According to analyst, only the iPhone 15 Pro will benefit from USB-C speed enhancements

According to noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the switch to USB-C will result in a significant increase in wired transfer speeds for the iPhone 15 Pro models. Unfortunately, he does not believe that benefit will be extended to regular 2023 iPhones. He predicts that the 15 and 15 Plus will also get USB-C ports, but, like the 2022 10th-generation iPad, they'll be limited to the same USB 2.0 speeds as Lighting.

Kuo made the prediction in a series of tweets on Wednesday, citing data from his "most recent survey." (The analyst is well-known for gathering data from supply chain sources.) He went on to say that the "15 Pro and 15 Pro Max will support at least USB 3.2 or Thunderbolt 3." If that's true, it means they'll be able to transfer data at speeds of up to 40 Gbps, which will be a boon for people who use the Pro phones to shoot a lot of ProRes video and raw photos, where even fast WiFi and cloud uploads aren't a good substitute.

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My latest survey indicates all 2H23 new iPhones will abandon Lightning and change to USB-C, but only two high-end models (15 Pro & 15 Pro Max) will support the wired high-speed transfer, and the two standard ones (15 & 15 15 Plus) still support USB 2.0 same as Lightning.

— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) November 17, 2022

 Kuo has long claimed that the 2023 iPhones will include USB-C; in May, he speculated that the port change "could improve iPhone's transfer and charging speed," but now it appears that he has more details on that and how Apple will use it to segment its devices. Since then, the EU has mandated that new phones with charging ports use USB-C (a law that Apple has hinted it will grudgingly comply with), though the requirement won't take effect until fall 2024.

It would not be surprising if Apple increased transfer speeds for its next pro models but not for its regular models. The iPhone 14 Pro received a new chip this year, while the standard models retained last year's internal hardware. Apple has been looking for new ways to differentiate its higher-tier phones, and faster wired speeds appear to be the type of feature that professionals would appreciate. This is especially true given that regular iPhones currently do not support advanced content creation features such as ProRes video or raw photos.