iPhone 18 Pro Max storage can drop lower than a hard drive at 1.1 MB/s during heavy writes — QLC NAND offers higher capacity but reportedly suffers 38% drop compared to TLC-based Pro
Bilibili channel Homolab recently tested a 1TB iPhone 18 Pro Max and found that its storage performance can drop significantly under sustained heavy workloads. Since QLC stores four bits of data per memory cell when compared to three bits with TLC, it allows manufacturers to offer higher capacities using the same physical space. While both storage types perform fairly similarly in 4K read tests, the QLC model falls behind by 38% in a low-queue-depth mixed workload, scoring 8,168 compared to 11,285 for the TLC model.
- ▪Bilibili channel Homolab recently tested a 1TB iPhone 18 Pro Max and found that its storage performance can drop significantly under sustained heavy workloads.
- ▪Since QLC stores four bits of data per memory cell when compared to three bits with TLC, it allows manufacturers to offer higher capacities using the same physical space.
- ▪While both storage types perform fairly similarly in 4K read tests, the QLC model falls behind by 38% in a low-queue-depth mixed workload, scoring 8,168 compared to 11,285 for the TLC model.
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| Publication time | Mon, 21 Sep 2026 17:34:47 +0000 |
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PC Components Storage SSDs iPhone 18 Pro Max storage can drop lower than a hard drive at 1.1 MB/s during heavy writes — QLC NAND offers higher capacity but reportedly suffers 38% drop compared to TLC-based Pro News By Kunal Khullar Published 21 September 2026 QLC's hidden trade-off When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Apple) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 1 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Apple’s latest iPhone 18 Pro series went on sale last week, and the company’s decision to use QLC-based NAND for higher-capacity storage variants appears to come with a trade-off.
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