iPhone Air Features 3D-Printed Titanium USB-C Port With Three Benefits

[michiemme]

How often do normal consumers use the port for anything but charging? Seriously.

Just once is enough to make the a user angry about, in particular after spent more than 1000$/€. Greedy choice.

 

[chrono1081]

3d printed just screams cheap low quality to me. I'm sure "titanium" or "metal" 3d printing is more advanced than the tacky cheap plastic **** most people 3D print with but c'mon.

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.

 

[justanotherdave]

Glad they were able to make a super thin phone and stlll use a USB-C port.

Looks like it didn't actually "kill innovation" to simply adopt the worldwide standard.

They still have the option to go even thinner with totally port-less, which I expect them to try at some point also.

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.

 

[Tdude96]

I do not know if it has been observed elsewhere in other articles / posts about the iPhone Air, but does it not seem obvious that this model would be a necessary first step in creating an iPhone Fold model? Two of these case designs hinged together with a folding screen? Challenges like the inclusion of this space optimized USB-C port being enabled are likely one of many needed in a future Apple Fold model.

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.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/iphone-17-pro-only-comes-in-three-colors-with-no-black-option.2465003/post-34111219

 

[Unregistered 4U]

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.

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.

 

[theluggage]

Why? You act like it's the most expensive phone available. It isn't. You can't just throw the "$1,000" out there like it means something. It needs context.

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.

 

[justanotherdave]

How often do normal consumers use the port for anything but charging? Seriously.

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.

 

[justanotherdave]

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.

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.

 

[klasma]

3D-printed, but still only USB 2.

 

[ececlv]

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.

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.

 

[theluggage]

- There was no need to force USB-C on companies as they were already moving that way on their own.

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".

- USB-C is problematic and the only guarantee you have is basic charging.

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.

 

[JosephAW]

First point of failure with the air in the near future. 📱

 

[burgman]

I think the only thing holding me back from really wanting this air is the lack of .5 zoom and that USB 2 speed.

Im sure you believe that.

 

[BleedingEdge.]

Since the new usb port is titanium instead of steel will port corrosion be a thing of the past?

 

[burgman]

I 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 Pro

www.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.

Non answer to his question

 

[Mactech20]

Im sure you believe that.

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..

 

[paradox00]

I'm not defending it, but it's worth pointing out the non pro iPhone 16's from last year are also USB2

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.

 

[ignatius345]

I'm not defending it, but it's worth pointing out the non pro iPhone 16's from last year are also USB2

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."

 

[paradox00]

I will assume that Apple has done the required research and likely found that the only people that actually care about transferring large files via this method, would buy the Pro phones. Most people just use it for charging and wouldn't even know what a USB version number meant.

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.

 

[paradox00]

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.

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).

 

[mansplains]

I find it interesting that it is claimed to be stronger ... that seems unusual since forging processes are renowned for work hardening metals, and aligning grain patterns, and I've never seen any information (haven't looked for it though) that posits objects made with printed metals are stronger than the same objects being forged and run through a clean-up machining process.

I'd think that printed metal objects significantly reduce engineered waste, a/k/a offal, coming from final machining processes (and thus cost) but unless the old forging process was limited somehow, I'm not feeling it.

A part of my career had to do with bulk deformation processes, i.e. cold forging of steel, so my knowledge of titanium's oddities and limitations is limited (although I recall, Porsche Design had to go through a learning curve when they started using Titanium for their consumer products because of a kind of "spring back" effect that Ti apparently had.

Anybody here with knowledge or experience regarding Ti forging or machining? It'd be interesting to hear your thoughts on the hardness via printing vs forging topic.

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.

 

[Simmias]

USB gen 2 is over 20 years old. It's still capped at 480 Mb/s for the planet not profit margin surely. Thanks Tim !

Such a bummer about those data transfer speeds. The last time I used my iPhone for wired data transfer is…never.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

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.

 

[tucupeis]

a one thousand dollars device released in 2025 with vintage usb 2 is an insult to the people

 

[zehoo]

If every review complained loudly that usb 2 speeds is completely unacceptable on new phones in current year repeatedly, Apple might actually be forced to spend the extra 50 cents on parts.