Tech

People are flocking to this shop in China that upgrades iPhone storage on the cheap

Alex Heath

2016-02-10T20:46:00Z

Apple's pricing strategy for the iPhone is simple: the base model comes with 16GB of storage, and you pay $100 more to get 64GB. The highest storage option, 128GB, costs another $100.

After realizing that 16GB is a cripplingly low amount of storage, dozens of people a day are visiting a tiny shop in Shenzhen, China that upgrades the iPhone's internal storage from 16GB to 128GB for only $60.

The startup BeSound recently visited the shop to find out what the process was like:

The shop will take your iPhone apart and switch out its internal hardrive, which voids your warranty with Apple. The cost is $20 for 32GB, $35 for 64GB, and $60 for 128GB.

The process works on the iPhone 6 and older models. iPads are also supported up to the first iPad Air. Storage chips for the newest iPhone 6s, however, aren't available on the reseller market yet.

The technician has to completely disassemble the iPhone, remove its hard drive, copy its data (a process called "blowing") and transfer the data to a new drive.

Definitely not something you want to try at home.

The entire upgrade process takes about 30 minutes.

The shop's owners say that over 50 people are coming every day to get their iPhones upgraded from a measly 16GB.

iPhone