One of the things I was most looking forward to when Apple announced it was moving to a new connector in the iPhone was the prospect of faster data transfers. It had been years since this new USB specification was finalized, and Apple was already supporting it in its newest computers, so it seemed predestined the new iPhone would get it, too.
That was the naïve view I had in 2012. That September, Apple announced the iPhone 5 and, alongside it, the Lightning connector. Like the 30-pin “iPod” connector it replaced, it was limited to 480 Mbps as defined in the USB 2.0 spec. Surely I would not be fooled again next time Apple switched the iPhone connector.
Right?
Alas, while all models in the iPhone 15 line were equipped with a USB-C connector, only the top-of-the-line Pro models were capable of USB 3.1 speeds. Maybe that is because the standard iPhone 15s used the A16 SoC of the previous year’s Pro models, neither of which supported the faster USB spec. But that does not explain why the successors — the regular iPhone 16s — also only supported USB 2.0 speeds over their connector, as did the iPhone 17. And it really does not explain why the iPhone Air, which has essentially the same processor as the iPhone 17 Pro, is also limited to a pathetic USB 2.0 transfer speed.
USB 2.0, by the way, became a standard a full 25 years before the iPhone Air’s release. If the original iPhone had shipped with an ADB-based connector, it would have been using what was then a more recent protocol for a wired connection than the iPhone Air did when it came out.
Perhaps Apple would justify its USB 3.1 selectivity in reverse. The 10 Gbps transfer speeds capable with its recent Pro models are necessary for recording ProRes video to an external hard disk, after all, and professional video codecs are only available on the Pro model iPhones; ergo, those are the only iPhones that need a fast USB controller. But that is no longer an accurate reason, either, because there is now an iPhone which can do 10 Gbps USB transfers but has none of the professional camera technologies. It is the iPhone Duo. And that gives me hope that the rest of the iPhone line will catch up.
Maybe that is because it would be truly embarrassing to release an iPhone model with an $800 USD premium that had a USB 2.0-level connection. And, yes — it would be embarrassing, but the kind of embarrassing Apple could smooth over with a statement to friendly websites about how it is a capability that was intended for pro video applications and, anyway, nobody transfers data over a wire these days.
I am one of the few: I still transfer data over a wire, and I like it that way. Also, given Canadian pricing, I would like to buy a regular iPhone next time I upgrade. The only reason now to keep USB 3.1 speeds away from the lower-grade models is simply as a product segmentation tactic. That is entirely possible — likely, even. If I had to gamble on whether the iPhone 18 will have a connector supporting USB 3.1, I would bet against it. But this is the first time I have had hope that it may — finally — happen.
It remains a mystery to me why this has taken so long. Outside of the Apple ecosystem, USB 3 has been table stakes for over a decade. Apple shipped three iPad models with support for USB 3 over Lightning, too, so it is not like this stuff was impossible on an iPhone. It is baffling. It feels absurd to write this in 2026 speculating about a phone that will likely be released next year about a spec that was finalized thirteen years ago. But it seems possible that, at last, Apple’s plain-Jane iPhone will inherit the fifth-fastest USB standard around. Hallelujah.
But I have been fooled before.