The picture at the top of this article is hardly the prettiest we've ever run, but if you're a serious iPhone user it could be the most important part of your next phone purchasing decision. The USB-C port that's coming to all the iPhone 15 range is expected to be different in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Ultra. Outside it's the same old USB-C, but inside it'll support much faster speeds.
How much faster? Up to 90% across multiple file types, according to USBMakers. They've put together a USB speed calculator that you can use to calculate data transfer times for various kinds of files across various generations of USB.
Why faster USB-C matters to iPhone pro users
The USB-C connector for the iPhone 15 Pro and Ultra is reportedly the same one you'll find in the latest iPad Pro, with Thunderbolt 4 data transfer of up to 40Gbps. That's faster than the USB-C in the current iPad Air and iPad mini, which delivers 10Gbps and 5Gbps respectively. It's over four times faster than the theoretical maximum speed of Wi-Fi 6. And it's over eighty times faster than Lightning.
That matters because many of the people who buy Pro and Pro Max iPhones are doing so because they want to use the best possible settings for photography and video, and when you do that the files you create are absolutely massive.
If you're shooting ProRes video in 4K you're looking at 6GB of data per minute of footage. And chances are, if you're shooting ProRes video in 4K time is very definitely money. I don't mind waiting for a funny video of my dog to upload, but if you're shooting proper video for work you don't want to hang around.
As much as I'd like to have that kind of speed too, I don't need it. And if you're not a creative pro, you probably don't either. But if you use your iPhone for serious creative stuff then that faster transfer time is going to make the most expensive iPhones much more attractive. We'll hopefully find out more at WWDC next week.
