The iPhone 18 Pro Max has a clever feature to avoid problems with its larger battery that might become the new normal heres what you need to know

Date:
Mon, 21 Sep 2026 16:03:18 +0000

Description:
The iPhone 18 Pro Max's battery is too high capacity for standard shipping, but Apple has found a software solution.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter The iPhone 18 Pro Max uses software artificially reduce its battery capacity to avoid shipping restrictions The same software trick will need to be used when shipping the phone off to repair or sell it Other phones might start taking this same approach The iPhone 18 Pro Max has the highest capacity battery that Apple
has ever put in a handset. Going by teardowns, youre getting a 5,567mAh battery in eSIM-only models and a 5,391mAh one in versions with a physical
SIM card slot. But both of those are over 20 watt-hours (Wh), and that could have been a problem for Apple.

You see, most countries have additional shipping requirements for devices
with a single-cell battery of over 20 Wh. For example, both the US and UK consider these dangerous goods, and theyre prohibited to be sent through standard consumer mail services such as USPS standard post and Royal Mail. Thats obviously a problem for a device that many people will be ordering online and it can also complicate shipping the device to stores. But Apple has come up with a clever solution called Prepare to Ship. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here:

This is a mode that uses battery firmware to limit the capacity to under
20Wh, and it's active from when the phone is manufactured to when a customer first activates it.

Once you have the phone up and running, the limit is removed automatically
so in other words this gets it around the shipping restrictions, without limiting the capacity of the product you receive. You may like iPhone 18 Pro battery upgrades and a Pro Max spec tweak revealed iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max battery life test results here's the verdict Call me boring, but the iPhone 18 Pro's big battery boost is easily its most tempting upgrade

However, this also adds an extra step you need to take before shipping the phone somewhere yourself whether youre sending it off for repair, selling
it, or whatever else, as you need to manually enable the Prepare to Ship mode again. How to prepare your phone for shipping (Image credit: Apple) To do this, go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Prepare to Ship. Then just follow the onscreen instructions, including selecting whether or
not you also want to erase your phone. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

There are a few things to be aware of though: to activate Prepare to Ship mode, your phone might need to discharge a bit, so you should unplug it from its charger, and you should also be aware that it might become warmer than usual while this process is being carried out.

The full process can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours
depending on how much the battery needs to drop, but you can use the phone as usual in the meantime (assuming you havent also opted to erase it), and the Settings app will display a red badge reading Ready to Ship once its done.

If you have erased it, then youll instead see whether its ready to ship on
the Hello screen just tap the info button there. What to read next Apple iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max review: better in all the right places Here's
why SuperSaf is just as excited as we are about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's battery iPhone 17 Pro vs iPhone 18 Pro: 5 key differences between Apple's best

Once Prepare to Ship has been enabled, it limits the battery to under 80% capacity for 14 days, but if you need to undo this setting prior to that,
just head to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Ready to Ship, and tap Undo Shipping Preparation. This might become the new normal So its a simple enough process, but its one thats vital to know about when it comes time to sell or repair your phone so hopefully there will be enough
messaging around it.

But while for now this only affects the iPhone 18 Pro Max, it could one day become the norm. Certainly, wed expect future large iPhones to have this same feature, but Android phones are likely to get in on the act too, since it's a very elegant solution to the problem.

Currently, some Android phones get around 20Wh restrictions by using multiple smaller battery cells, but depending on the design of the phone it might be preferable to just have a single cell in which case a solution like Apples firmware trickery makes total sense.

This is one of those situations where we don't think there's any shame in borrowing ideas from other manufacturers. Today's best iPhone deals Contract Deals Sim Free voucher gift Apple iPhone 18 Pro 48 months Unlimited mins 5GB data 30 upfront 65.03 /mth View at EE See all prices voucher gift Apple
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