YouTuber KingSener managed to upgrade their brand-new iPhone 16 Pro from 128GB to 1TB. They started by removing two screws on the bottom of their iPhone and applying some anhydrous alcohol to soften the glue on the back cover. Once the back cover was removed and the internals of the iPhone were exposed, KingSener began disconnecting dozens of parts and cables with the ultimate goal of removing the mainboard.

It took the content creator a while to remove the foam and all of the small components to finally get to the data storage chip. The steps described so far were complicated enough, but the next stage would take things to a whole new level since KingSener used a CNC grinder to turn the existing 128GB storage chip into dust. Once that was done, they cleaned the solder pads and installed a new 1TB NAND chip. After reconnecting all the parts and cables, they put the mainboard back into its place.

To prove that they actually expanded the iPhone’s storage, KingSener conducted a read-and-write test with AnTuTu. The data transfer speed score of the unmodded iPhone 16 Pro was 51,398 but with the new 1TB NAND chip, it went up to to 81,701.

The iPhone 16 Pro with 128GB storage costs $999 with no taxes factored in but if it's the 1TB version that you're consdering, you’ll have shell out $1,499. It probably cost the YouTuber less than $500 to upgrade to 1TB of storage in this manner, all things considered. However, if you don’t know much about machining and soldering and all that, it’s best to leave experiments of this kind to enthusiasts.

In the meantime, a Renewed Premium iPhone 14 (128GB) can currently be had for just $509 on Amazon.com