TECH NEWS – We’ll have to dig deep into our pockets because the Cupertino company is raking in the cash with storage and memory.

Apple continues to charge exorbitant prices for these, and those unfamiliar with soldering NAND storage modules into iPhones were out of luck. It appears that the company is limiting storage expansion through modding on the iPhone Air because other chips of different sizes aren’t recognized when iOS is installed on them. In the video below, DirectorFeng uses advanced soldering techniques to increase the iPhone Air’s internal memory from 256 GB to 1 TB. After disassembling the phone and accessing the logic board, DirectorFeng discovered that the storage chip’s serial number begins with 2NB. He claims that he did not notice this configuration on previous models.

He concluded that these NAND flash modules are not from Samsung, SK Hynix, Toshiba, or SanDisk and speculated that Apple may be using YMTC’s remaining inventory because the latter is no longer a supplier due to U.S. trade restrictions. After erasing the original module, DirectorFeng packs 1 TB of storage onto the iPhone Air. He then connects the device to a Mac using a cable and begins updating iOS. However, an error message with code 4014 appears, indicating that the update failed.

He tried using a 512 GB NAND flash chip, but he encountered the same obstacle. As a last resort, he removed a 256 GB module, but it was to no avail. This suggests that either NAND memory chips compatible with the iPhone 17 product line have not yet arrived, or Apple is deliberately preventing modders from expanding storage, forcing them to pay the company. The iPhone Air used in the experiment is now unusable because the original 256 GB memory chip was completely erased. Fortunately, the device can be made functional again when the new storage modules arrive, but this may take a while, and success is not guaranteed.

The lesson is clear: pay Apple the extra charge and don’t try to modify your device like this.

Source: WCCFTech