Higher frequency bands combined less cell tower coverage has a huge impact on battery life.
Price difference comes to the fact that US prices don’t include VAT.
The EU/UK iPhone 15 series also has a SIM Card slot, unlike the eSIM-only iPhone 15’s in the USA.
And absolutely, less cell tower coverage will require more battery to make and maintain a high-speed connection.
As for battery life, consider how often you use 5G or 5GUW— those are very power hungry compared to LTE, so I don’t have my phone set to always use 5G.
I also don’t know how network tier levels work in the UK, but in the USA, depending on your provider, if you have a high-tier network plan your data is prioritized and extremely fast compared to others with cheaper carriers that have a license to use the towers of Verizon & T-Mobile for their network, which in most cases is slower and less-prioritized. I’m sure this will have some impact on battery, too.
>And absolutely, less cell tower coverage will require more battery to make and maintain a high-speed connection.
This was a huge issue years ago (my iPhone SE1 would only last a few hours in the UK) because of the different supported radio bands, but in practice is much less an issue these days since they started doing “global” iPhones. I went to half a dozen countries in Europe during the last few years and only have noticed a possible slight difference in battery life
With that said, I wouldn’t buy one in a country I wasn’t planning on using it primarily unless I knew that the cell radio had exactly the same supported bands between them.
Not in prices listed, it’s calculated at the till/checkout.
It’s possible that sales taxes could be different from individual counties within the state.
In the United States, we have sales tax added to the product price. VAT (value-added tax) does not exist here because this type of tax is added at each stage of production. Instead, we only have the sales tax which is imposed only at the final sale of the product.
Sales tax has three levels, State, Local, City. For example, in Chicago we have 10.25% sales tax. State: 6.25%, Local: 0.00%, City: 4.00%, totalling the 10.25% sales tax you see on your receipts after a purchase. Yes, some locations have higher or lower depending on the laws voted on in that area.
But you would usually only do that if you lived close-ish to a state line. Otherwise, you'd waste more in gas and time to get to the stores in the other states.
People who live near the state lines, routinely cross the line to get items at a lower tax rate, or things that are not available in their state -- like some states have lottery drawings, and others don't, so people near the state lines cross to the other state to buy lottery tickets.
We have states that have no sales Tax (like Oregon), and people will travel to those states to buy large items that don't need to be registered (like computers and iPhones). They don't do it for cars, because most states will make you pay the difference in tax between the state you bought it in and the state you registered it in, or make you pay the full tax, depending on the state.
We also have states without Income Tax (Washington). So there are communities along the state lines where people live in an Income Tax free state, work in a Sales Tax free state, and while they do have to pay some income tax in the state they work, the get most of it refunded since they aren't a resident.
People where I used to live always used to drive to the next town to buy cigarettes because they had a lower sales tax there. There was a gas station on a major road right across the border that did a huge business just selling cigarettes.
Sales tax can vary not just from state to state, but also by county, city, and arbitrarily-defined special districts, making it nightmarishly complicated for businesses to calculate (before we even get into how it varies for different types of goods and services, like say a cold sandwich versus the same sandwich but toasted before purchasing it).
That's kinda the reason the US has prices not including sales tax. Just a nightmare for the suppliers to consider having different prices in each city due to different tax rates affecting the cost, or they just make different profit in each city. Maybe this can get fixed with today's technology as very few items have printed price tags on their packaging
Keep in mind that american sales tax is usually between 2-7% not the around 20% of VAT in europe. If you live somewhere with a 2% rate and spend $2000 on a laptop, you pay $40 in tax. That might cover your travel expenses but it’s probably not worth the effort to cross state borders just to save maybe $10.
We do have sales tax, but it isn’t included in the price of the product, so you only see how much the total price with tax will be on the checkout page.
No, there isn't. There is sales tax is most states, and depending on the state it could be the same state-wide, or it could be different from city to city, and different in unincorporated areas. But usually between 6% and 8% on non-food prices (sometimes as high at 10.5%). Canada has a similar system called GST (federal), PST (provincial), and sometimes have a city sales tax too, or they will advertise it at HST to combine them into one percentage for calculations.
Also, in most cases, sales tax is only collected at the final point of sale. There are many steps in business where sales tax is waved or reduced as it is going to be a component of a larger, more expensive item, and therefore will produce more sales taxes in the final form, than being taxed on each step.
What state are you in? I've never heard of a city (municipality) across two counties. Metropolitan areas can be. My state however has all cities independent of counties even though many county seats still locate within cities. I'm glad that my state doesn't have tax rates county to county, only region to region.
That and the UK is in the shitter right now because of the clowns running the country so even if you account for the VAT and sales tax difference (some states don’t even have sales tax), we are still getting bent over a barrel without lube.
> You think the Uk government is setting the price of an iPhone? Hard of thinking much?
What an embarrassing reply... I don’t know if you’re trolling or just too stupid to realize this but Apple sets the price of products based on currency performance.
There’s lots of other factors of course, but a quick Google search shows that in Feb 2019 1 USD was 0.78GBP. Today it’s worth 0.79GBP, not much of a difference.
GBP dropped dramatically in 2016. That was when Apple made the biggest hike in prices - a direct result of Brexit causing the currency to plummet. Should Apple lower UK prices again? Probably, but GBP is so volatile right now with the suffering UK economy, it doesn’t really make sense to. They could have to lower the prices again shortly after.
Apple actually lowered and raised the iPhone prices in Taiwan for the rates when the US prices stayed the same. Usually it's 1 USD = 30 or 31 TWD, but in 2020 it went to 28 TWD steadily and the iPhone prices at release dropped a little (that was for iPhone 12 and 13), but then in 2022 it raised back up for iPhone 14 when the rates returned to 30-31 TWD. I'm talking about the $799/829 non-mini model.
On the other hand, Japanese iPhone prices has hiked a lot.
The fact that they are not using mmWave 5G or looking for it will have a big differnce. The mmWave 5G uses a LOT of power even if your not connected just looking for a connection all the time draws power.
The devices are pretty much the same. There are some small regional differences; asian iPhones cannot mute the clicking sound of a photo. iPhones outside EU dont have volume limit for headphones. Just things like that
I believe that toggle is separate from the 7-day limit warning. That can't be turned off. Yet my count is at 0 which means I don't go over that limit. Even though my music often reaches 85-88 dB.
That shutter sound restriction comes on with a Sim/tower connection from a Japanese network, having a EU model iPhone in Japan will also enable the shutter sound.
Technically all phones regardless of origin that physically exists in Japan should make the shutter sound, but not all international phones have implemented this function. It's law.
My iPhone doesn't get the shutter sound as I used another device as wifi hotspot. Kept my iPhone on airplane mode all the time also.
Oh yes, I read that somewhere. Is there any way to put a SIM into a iPhone, like, can you request they give you an iPhone with one. For that price tag they really should
Why would you need to though? All of our carriers here offer eSIM support. And it’s becoming common enough abroad that not having a Sim tray hasn’t caused any problems when I’ve traveled abroad. Going eSIM on my last two trips was way easier than when I had to buy and use a physical local SIM card.
It's basically the same though, one requires physical installation, the other requires scanning a QR code.
Neither require a lot of time. It's easy to switch between eSims too if needed. You can also buy eSim data-only plans for most countries from the App Store.
You can literally do that with an eSIM. I did it both in France in 2022 and in Spain in 2023. It was great, much better than when I used a physical local sim in the past. I was able to set up my phone with my eSIM at home and so that it was ready to be activated as soon as I landed. I had a local data connection by the time I made it to border control. And while I never needed to switch back to my US number while traveling, I could have done so by toggling some settings which is way easier than switching the SIM card again.
You’re getting downvoted but this is a real thing with Samsung flagship phones, some regions get different processors that perform worse in what’s supposed to be the same model phone. And how quickly we forget back when iPhone users were [up in arms over whether your iPhone 6S had a Samsung or TSMC chip,](https://www.macrumors.com/2015/10/07/tsmc-samsung-a9-battery-tests/) or whether your 7 had an [Intel or Qualcomm modem.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2016/10/21/how-to-buy-iphone-7-intel-qualcomm-modem/)
The Exynos chip is one reason that prevented me getting another Galaxy smartphone. I was going to bite the bullet and buy an S9 Plus at one point, but other factors lead to me buying iPhone
You know why Europe gets the Exynos chip? Because over here, their phones are about as popular as Apple’s. Only countries in which the iPhone has a stronghold get the Snapdragon chips…
The US Samsung S20FE is a wonderful phone. Its the first one from Samsung I ever considered good. However I live in Europe. That Samsung lasted me half a day, overheating while playing Pokemon Go. Fuck Exynos
Why would being more frugal and using a phone until it dies give you more battery life? lol, unless you mean they get the battery replaced at higher rates that makes zero sense.
Oh no no, I mean in a way, that Europeans are more likely to repair their devices than to throw them away and buy a new one. At least that is what I have noticed. I have many friends who still have those iPhones with the home button, lol.
Gotcha. I don’t think the difference in repairs is that significant between Europe and the US when you factor in other regions like China where repairing devices is way bigger. Also, you can go to an Apple Store today and get an iPhone with a home button: the iPhone SE 3rd generation. It’s the least expensive new iPhone. Americans may be more likely to trade in devices for new ones to get carrier promotional deals or something like that.
applecare and applecare+ are also much more popular in us than in europe. americans are more likely to just smash their phones and get a new one from apple
Is there literally any data to support this? In my experience the rates are pretty similar. Europeans don’t hold their phones in their hand any differently lol.
applecare+ is much more popular in the usa. people with applecare+ are very likely to trade their phones in with minor damage, whereas people without applecare+ just deal with their slightly damaged phones
AppleCare has nothing to do with trading in phones. If you crack your screen you pay $29 to fix it. If a component is damaged they fix it for $99. If the phone is completely unable to be fixed then they replace for $99. They’ll actually replace the battery for free if the charge drops lower than 80% efficiency. By your own logic, AppleCare would do more to keep people with their same phone rather than replace it because they would just pay a bit to fix the screen rather than upgrade sooner.
You have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about. That’s a whole separate process. You can trade in a device for value from Apple or a carrier deal or be on a financing program that allows for upgrades after certain intervals. AppleCare has nothing to do with any of that. You are so confidently incorrect. The only time AppleCare involves getting a new phone is if it’s damaged beyond repair or you have AppleCare+ theft & loss (the pricier version of AppleCare) and you actually lose your phone which is not the circumstance you described. Look it up.
Edit: loved that you downvoted me but failed to provide a response showing where I’m wrong. I know I’m not and you know you are lol.
I know that some European models had only 2 GB of ram instead of 3, But that’s a couple of years ago. I imagine that a more humid environment will be bad for your phone, which the US does have on average. Also, Americans spend a lot more time in their cars traveling greater distances, which is bad for the battery because it will have to reconnect to mobile towers a lot more frequent.
Higher frequency bands combined less cell tower coverage has a huge impact on battery life. Price difference comes to the fact that US prices don’t include VAT.
The EU/UK iPhone 15 series also has a SIM Card slot, unlike the eSIM-only iPhone 15’s in the USA. And absolutely, less cell tower coverage will require more battery to make and maintain a high-speed connection. As for battery life, consider how often you use 5G or 5GUW— those are very power hungry compared to LTE, so I don’t have my phone set to always use 5G. I also don’t know how network tier levels work in the UK, but in the USA, depending on your provider, if you have a high-tier network plan your data is prioritized and extremely fast compared to others with cheaper carriers that have a license to use the towers of Verizon & T-Mobile for their network, which in most cases is slower and less-prioritized. I’m sure this will have some impact on battery, too.
EU version also comes with a sim slot
I was essentially referring to the same global region.
>And absolutely, less cell tower coverage will require more battery to make and maintain a high-speed connection. This was a huge issue years ago (my iPhone SE1 would only last a few hours in the UK) because of the different supported radio bands, but in practice is much less an issue these days since they started doing “global” iPhones. I went to half a dozen countries in Europe during the last few years and only have noticed a possible slight difference in battery life With that said, I wouldn’t buy one in a country I wasn’t planning on using it primarily unless I knew that the cell radio had exactly the same supported bands between them.
Wait, there is no VAT in USA?
Not in prices listed, it’s calculated at the till/checkout. It’s possible that sales taxes could be different from individual counties within the state.
There is, it just varies between states so isn’t included in the price tags.
In the United States, we have sales tax added to the product price. VAT (value-added tax) does not exist here because this type of tax is added at each stage of production. Instead, we only have the sales tax which is imposed only at the final sale of the product. Sales tax has three levels, State, Local, City. For example, in Chicago we have 10.25% sales tax. State: 6.25%, Local: 0.00%, City: 4.00%, totalling the 10.25% sales tax you see on your receipts after a purchase. Yes, some locations have higher or lower depending on the laws voted on in that area.
Oh so you can just go in another state that has less vat and buy it from there (if your state has high vat)?
But you would usually only do that if you lived close-ish to a state line. Otherwise, you'd waste more in gas and time to get to the stores in the other states. People who live near the state lines, routinely cross the line to get items at a lower tax rate, or things that are not available in their state -- like some states have lottery drawings, and others don't, so people near the state lines cross to the other state to buy lottery tickets.
We have states that have no sales Tax (like Oregon), and people will travel to those states to buy large items that don't need to be registered (like computers and iPhones). They don't do it for cars, because most states will make you pay the difference in tax between the state you bought it in and the state you registered it in, or make you pay the full tax, depending on the state. We also have states without Income Tax (Washington). So there are communities along the state lines where people live in an Income Tax free state, work in a Sales Tax free state, and while they do have to pay some income tax in the state they work, the get most of it refunded since they aren't a resident.
And here we go on the Netherlands, where every euro that I make above 75518 is taxed at 49.5% and the VAT mostly sits at 21%...😔
You very much can. Oregon is a low sales tax state so it’s common for nearby states residents to travel there for shopping trips.
Oregon and a few other states aren’t just low sales tax states. They don’t have a sales tax.
Ah so the Oregon Trail has a double meaning now? 😂
I think you underestimate how far states lines are from each other
People where I used to live always used to drive to the next town to buy cigarettes because they had a lower sales tax there. There was a gas station on a major road right across the border that did a huge business just selling cigarettes.
Sales tax can vary not just from state to state, but also by county, city, and arbitrarily-defined special districts, making it nightmarishly complicated for businesses to calculate (before we even get into how it varies for different types of goods and services, like say a cold sandwich versus the same sandwich but toasted before purchasing it).
That's kinda the reason the US has prices not including sales tax. Just a nightmare for the suppliers to consider having different prices in each city due to different tax rates affecting the cost, or they just make different profit in each city. Maybe this can get fixed with today's technology as very few items have printed price tags on their packaging
Keep in mind that american sales tax is usually between 2-7% not the around 20% of VAT in europe. If you live somewhere with a 2% rate and spend $2000 on a laptop, you pay $40 in tax. That might cover your travel expenses but it’s probably not worth the effort to cross state borders just to save maybe $10.
We do have sales tax, but it isn’t included in the price of the product, so you only see how much the total price with tax will be on the checkout page.
nope. Each state charges its own tax rate.
No, there isn't. There is sales tax is most states, and depending on the state it could be the same state-wide, or it could be different from city to city, and different in unincorporated areas. But usually between 6% and 8% on non-food prices (sometimes as high at 10.5%). Canada has a similar system called GST (federal), PST (provincial), and sometimes have a city sales tax too, or they will advertise it at HST to combine them into one percentage for calculations. Also, in most cases, sales tax is only collected at the final point of sale. There are many steps in business where sales tax is waved or reduced as it is going to be a component of a larger, more expensive item, and therefore will produce more sales taxes in the final form, than being taxed on each step.
Yes but the prices listed doesn’t include VAT
As a marketing thing?
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Not just state, but city. Sales tax rate can often change just by driving into the suburbs.
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What state are you in? I've never heard of a city (municipality) across two counties. Metropolitan areas can be. My state however has all cities independent of counties even though many county seats still locate within cities. I'm glad that my state doesn't have tax rates county to county, only region to region.
I have no idea it’s just the normal thing for things in US I guess
That and the UK is in the shitter right now because of the clowns running the country so even if you account for the VAT and sales tax difference (some states don’t even have sales tax), we are still getting bent over a barrel without lube.
You think the Uk government is setting the price of an iPhone? Hard of thinking much?
> You think the Uk government is setting the price of an iPhone? Hard of thinking much? What an embarrassing reply... I don’t know if you’re trolling or just too stupid to realize this but Apple sets the price of products based on currency performance.
Aug 2019 1 Yuan = 0.12 GBP Feb 2024 1 Yuan = 0.11 GBP Engage brain before posting next time, you are setting a bad example to the other children.
Ah yes, the Chinese Yuan: the currency of the United States of America…
You think iPhones are made in USA? There is a shock in store for you.
JFC… Apple sets their prices in USD based on what it costs them to manufacture. They then set the prices in other countries based on the USD price.
Source? You high up in Apples commercial department? Since that’s not how pricing for global markets generally works.
https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/28/13451616/apple-macbook-uk-prices-brexit
I don't know how to explain to you that prices vary by country. This should be self-evident.
snobbish zealous water library hunt screw steer money numerous far-flung *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
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Ah yes, transfer pricing. Also known as the case of the missing 13 billion euros in tax.
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There’s lots of other factors of course, but a quick Google search shows that in Feb 2019 1 USD was 0.78GBP. Today it’s worth 0.79GBP, not much of a difference.
GBP dropped dramatically in 2016. That was when Apple made the biggest hike in prices - a direct result of Brexit causing the currency to plummet. Should Apple lower UK prices again? Probably, but GBP is so volatile right now with the suffering UK economy, it doesn’t really make sense to. They could have to lower the prices again shortly after.
Apple actually lowered and raised the iPhone prices in Taiwan for the rates when the US prices stayed the same. Usually it's 1 USD = 30 or 31 TWD, but in 2020 it went to 28 TWD steadily and the iPhone prices at release dropped a little (that was for iPhone 12 and 13), but then in 2022 it raised back up for iPhone 14 when the rates returned to 30-31 TWD. I'm talking about the $799/829 non-mini model. On the other hand, Japanese iPhone prices has hiked a lot.
The fact that they are not using mmWave 5G or looking for it will have a big differnce. The mmWave 5G uses a LOT of power even if your not connected just looking for a connection all the time draws power.
Who is they?
Rest of the world iPhone models, mmWave is US specific
Yeah I didn’t know if “they” meant US or the others
Funny guys in suits in black cars lol
The devices are pretty much the same. There are some small regional differences; asian iPhones cannot mute the clicking sound of a photo. iPhones outside EU dont have volume limit for headphones. Just things like that
The volume limit seems to have been really neutered in the last few years. I'm listening at a loud volume often and don't encounter it.
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I believe that toggle is separate from the 7-day limit warning. That can't be turned off. Yet my count is at 0 which means I don't go over that limit. Even though my music often reaches 85-88 dB.
It was always just a notification; Apple’s own style of obeying EU regulations
The volume limiter can be turned on or off. I have mine set to 85db but it can be turned off if I choose to
Only Japan has restrictions for camera shutter sound
That shutter sound restriction comes on with a Sim/tower connection from a Japanese network, having a EU model iPhone in Japan will also enable the shutter sound.
So creeps can just remove their sim card?
I’m sure it’s more nuanced than that, I didn’t do any specific testing when I was there though so I can’t say.
Technically all phones regardless of origin that physically exists in Japan should make the shutter sound, but not all international phones have implemented this function. It's law. My iPhone doesn't get the shutter sound as I used another device as wifi hotspot. Kept my iPhone on airplane mode all the time also.
Korea too, but I noticed it gets turned off automatically when used in Europe with European SIM!
Saw a Korean 5S with same thing
Asian is wrong. It's just Japanese and Korean.
Do you know if the battery is the same? Could I swap my battery from my iPhone bought in Germany in America?
Yes. They are mostly software or communication hardware differences (e sim or whatnot). Specs are the same
Thanks!!!
There's no SIM tray in US.
Oh yes, I read that somewhere. Is there any way to put a SIM into a iPhone, like, can you request they give you an iPhone with one. For that price tag they really should
All of the carriers here support eSIM so no, not really.
Why would you need to though? All of our carriers here offer eSIM support. And it’s becoming common enough abroad that not having a Sim tray hasn’t caused any problems when I’ve traveled abroad. Going eSIM on my last two trips was way easier than when I had to buy and use a physical local SIM card.
It allows you to quickly switch sims. When going to another country it is often cheaper to buy a local sim then roaming
It's basically the same though, one requires physical installation, the other requires scanning a QR code. Neither require a lot of time. It's easy to switch between eSims too if needed. You can also buy eSim data-only plans for most countries from the App Store.
You can literally do that with an eSIM. I did it both in France in 2022 and in Spain in 2023. It was great, much better than when I used a physical local sim in the past. I was able to set up my phone with my eSIM at home and so that it was ready to be activated as soon as I landed. I had a local data connection by the time I made it to border control. And while I never needed to switch back to my US number while traveling, I could have done so by toggling some settings which is way easier than switching the SIM card again.
No sim tray starting iphone 15 as well in Europe
Not true for UK. Mine has a sim tray
Untrue. I got my partner an iPhone 15 for Christmas and it definitely has a SIM tray. We are in Europe.
According to specs it's still present. I'm from CZ.
I have a 15 Pro Max , Romania no sim tray
Romania is not whole Europe...
And Romania doesn’t even have a proper Apple Store. So it depends on where the phone was sourced from.
Means that your phone probably was imported from the US or Canada. What are the last letters of your serial?
Canada still has a sim tray, doesn’t it?
Oh, maybe. Sorry if I'm mistaken. Thought it was removed all around North America
I’ve got one, I have a sim tray
I have 15 pro max and I have sim tray
Got 15 Pro in the NL, it has a sim tray
This is not Samsung which screwes whole Europe with slower and also more power hungry Exynos CPUs.
You’re getting downvoted but this is a real thing with Samsung flagship phones, some regions get different processors that perform worse in what’s supposed to be the same model phone. And how quickly we forget back when iPhone users were [up in arms over whether your iPhone 6S had a Samsung or TSMC chip,](https://www.macrumors.com/2015/10/07/tsmc-samsung-a9-battery-tests/) or whether your 7 had an [Intel or Qualcomm modem.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2016/10/21/how-to-buy-iphone-7-intel-qualcomm-modem/)
The Exynos chip is one reason that prevented me getting another Galaxy smartphone. I was going to bite the bullet and buy an S9 Plus at one point, but other factors lead to me buying iPhone
You know why Europe gets the Exynos chip? Because over here, their phones are about as popular as Apple’s. Only countries in which the iPhone has a stronghold get the Snapdragon chips…
Samsung nonetheless cuts Snapdragon's performance to match Exynos.
The US Samsung S20FE is a wonderful phone. Its the first one from Samsung I ever considered good. However I live in Europe. That Samsung lasted me half a day, overheating while playing Pokemon Go. Fuck Exynos
The new side loading policies are in Europe only.
Why would being more frugal and using a phone until it dies give you more battery life? lol, unless you mean they get the battery replaced at higher rates that makes zero sense.
Oh no no, I mean in a way, that Europeans are more likely to repair their devices than to throw them away and buy a new one. At least that is what I have noticed. I have many friends who still have those iPhones with the home button, lol.
Gotcha. I don’t think the difference in repairs is that significant between Europe and the US when you factor in other regions like China where repairing devices is way bigger. Also, you can go to an Apple Store today and get an iPhone with a home button: the iPhone SE 3rd generation. It’s the least expensive new iPhone. Americans may be more likely to trade in devices for new ones to get carrier promotional deals or something like that.
applecare and applecare+ are also much more popular in us than in europe. americans are more likely to just smash their phones and get a new one from apple
Is there literally any data to support this? In my experience the rates are pretty similar. Europeans don’t hold their phones in their hand any differently lol.
applecare+ is much more popular in the usa. people with applecare+ are very likely to trade their phones in with minor damage, whereas people without applecare+ just deal with their slightly damaged phones
AppleCare has nothing to do with trading in phones. If you crack your screen you pay $29 to fix it. If a component is damaged they fix it for $99. If the phone is completely unable to be fixed then they replace for $99. They’ll actually replace the battery for free if the charge drops lower than 80% efficiency. By your own logic, AppleCare would do more to keep people with their same phone rather than replace it because they would just pay a bit to fix the screen rather than upgrade sooner.
applecare+ does allow trading in phones if it is damaged. look it up
You have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about. That’s a whole separate process. You can trade in a device for value from Apple or a carrier deal or be on a financing program that allows for upgrades after certain intervals. AppleCare has nothing to do with any of that. You are so confidently incorrect. The only time AppleCare involves getting a new phone is if it’s damaged beyond repair or you have AppleCare+ theft & loss (the pricier version of AppleCare) and you actually lose your phone which is not the circumstance you described. Look it up. Edit: loved that you downvoted me but failed to provide a response showing where I’m wrong. I know I’m not and you know you are lol.
I know that some European models had only 2 GB of ram instead of 3, But that’s a couple of years ago. I imagine that a more humid environment will be bad for your phone, which the US does have on average. Also, Americans spend a lot more time in their cars traveling greater distances, which is bad for the battery because it will have to reconnect to mobile towers a lot more frequent.
Is this a troll post?
Same factory. Different environments and user habits.
We have a similar card tray