Any good reason not to get an iPhone 17 Pro from US for bigger battery?

Forums › Apple iOS and devices › Any good reason not to get an iPhone 17 Pro from US for bigger battery?

Aaroona

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#322771 21-Sep-2025 15:07

I am looking at the line up, and while I am not overly excited about the whole line up and am on the fence about upgrading from my 15 Pro, the thing that would send it over the edge for me is the battery life, however it seems that the US is one of the only markets to get the eSIM only version.

From what I can tell, it supports all the right bands for NZ... is there any good reason not to get one from the US? Provided I buy Apple care?

turtleattacks

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#3417080 21-Sep-2025 15:11

Sometimes when you travel, eSim isn't always available.

Secondly, CGA is more useful than you think.

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Asteros

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#3417128 21-Sep-2025 15:37

If you are trading in a phone and can apply all the discounts One NZ are providing then it might be cheaper or similar to the US handset only price.

1024kb

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#3417129 21-Sep-2025 15:48

The eSIM-only option is available in more countries this year than last - eSIM is the future for mobile phones, Apple will roll it out worldwide, removing the physical SIM option as they go.

Even with the slightly smaller capacity battery, it looks like the upgrade might be a clever move. You'll get far more efficient power consumption vs your 15 & much quicker charging too. The power-intensive operations are optimised so it looks like the areas of concern for you are covered even without the possible 6% increased capacity of an eSIM-only phone.

The proviso is that this is the first generation of new technology, it's not always the best idea to jump on in & end up being an unwilling beta tester for Apple. That's why I'd definitely buy the phone locally, warranty support might just be more important than usual. Next year's model should be a well-sorted evolution.

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Jase2985

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#3417132 21-Sep-2025 16:12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CggZxyWl-g

Do you need a bigger battery?

jdogz

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#3417184 21-Sep-2025 17:22

You'll gain an extra 2H of batterylife in theory NZ vs US iphone 17 pros - removal of sim slot.

https://www.apple.com/nz/iphone/compare/?modelList=iphone-17-pro,iphone-15-pro,iphone-17-pro-max

https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/?modelList=iphone-17-pro,iphone-15-pro,iphone-17-pro-max

I'm all in for esim most countries are adopting it. Having sim slot as a backup is nice but not necessary feature.

Used "airalo" to preactivate my esim call/data plan for trip to the US - was easy as cheaper then roaming.

Waiting for iphone 17 pro max to turn up upgrading from iphone 14 pro.

snj

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#3417185 21-Sep-2025 17:34

The only real potential downside to getting the US version is issues with speedy warranty/out of warranty repairs.

I can envision scenarios where replacement parts for the eSIM only variant has to be ordered in from a parts warehouse, as opposed to held in stock by AASPs, which might mean same day repairs (i.e. battery) turn into 2-3 business day repairs. (There'll be local-ish stock regardless because Apple have to cover global coverage AppleCare repairs here for visitors/etc, but the stock might be in Sydney or China as opposed to held in country/at the AASPs)

That is ignoring the other reasons people have mentioned (particularly CGA)

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SpartanVXL

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#3417286 22-Sep-2025 07:56

As always with overseas purchases it depends. E.g. base iphone 17 256GB is $1699nz, whereas getting it somewhere like Japan can be as low as $1360nz.

If you were going to get applecare anyway and have the opportunity then it seems like a good choice. From the posts online, it seems like Apple is pretty good for global repairs.

henrytai

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#3419388 28-Sep-2025 12:18

From my experience, Apple Support can be quite limited when a product isn’t officially available in NZ. For example, when I owned a Series 4 Stainless Steel Apple Watch that I had purchased in Aus, I couldn’t get any service in NZ and was told I would need to ship it back to Aus at my own expense. Since then, I’ve been very cautious about buying Apple products that aren’t officially sold in New Zealand.

US models: A3256 and A3257
NZ models: A3523 and A3526

Unless it's significantly cheaper, I wouldn't get the US model. As turtleattacks mentioned, CGA can be very useful when needed, unless you’re planning to keep paying for AppleCare+.

I hope next year NZ gets the same larger battery model without the SIM slot.

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