1TB iPhone 16 Pro Models Could Face Performance Setback

[MacRumors]

iPhone 16 Pro models configured with 1TB of storage could feature slower read and write speeds to reduce costs, DigiTimes reports.

The change is part of Apple's potential switch to higher-density Quad-Level Cell (QLC) NAND flash memory for its 1TB iPhone models, which the company is said to currently be "actively evaluating." Apple currently uses costlier Triple-Level Cell (TLC) NAND.

Using QLC NAND would allow Apple to cram more storage into a smaller space and comes at a lower price, but with the disadvantage of slower read and write speeds. QLC NAND can also be less durable and reliable than TLC NAND, handling constant write operations less effectively. Apple could, of course, seek to mitigate these issues with specific optimizations.

The report adds that adopting QLC NAND could make offering iPhones with up to 2TB of storage viable for the first time. A 1TB iPhone 15 Pro Max is priced at $1,599, $200 more than the 512GB model, so a future 2TB model would need to be cost-effective, as well as contain flash storage that is sufficiently compact inside the device.

New iPhone models with 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB of storage are highly likely to stick with TLC NAND for the foreseeable future. Although TLC NAND is still widespread in the industry, QLC NAND is expected to account for about 20% of all NAND shipments from the second half of 2023 to the first half of 2024, suggesting that its usage is growing despite its drawbacks.

Article Link: 1TB iPhone 16 Pro Models Could Face Performance Setback

 

[oofio2461]

Classic Tim's cost costing measures.

 

[Deine Mudda]

Pay the maximum price and get slowed down for that.
If this becomes reality it would be a massive scam.

 

[gank41]

Another reason to keep my iPhone 14 Pro Max even longer.

 

[SouthBronx187]

Another reason to keep my iPhone 14 Pro Max even longer.

And my 15 pm 1tb black

 

[Sorinut]

And my 15 pm 1tb black

Won't be upgrading my 13 pro.

 

[CharlesShaw]

[edited to resist the chum in the water]

 

[SVTmaniac]

I take thousands of photos and videos and I’ve still yet to even come close to filling a 256gb phone. What are you all doing that you need that much space?

 

[saudor]

dang. QLC speeds drop below HDD speeds when the SLC cache is exhausted. People who fill up their phones to the limit are going to really feel it. THey’ll need to at least dedicate a non user-accessible region of NAND to absorb incoming writes .

 

[Sorinut]

I take thousands of photos and videos and I’ve still yet to even come close to filling a 256gb phone. What are you all doing that you need that much space?

I wonder the same. I have 185gb free on my 256gb.

 

[thegerman]

I hope my EU will take actions for those decisions ❤️🙏🏼

 

[Apple_Robert]

Just what we need, more read / write speed 'woe is me' debates, as if the Mac threads are lacking in that department. lol.

 

[SW3029]

just here for the outrage

 

[klasma]

Wow, Apple is really scraping the bottom of the barrel here. I wouldn’t trust important data to QLC without frequent backups. Which becomes more tedious at terabyte sizes, especially with slower storage.

 

[kevcube]

I take thousands of photos and videos and I’ve still yet to even come close to filling a 256gb phone. What are you all doing that you need that much space?

some people just like spending as much money as possible. especially with USB-C now I see NO need for this much storage on an iPhone, but I know people who will max it out and still upgrade yearly.

 

[klasma]

I take thousands of photos and videos and I’ve still yet to even come close to filling a 256gb phone. What are you all doing that you need that much space?

Spatial videos?

 

[frou]

It's kinda funny that Apple makes way more profit on the storage chip than the company that actually designs and manufactures the chip.

 

[Sorinut]

It's kinda funny that Apple makes way more profit on the storage chip than the company that actually designs and manufactures the chip.

Why is that surprising? That's what companies do. I'm betting that Amazon makes more profit on a SSD than the company producing it.

 

[frou]

Why is that surprising?

Didn't say it was surprising, it's funny.

 

[3530025]

I take thousands of photos and videos and I’ve still yet to even come close to filling a 256gb phone. What are you all doing that you need that much space?

I don't get this either. Do people casually take 10000 photos every week? Can't they offload old photos and videos to the home NAS or cloud storage? Do people really need to have 5 year old photos still in their pocket on the local storage?

 

[Timo_Existencia]

I take thousands of photos and videos and I’ve still yet to even come close to filling a 256gb phone. What are you all doing that you need that much space?

Same. I'm easily a "power user" and I have only used 93 GB of my 512 gb of phone storage.

 

[ohthehorror]

I’m so sick of this company.

 

[timber]

From the description it seems there is something of a catch 22 situation as fitting 1 TB of the current fast technology wouldn't be possible. And it certainly doesn't make sense to design the phone around one specific use case.

 

[aidler]

Yeah, I agree. For those top and totally overpriced models, the top priority is to reduce costs and worsen the user experience. Makes sense 🤣

 

[Star Brood]

let's hope this is just a dumb rumor