This Modded ‘iPhone 13 Pro Max Ultra’ Sports USB-C, Headphone Jack, Better Battery Life, and Performance

BY Chandraveer Mathur

Published 24 Mar 2022

iPhone 13 Pro Max Ultra collage

A couple of students have shot to fame in the Apple circles for swapping older iPhones with USB-C ports. Now, one electronics genius has taken the iPhone 13 Pro Max to the next level with a thorough upgrade by bumping its storage up to 1TB, giving it a headphone jack and active cooling, all while claiming twice the battery life.

A user who goes by “Yang Changshun Repairman” on the Chinese version of TikTok called Douyin created the “iPhone 13 Pro Max Ultra.” Changshun posted a three-vide series explaining how the creation took shape. The result is an iPhone 13 Pro Max that lasts twice as long on a full charge and scores 150,000 more points than the stock iPhone 13 Pro Max on the Antutu benchmark. His creation also sports a USB-C connector alongside the Lightning port.

He unboxed a new iPhone 13 Pro Max for the project and took it apart. After isolating the logic board, Changshun heated and separated the integrated heat spreader (IHS) for the phone’s A15 Bionic chip. He added additional storage, binging the total memory capacity up to 1TB.

Then, Changshun took a metallic frame resembling the iPhone 13 Pro Max chassis in shape and attached it to the previous phone, doubling the phone’s thickness and battery capacity. The thickness also gives the two tiny fans additional room for drawing in air and cooling the phone. The frame has holes cut on the iPhone’s left and right-hand side edges.

Apple has never made an actively cooled iPhone. Although some Android OEMs have tried their hand, it has only been on high-end gaming phones. Moreover, the iPhone 13 series A15 is exceptionally efficient when passively cooled. Nonetheless, active cooling still benefits the chip and helps keep the phone cool during intensive workloads such as gaming. Changshun’s actively cooled iPhone 13 Pro Max Ultra scored 150,000 more points on the Antutu benchmark than an ordinary iPhone 13 Pro Max that scored 715,809 points.

Understandably, this level of modification to the iPhone 13 Pro Max or any other smartphone is beyond the reach of most users because of the sheer level of skill and precision required for execution. However, one can always dream of the day when Apple settles for a thick, actively cooled iPhone with a headphone jack and a powerful CPU.

What do you think of this modified iPhone 13 Pro Max? Tell us in the comments section below.