Sure, it's obviously the USB-C port limiting the thinness. Not the honking great camera bulge that now needs a second bulge on top of it for the actual lens which, together, almost double the actual thickness of the phone. Nope, not that, don't pay attention to that, it's only the thinnest bit that counts - it's the 2mm high USB-C socket that's stopping them making the phone less than 5.6mm thick. Pesky EU.
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iPhone Air Features 3D-Printed Titanium USB-C Port With Three Benefits
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Just once is enough to make the a user angry about, in particular after spent more than 1000$/€. Greedy choice.
Industrial 3D printers are nothing like what you see home users have, many items you wouldn't even know are 3D printed unless it was revealed to you.
Except that…
- There was no need to force USB-C on companies as they were already moving that way on their own.
- USB-C is problematic and the only guarantee you have is basic charging. You can have cables from 480Mbps up to 80Gbps, charging only cables with no data (at different power levels, no less) or cables that support displays. As a “standard” it’s a mess.
That was my thought as well. A lot of what the Air does seems like they're applying technologies they've been researching and would be useful in a folding device.
There’s already thinner phones that exist where the USB-C connector is a bump. Pesky EU.
They didn’t require microUSB, and we ended up with the much better USB-C designed and deployed by the tech industry which knows a little more about tech than EU regulators.
They shouldn’t require USB-C.
The "context" is that you can get a basic smartphone for $200, a nicer one for $400 or even one with an Apple on it for $600 - so by the time you get to $1000 the "...but not everybody will need [basic feature present on most other ~$1000 smartphones]" argument starts to wear a bit thin.
Depends who you ask. It’s kinda like processor speed.
When iPhones ONLY had 480Mbps Lightning and Android devices had 5Gbps USB-C it’s all they talked about and how bad iPhones were for loading movies or downloading photos/videos.
When the iPhone Pro models got 10Gbps USB-C it suddenly didn’t matter as much anymore.
Funny how that works.
But they almost required Micro-USB. EU didn’t go as far as mandating it, but they did write a memorandum of understanding where they wanted it to be standardized across devices.
Good thing companies ignored the EU memorandum.
Your argument doesn't make sense. If someone wants different features they can buy a different phone. The Air is 'just' an iPhone 17+ with a better marketing campaign. If you want all of the pro features, buy an iPhone pro.
Probably, but we'll never know how long Apple would have taken to phase out Lightning without being pushed.
Also, now Samsung, Google et. al. won't be able to go back to the old ways of using proprietary connectors, charging protocols, video/data protocols etc.
People go on about "stifling innovation" but too much innovation in the past has been "how can we make a fortune by forcing our customers to buy proprietary chargers and accessories".
Its not just "basic" charging, since anything that can use more than the basic voltage & current is required by the EU to implement the USB Power Delivery standards.
As for data/video yes it's called the common charger directive for a reason... and while data/video may not be guaranteed as standard there are standards for doing all of those things over USB-C. AFAIK you can't just invent a new video/data protocol to use with USB-C ports without registering it with USB-IF. Plus, you have the "guarantee" that plugging the wrong USB-C power supply in at worst just gets you a trickle charge and won't let the magic smoke out (unless you have a fake product).
Yeah, the multiple cables thing is a bit of a mess (more accurately, the USB-IF's failure to require labelling of cables is a mess) but there are necessary differences between the cables - USB3/4 support needs 8 extra wire cores, 240W charging needs thicker conductors, longer USB4 cables need active re-timer chips... Even if you avoid Apple's prices, a full-featured USB/TB cable is going to cost more & be overkill for just charging your phone.
Non answer to his questionI think the iPhone 15 pro let you record to external storage directly.
There's also this interesting MagSafe attachment I found on Amazon.
Hagibis Magnetic USB C Hub with Magsafe for iPhone 16 15 Pro Max, 7 in 1 Type-C Docking Station 4K@60Hz HDMI SD3.0 TF3.0 Card Solt 100W PD 10Gbps USB-C AUX for MacBook Pro Air, iPad Pro (TC100)
Hagibis Magnetic USB C Hub with Magsafe for iPhone 16 15 Pro Max, 7 in 1 Type-C Docking Station 4K@60Hz HDMI SD3.0 TF3.0 Card Solt 100W PD 10Gbps USB-C AUX for MacBook Pro Air, iPad Prowww.amazon.sg
At this point, I feel that there really isn't any justification for keeping usb-c at 2.0 transfer speeds, if the spec allows for faster speeds.
Yeah..? I use .5 zoom frequently and I still sync my phone manually using finder for backups. 200GB on USB 2 speeds takes a bit..
Worth pointing out that this has been a longstanding issue. Yes.
Even Lightning had the pin count for USB 3, but outside of (iirc) 1 iPad, they never bothered.
I could honestly care less. My iPhone 15 Pro apparently can transfer data at 10 Gbps but I've literally never used it for data transfer. I get why it's there, because the Pro level phones are the ones people buy for intensive video stuff. But I seriously doubt any videographer types are like "ooh, let me get the incredibly thin iPhone with the least battery life and one physical lens instead of three."
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Apple doesn’t want people using external media, period. They want you on a paid iCloud subscription and paying for extra storage when you buy your iPhone.
I’m honestly still surprised they added it to the Pro models, glad they at least embraced it there. Saving RAWs directly to external media allowed Apple to control the USB C transition messaging in addition to being a genuinely good feature. Shame it took them so long to do it and aren’t doing it with the Vision Pro, which might be even more egregious than the USB 2 iPhones.
It was necessary to force USB C on Apple. It shouldn’t have been necessary, but it was.
I agree that the USB-IF and cable makers have made a complete mess of messaging USB capabilities (this includes Apple).
I’ve worked in metal additive, for a material developer. The company made metal powder mixtures with considerably better properties, depending on use cases. We sold aluminum products mainly, but I could see a titanium mixture behaving similarly, engineered by material scientists to have higher strength. When you’re working at the atomized level, things can get interesting.
Such a bummer about those data transfer speeds. The last time I used my iPhone for wired data transfer is…never.
..and I transfer data, via cable, 3-4 times per week. Your experience is not any more useful than mine.
