Originally Posted by
lsquare
My reading is that all of this year's iPhones are going USB-C. It is only the European models that may only have sideloading due to a new security mechanism built into iOS to determine a person's actual location. I'm going to upgrade due to USB-C alone as I want to carry one fewer proprietary cable.
Why do you really need a model that is fully compliant with the Chinese networks? IPX doesn't support 5G. Also, what is so special about the Chinese app store? What kind of apps that you need isn't available in other app stores?
If I were you, I would buy the iPhone in Canada. It is very likely to have a SIM slot and the hardware generally supports all US networks. It just doesn't support mm-Wave, which I don't care about as most of the time it's not even accessible. I've used my Canadian iPhone 14 Pro Max with T-Mobile roaming in Asia and Europe without any issues. I haven't tried China yet.
I would take EU iPhone for sideloading only
USBC is not that big of a deal for me. MacBook Pro still requires USBC to MagSafe cable for fastest charging.
I don’t need 5g
Many apps for the domestic Chinese market are released only on that store and some are worth trying. For example 多闪 is a Snapchat/BeReal clone created by Bytedance
I want my China data physically segregated from the non China data. Similar to having a separate work and personal phone.