Apple has developed an unexpected workaround to prevent the iPhone 18 Pro Max from being hit by shipping restrictions on big batteries. There's a “battery-firmware solution†in place on the new iPhones, according to Apple's support page, which keeps capacity below the 20Wh limit for single-cell batteries set by international shipping regulations — but this firmware lock automatically removes itself when the device is booted up for the first time.
Following user activation, the iPhone 18 Pro Max is restored to its original rated charging capacity, which is around 21.75Wh for US eSIM-only models and 21.06Wh for European models with a physical SIM slot. If the user needs to send off their phone for repair or resale, the charging limitation can be restored using the “Prepare to Ship†feature, which caps charging to 80 percent for 14 days. The restoration feature can be found under the settings menu by opening General settings, tapping Transfer or Reset iPhone, and then Prepare to Ship.
Apple says the iPhone 18 Pro Max battery “might need to discharge for Prepare to Ship to complete,†and may become warmer than usual during the process. Prepare to Ship can be disabled at any time by heading back into the settings menu.
It's a novel way to circumvent the battery capacity limits as phone makers continue to chase longer battery life while shrinking devices. By comparison, Android manufacturers generally tend to ship their devices with smaller, dual-cell batteries outside Asia to get around the same shipping restrictions, but those solutions are costlier and less efficient in terms of physical space. If Apple's firmware fix pans out, we may see Android manufacturers offering a similar solution.
