For those who came in late, Apple has been making a fortune forcing its customers to shell out a fortune for proprietary cables. Now, the EU has told Apple that in the interests of polar bears and common sense, it will have to use USB-C like the rest of them.
Now Toms Hardware has discovered some rumours which suggest that Apple is planning to mess up that plan.
Currently, USB-C to USB-C cables can also charge speeds up to 240W, though your actual charging speed will depend on whichever device you’re using. iPhones currently top out at 20W, provided you use a USB-C to Lightning charger and cable.
The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus may be stuck at the same level as Lightning while getting USB-C ports, but the actual port itself will be USB 2.0. The changes are effectively skin-deep, and both phones will have the same speed-based limitations as the Lightning cable.
However, the obscenely priced iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will have no such limitations and will support USB 3.2. While it is not the fastest or most recent version of USB, it offers 20 Gbps transfer speeds — more than 40 times faster than USB 2.0. This more advanced version opens up the potential to connect to more accessories that USB 2.0 isn’t fast enough to handle, including external displays.
So in a situation where the iPhone 15’s type-C port is limited to USB 2.0 speeds, the only charging restrictions you’ll face will come directly from Apple. This may be the result of the phone’s hardware, and how much power it can safely receive at any given time, or it could come from some specific software-induced shenanigans.