Do the impossible with iPhone Air

Chinese iPhone repairman doubles iPhone Air's memory. Photo: DirectorFeng/YouTube .

YouTube channel owner DirectorFeng, after a failed attempt and damaging his iPhone Air, finally succeeded in "reviving" the device. He upgraded the memory capacity from 256 GB to 512 GB, double the original.

Apple has put a barrier for those who decide to upgrade the iPhone Air's memory by soldering. Specifically, after replacing the memory chip, the device will not be recognized when the user installs the iOS operating system.

However, DirectorFeng has proven that it is entirely possible to bypass Apple's hardware control barrier, revealing how Apple controls the hardware on its latest devices.

The Chinese phone repair community has long been known for its ability to upgrade the memory of Apple products at a significantly cheaper cost than buying a high-end version. To prevent this situation, Apple has applied a new, ultra-precise chip soldering method on the newly launched iPhone Air.

More than a week ago, DoctorFeng failed and turned the iPhone Air into a "brick". Photo: DoctorFeng/YouTube.

YouTuber DirectorFeng decided to test the limits of this new hardware control. In his first attempt, he tried replacing the original 256GB memory chip with older memory chip modules.

The result was as expected: the iOS operating system was unable to recognize the incompatible hardware. The phone was immediately locked, turning into a literal "brick".

However, not giving up, DirectorFeng found the key to the problem. The process of disassembling the iPhone Air helped him identify an important detail: the original 256 GB memory chip of the device was from Toshiba.

In the latest video , he confirmed that he had successfully used a Toshiba memory chip variant called “S6E”. This S6E chip is a newer and more advanced version than the “S5E” variant currently equipped on the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 lines.

It's possible that the older 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB modules used in the previous mod were the S5E version and were not recognized by the iOS operating system on the iPhone Air.

The trick is to find the correct version of the memory chip specified by Apple on the iPhone. Photo: DoctorFeng/YouTube.

The creator also pointed out that the base iPhone 17 with 256GB of storage is still using the older S5E chip, so it is likely that the flash module used for the upgrade must be of a compatible chip line or the device will be disabled.

DirectorFeng's success suggests that Apple isn't completely blocking memory upgrades, but rather creating a compatibility barrier. The system will only accept a specific generation of NAND flash chips, making finding replacement parts much more difficult.

The video also reveals that the Toshiba K848 NAND module has the ideal physical size to perform this upgrade, as no additional adjustments are required, such as changing the resistors in the layer.

The YouTuber has finally managed to revive the iPhone Air, doubling its original storage capacity. He says he will try to upgrade the onboard storage to 1TB when he finds the appropriate memory chip.

Source: https://znews.vn/lam-dieu-khong-tuong-voi-iphone-air-post1591403.html