Officially launched in September 2023, as of now, the iPhone 15 series has gone halfway through its life cycle. This means that the market will start to see significant price adjustments, as well as a greater variety of products.
In parallel with the genuine VN/A models, imported iPhone 15 Pro Max devices have been available in Vietnam since the early days. However, the imported iPhone 15 Pro Max models have not attracted much attention due to their prices being not significantly different from the genuine models, while users have to sacrifice warranty benefits.
This may change somewhat in the future, as the Vietnamese market has recently received a special batch of imported iPhone 15 Pro Max devices. These are the “max option” 1TB iPhone 15 Pro Max devices, priced similar to the “min option” 256GB genuine models.
A trader sharing an image of the batch of 1TB iPhone 15 Pro Max devices in Vietnam
Apple launched the iPhone 15 Pro Max with three internal memory options: 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB, with 1TB being the highest memory option. Currently, in Vietnam, the genuine iPhone 15 Pro Max 256GB is being sold for about 31 million VND, while the 1TB version is about 44 million VND.
However, the imported 1TB iPhone 15 Pro Max devices are being offered by retailers for only about 31-32 million VND, which is 12 million VND cheaper than the genuine 1TB version and equivalent to the lowest 256GB version. With a much lower price but four times the storage capacity, it is easy to see that the imported 1TB iPhone 15 Pro Max devices will come with some limitations.
1TB iPhone 15 Pro Max device
Firstly, like all other imported iPhones, Apple Vietnam will not provide warranty support for these devices, regardless of whether the devices have AppleCare or not. Therefore, buyers will have to agree with the sellers on the warranty policy, which always carries risks.
Imported iPhones are not covered by warranty in Vietnam, regardless of AppleCare
Secondly, in this batch, users will only receive a bare device, without the box and accessories. Although the accessories that come with the iPhone now only include the charging cable, the absence of the box will affect the “premium” feel of the device, especially when giving it as a gift. And of course, buyers of imported iPhones will not get to experience the “unboxing” feeling.
One of the 1TB iPhone 15 Pro Max devices from the recent batch
Thirdly, the majority of these 1TB iPhone 15 Pro Max devices are not brand new, but “used” devices. According to an anonymous trader, this batch includes a small number of devices that have not been activated, but most have been activated before, do not have warranty (less than 12 months left), and have been charged a few times. For example, the device in the article has been activated since November 2023 and charged about 10 times before arriving in Vietnam.
Finally, these iPhone 15 Pro Max devices are all from the US market (LL/A code). Since the iPhone 14, Apple has removed the physical SIM tray from all iPhones sold in the US, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max is no exception. Instead, users will be required to use eSIM (electronic SIM).
Since the iPhone 14, all iPhones from the US market no longer have a physical SIM tray
Users will be required to use eSIM instead
As a trade-off, iPhones from the US market support faster mmWave 5G with antennas on the right side (although it is unclear whether it can be used in Vietnam)
In Vietnam, users will have to visit the branches of network carriers to switch from physical SIM to eSIM. For the majority of users, switching to eSIM only happens once when upgrading their devices and is not a big issue. However, for those who frequently have to remove/insert SIM cards, this limitation of US market iPhones will be difficult to accept.
