The pricey 1TB and 2TB iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max found to use very slow memory

The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max last year introduced a 2TB storage tier. Just like them, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are available in four configurations: 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB. Something has changed, however, and it is the type of storage used. In a video on BiliBili, Homolab compared two 18 Pro Max phones, one with 512GB storage and one with 1TB.

Apparently, the 256GB and 512GB Pro models use TLC flash – each memory cell fits three bits. However, the 1TB and 2TB models use QLC – four bits per memory cell. QLC is known to be slow, so Apple added a fast SLC cache (one bit per…