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Lol, true but it is a fair point for people who are on the fence about leaving Android for iOS.
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 cell), followed by a TLC cache and then the QLC bulk storage.
That works well until it doesn’t. In the tests, the SLC cache could sustain write speeds of up to 3,000MB/s. But once it’s filled up, the phone starts writing to its TLC cache, which is slower but still respectable at 578MB/s. And once both levels of cache are full, the phone goes to the QLC storage that only manages 79.4MB/s with dips to 25.6MB/s.
This is while the storage is empty, when the SLC cache is 250GB. But once storage starts to fill up, the size of the cache shrinks – at 60% storage used, the SLC cache is only 58GB. The TLC and QLC memories get similarly filled up and they become slower too.
Homolab’s measurements at 60% storage used show 396MB/s for the TLC cache and an abysmal 1.1MB/s for the QLC storage. Again, this is for sustained writes.
The pricey 1TB and 2TB iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max found to use very slow memory
These models feature QLC storage, while the 256GB and 512GB models use TLC storage. The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max last year introduced a 2TB storage tier....www.gsmarena.com
Got my 18 pro max, waiting for the case, screen and lens protectors to arrive.
