CNC router is to just cut down to the actual chips, which is a tiny little thing embedded in the big square chip substrate package you actually see/handle. Once the chip is exposed, we can use a gold wire bonding machine to melt on leads that come out of the actual chip and intercept signal. These wires are TINY.

If I am putting a new chip on a board, it comes pre-soldered with lead-free balls in place. This we just place onto the cleaned circuit board using the hot air rework station and let the machine run a profiled heat cycle and it's done. If I am re-using a chip for whatever reason, I need to clean all the old solder off and "re-ball" the chip package first. We use a stainless steel stencil with tiny holes that match the pad pattern and pitch of the chips. Then we put little spheres of solder into the holes and heat until they melt to the pads of the chip package.

That's precision work. It's a nice look at what's inside the iphone.

I'd like to know the tool that took off the old adhesive gunk. It looked like a spinning rod that seems to thread the gunk around it.

Interesting. I’m as impressed with the set of tools and jigs as I am with skill of the tech.

I am seriously impressed!! Nothing I would ever attempt…