iPhone 17 Pro Max Buying an iPhone 17 Pro Max in the US as a German visitor cause of the battery– worth it?

[royma_kaay]

Hi,

I’ll be in Florida next week (coming from Germany) and was planning to get the new iPhone 17 Pro Max anyway. Since the US version has a slightly bigger battery due to the eSIM, I was thinking of picking one up while I’m there, assuming I can actually find one in stock.

Has anyone here had experience buying one in the US as a non-resident? I know I’ll have to pay sales tax in the States and then import tax/customs when bringing it back to Germany, so it’s not about saving money. I’d also add AppleCare+ once I’m back home.

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[adrianlondon]

There could be an issue if there's a hardware problem with the phone, and you have to wait ages while your local Apple store imports the part from another country.

Plus, and I don't know how AppleCare works (as I've never bought it) but we get a 2-year warranty in Europe whereas the US gets one.

 

[JPack]

Not really worth it. Your local Apple Store may refuse to service it for battery due to the difference. That’s my experience with dual physical SIM iPhone.

 

[ukms]

Not really worth it. Your local Apple Store may refuse to service it for battery due to the difference. That’s my experience with dual physical SIM iPhone.

Im not sure they will refuse to service it under AppleCare but if it came to needing a replacement phone for any reason you are likely to be offered whatever they have in stock in Germany.

 

[TheRdungeon]

Not really worth it. Your local Apple Store may refuse to service it for battery due to the difference. That’s my experience with dual physical SIM iPhone.

Dual physical SIM being the Chinese model? They have substantial differences beyond just dual SIM, so I'm not surprised they didn't service it unfortunately. However, I would imagine Apple stores in Germany would keep stock of the US model for people travelling.

 

[JPack]

Dual physical SIM being the Chinese model? They have substantial differences beyond just dual SIM, so I'm not surprised they didn't service it unfortunately. However, I would imagine Apple stores in Germany would keep stock of the US model for people travelling.

There are no other hardware differences. Other Apple Stores in the same city were willing to service it, so it's an individual Store policy issue, but still a pain. Apple Stores don't carry non-local stock because it would double their inventory.

 

[adrianlondon]

Im not sure they will refuse to service it under AppleCare but if it came to needing a replacement phone for any reason you are likely to be offered whatever they have in stock in Germany.

Or told to wait until they were "back" in the US. The German phones don't have mmWave support.

 

[Azzin]

There could be an issue if there's a hardware problem with the phone, and you have to wait ages while your local Apple store imports the part from another country.

Plus, and I don't know how AppleCare works (as I've never bought it) but we get a 2-year warranty in Europe whereas the US gets one.

The UK gets a one year warranty, with the legal ability to make a claim on the seller for issues for up to 6 years.

Unless you meant in the EU?

 

[adrianlondon]

The UK gets a one year warranty, with the legal ability to make a claim on the seller for issues for up to 6 years.

Unless you meant in the EU?

I'm not in the EU (either). Interesting - I thought Apple gave a 2 year warranty throughout Europe, but it seems in the UK it's only on Apple Watches. The rest is just one year.

As you say, after this consumer law kicks in for the next 5 years. My understanding is that for the consumer law to find in the customer's favour, one has to prove that the fault was present in the device from the point of sale (e.g. a faulty solder which eventually caused an issue a few years later). I don't know anyone who has pursued Apple for this - it would be interesting, and I suspect Apple would just pay up as it's cheaper for them to do so.