If nothing unexpected happens, this Chinese iPhone 17 series should be one of the more "castrated" versions, but the conscience is that the price has not changed much, and it is still at the level of 1,000 yuan machine, ordinary Americans have no pressure to buy, they can buy it with a week's salary, while ordinary people in China have to spend 2-3 months' salary to buy it.

(Apple CEO Cook holds the latest iPhone17 phone in his hand)

The functions of the castration of the Chinese iPhone 17 series are as follows:

(1) Apple Intelligence Assistant cannot be used

All the Chinese version have been castrated. It is simply understood that it is an upgraded version of ChatGPT+Siri from the Apple version. It can help you write emails, summarize conversations, understand context, etc., and can help you automatically handle many trivial matters. The main reason why Intelligence cannot be used is that it wants to pass the data to Apple's servers, and in mainland China, these data cannot be transmitted, so Apple simply shut down all of them. And this thing directly locks the AI with the hardware ID, and it cannot be solved even if you go abroad to switch to SIM.

However, Apple AI will cooperate with Baidu AI and Alibaba AI in China:
Ali AI is mainly responsible for content output, which is commonly referred to as the "content review" part. All content generated by Apple AI will be reviewed.
Baidu AI mainly deals with Apple's core functions such as voice and image understanding, similar to ChatGPT's role.

But so far, ordinary users still cannot use it, they are just testing. The overseas version of iPhone is not available, because the Apple ID is set in China and the function cannot be opened. This function is estimated to be available after upgrading the system at the end of the year or early 2026.is equivalent to a domestic user who spent 7-8K to buy a semi-finished AI phone.

(2) eSIM cannot be used: you need to spend 20% more online fees when going abroad

Write a piece of operator code directly into your mobile phone and you can make calls online. At present, more than 120 countries around the world have supported eSIM, especially developed countries. This is the trend:

You can use your mobile phone to make calls online without inserting a card and writing a piece of operator code. It is very convenient.
Just sell traffic packages directly when traveling abroad, without changing the card
You can hang many numbers at the same time

But the domestic operators' policies are not relaxed, and users cannot add them in the settings themselves, so they can only go to the business hall to open it. Moreover, there are many restrictions, and they also need to bind packages and register real-name basically cannot be used. If you don’t have eSIM, you will have to spend 20%-50% more roaming fees when you go abroad.

As soon as Apple thought about the troubles in China, it felt like it had locked all the functions of the Chinese iPhone. Therefore, this function is one of the biggest functions of the iPhone 17 in China being castrated.

(3)FaceTime Audio cannot be used

FaceTime is Apple's own video/voice call tool. Like WeChat, it goes online.iPhone users are "free" to call, and do not have phone bills. The sound quality is clearer than that of ordinary phones and can penetrate poor signal environments.

However, because FaceTime is taking Apple's own encrypted channel, it may bypass telephone supervision without passing through the operator, so it is blocked. This is also an important reason why WeChat can bypass operators to use traffic calls, but FaceTime is not available, including group video calls.

Similarly, castrated WiFi Calling is also the same. The iPhone 17 calls directly in places with poor signal (basements, caves), butBecause WiFi Calling involves telephone services, it is also castrated without the authorization of the operator.

(4) The national bank supports the least frequency band

The China iPhone 17 is the mobile phone with the least frequency bands supported compared to the overseas version.

The 4G and 5G bands that are not supported by the Chinese iPhone 17 include:
5G: n2, n5, n7, n12, n20, n25, n28, n66, n71, n77, n258, n260, n261, etc.
4G LTE: B2, B4, B12, B13, B17, B18, B19, B20, B25, B26, B29, B30, B32, B66, B71, etc.

There are too many frequency bands that are not supported. The above frequency bands are commonly used in Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea. This means that once your signal abroad becomes weaker, there is only one grid left, and it will be frequently disconnected. In some places, it may not even be able to connect to 4G.This is why many people mock the poor signal of iPhone mobile phones, but it is no problem to use it in China.

There are many other functions that have been castrated, but they have little impact on ordinary people. For example:
(1) 5G mmWave: 10 seconds for 5G movies abroad, 20 seconds for 5G travel in China.
(2) Wireless charging: National Bank limited to 7.5W, international version 15W+, national bank wireless charging is slow.
(3) Satellite call: It can send help messages in the signal-free area, with a coverage rate of 99%, but the national version directly resisted.
(4)WiFi 6E: The 6GHz band WiFi cannot be used in the domestic bank, and the download is slow. However, ordinary people don't feel it clearly.
(5) The AI real-time beauty + night view enhancement of the iPhone 17 camera was also castrated.
(6)NFC is only available for Apple Pay and does not support read and write access cards.

There are still some that will not be listed. Overall:Most of the national castration function has little impact on ordinary domestic users!

Written at the end (price):

The iPhone is a thousand yuan level in the United States. It is determined based on the per capita income of the United States. The average salary of Americans is US$3,000, and the nationwide unified selling price of mobile phones. It’s just that the US dollar is converted into RMB in mainland China, which seems to be very expensive.

Americans only need to buy an iPhone in one week, while Chinese people need to get a month's salary to buy a domestic mobile phone, so domestic Redmi, Honor and other mobile phones are mobile phones that are suitable for the income level of Chinese people.

Combined with the pricing of iPhone in the United States, you will know why Apple phone sales have always been far ahead in the Chinese market.

Lu Songsong is a self-media person and short video blogger. It is also a must-see account for entrepreneurs, focusing on the grassroots entrepreneurial circle, technology Internet, self-media and short video industries. Thank you for your attention!