Milling the SSD back into sand is one way of upgrading your iPhone 17's storage and it makes a laptop upgrade look like a four-piece jigsaw puzzle by comparison

[ASMR] Can iPhone 17 Pro Max be successfully upgraded from 256GB to 2TB? - YouTube

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With most gaming laptops, adding more storage for your games is as easy as popping off the rear panel and just jamming a new M.2 SSD into a spare slot. When it comes to phones, though, it's a tad more difficult, especially if the device in question is an iPhone 17 Pro Max. And when I say tad, I actually mean a hugely complicated feat of highly-skilled engineering, as one modder amply demonstrates.

Apple's latest iPhone 17 Pro Max, the most expensive one in the released launched lineup, is available with four storage options: 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB. There's a $200 price tag difference between the first three, and because of the size of the capacity jump, a $400 gap between the 1 and 2 TB models.

Unfortunately, there's no SD card slot or the like, so you can't change how much storage you have once you've bought one. Well, actually you can, though as DirectorFeng on YouTube shows, it's really not straightforward at all.

With immaculate presentation and attention to detail, DirectorFeng's lengthy-but-lovely video takes you through every step involved in replacing the 256 GB SSD module in an iPhone 17 Pro Max with a 1 TB one (they had planned to use a 2 TB module but couldn't due to compatibility issues).

The first thing you'll notice is just how many different screws and ribbon cables are used inside the phone. I was pleasantly surprised that there was relatively little glue involved, but even so, just getting to the SSD module itself is an almighty task and certainly not for anyone with jittery hands.

Even if you're more dexterous than an aye-aye, there's one stumbling block that will stop almost everyone in their tracks. Apple, like all phone manufacturers, used a stacked SoC (system on chip) design, where the SSD module is bonded to the top of a DRAM module, which in turn is bonded to the top of the processor.

DirectorFeng's solution is both ingenious and alarming: use a CNC milling machine to grind every trace of the SSD off the package, leaving just bare pins on top of the DRAM behind. Or as the video captions describe it, "Flash chip formatting 'physically'." It's certainly the most data secure method of replacing a storage drive you can have.

With the old NAND flash chip gone, DirectorFeng removed all the old solder balls (each chip is mounted to the others via a BGA, ball grid array, inside the package), then neatly applied a new layer of them to mount the 1 TB SSD module. With that all done, it's 'simply' a case of reversing the disassembly process, then loading iOS onto the drive, and bingo! You now have an iPhone with four times more storage capacity than before.

Admittedly, given the cost of all the equipment needed, plus the years of training and experience required to do everything shown in the video, it might just be technically cheaper to pay the $400 difference and buy a 1 TB iPhone in the first place. Ah, but then you'd never get to feel the joy of doing some of the most sublime film peel-offs I've seen in a long time.

As glorious to watch as the whole process is, I much prefer to work on desktop and laptop PCs, though. Far fewer screws, a lot more space to work with, and 1 TB SSDs are pretty cheap at the moment. Then again, watching me stuff a new drive inside a laptop wouldn't exactly be an enthralling watch. Hmm, I wonder what I can CNC mill inside my Acer RTX 4050 lappy?

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