Türkiye Tops iPhone 17 Pro Price Ranking at $2,592, More Than Double Japan

Q: Will bringing a cheap foreign iPhone on your next trip to Türkiye trigger massive hidden registration fees?

Yes—if you plan to use a cheap foreign iPhone on a Turkish mobile network beyond the grace period, the fee is not hidden and it is very large. Türkiye lets foreign phones work on local networks for about 120 days after the device’s IMEI is first detected. After that, an unregistered phone is blocked from all Turkish cellular networks. It will still work on Wi‑Fi, and it will work normally again outside Türkiye, but local SIM service stops. In 2026, the IMEI registration fee for a phone brought from abroad is widely cited at around TRY 54,258, roughly $1,100 to $1,260 depending on the exchange rate. That means a bargain iPhone bought cheaply in Japan or the U.S. can lose much of its savings once registered for long-term use in Türkiye. For short-stay tourists, this usually is not a problem. If your trip is under 120 days, you can generally use a Turkish SIM or travel eSIM during that window without paying the registration fee. If you stay longer, move to Türkiye, or want a permanent local line, the fee becomes the key cost to watch. There are extra restrictions. Registration is generally limited to one imported phone per person every three years, and the registered device may be tied to SIMs in the registrant’s name for that period. So bringing in a cheaper foreign iPhone can make sense for a short visit, but for long stays in Türkiye, the registration charge can wipe out the price advantage.

2 articles · Updated · voronoiapp.com · Aug 6

$2,592 is the 2026 retail price of an iPhone 17 Pro with 256GB in Türkiye, making it the most expensive of 41 markets tracked by Deutsche Bank.
Japan is the cheapest market in the comparison, with the same model costing less than half the Turkish price.
Taxes, import duties, currency moves and local regulations drive the wide gap, adding hundreds of dollars to Apple’s flagship phone depending on the market.
The ranking underscores how a globally standardized product can carry sharply different consumer costs across countries in 2026.