- iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus: USB-C 2
- iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max: USB-C 3
Yes, Apple is officially ditching Lightning this year for USB-C, as much as it would love to continue selling licenses to third-party Lightning manufacturers. And it would have gotten away with it if it weren't for that meddling EU. So now we have a totally unified charging and data transfer solution for all smartphones, right? Well, no. In fact, even in the iPhone's first USB-C smartphone family, there are some compatibility caveats. The iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are compatible with USB-C 3 speeds (up to 10Gbps transfer speeds) but the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will only take USB-C 2 (480mbps transfer speeds.)
To make matters a little more confusing, the USB-C cable Apple ships with the iPhone 15 Pro is a USB-C 2 cable. To take advantage of the faster transfer speeds, you'll need to purchase a separate USB-C 3 cable. Apple currently sells a 1-metre Thunderbolt 4 Pro cable for $115. That's just the cable, no brick included. Sorry to break it to you.
Still, USB-C on iPhone 15 has other benefits. For one, most of your non-Apple devices should already be using it if they were released in the last five years or so. Secondly, you can now use the USB-C to USB-C cable to charge your AirPods Pro from your iPhone 15.
Sorry, not your AirPods Pro, they still use a Lightning cable, the brand-new USB-C powered AirPods Pro that Apple quietly announced alongside the new iPhones which are functionally the same as last year's bar one or two very small differences.
- Exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max
ACTION! As the rumours suggested, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will inherit the Action Button of the Apple Watch Ultra, sadly without the same high-vis orange pizzazz. To be honest, it's an extravagant name for a button that essentially replaces the reliable side-mounted Ring/Silent switch. Yes, you can change its function with a number of quick access commands, like accessing the camera, or customise it with the Shortcuts app (which still isn't super user-friendly) but we would have been happier with an Action Button if it didn't mean losing the tactile Silent switch. Not sure if Apple knew, but we were kind of using that.
Apple's 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, ProMotion, is still a Pro exclusive this year. This one feels a bit old in 2023 when other manufacturers have moved on from selling 120Hz as a premium feature. There's no doubt that it makes a difference on iPhone, it would be hard to go back at this stage. But with so many other premium features to differentiate the 15 and 15 Pro, it would have been nice to see ProMotion make its way to standard devices. You can keep calling it ProMotion, nobody cares, honestly. Or just call it Motion, or better yet, just Adaptive 120Hz Refresh Rate or High Frame Rate. Don't overthink it, Apple.