The iPhone 15 Pro will have a Thunderbolt port instead of a Lightning connector. The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will have a USB-C connector with support for at least USB 3.2 or Thunderbolt 3, according to well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. This will give the devices a significant speed advantage over current models.
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In theory, the Thunderbolt 3 standard supports speeds up to 40 Gbps, and the Lightning connector on current iPhone models has USB 2.0 speeds, i.e. up to 480 Mbps. Even with the limitations of actual use, an iPhone 15 Pro with a Thunderbolt USB-C connector will transfer data much faster. Users will be able to download large files to and from iPhone much faster. For example, 48 MP ProRAW photo.
Even if the iPhone 15 Pro models only get USB 3.2 support, that would mean a theoretical transfer rate of 5Gbps to 20Gbps depending on the exact specification. It’s still significantly faster than the Lightning connector.
Most iPad models with USB-C connectors already have accelerated data transfer. iPad Pro models with an M1 processor and newer models support Thunderbolt 3 at speeds up to 40 Gbps. The 5th generation iPad Air supports 10 Gbps, while the 4th generation iPad Air and the latest iPad mini support 5 Gbps. The exception is the new standard 10th generation iPad with USB-C, which is still speed-limited by the USB 2.0 standard.
Like the 10th generation iPad, Kuo said the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will be USB 2.0 speed-limited despite having a USB-C connector. The AirDrop feature will still be available for faster wireless data transfer on these devices.