Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Unpopular opinion: Lightning is a better connector physically than USB-C. Sure... I know why people want USB-C on an iPhone. (Standardization, faster transfer speeds, charging...etc.) But from a durability standpoint... I think Lightning is better.
If it’s durability your looking for. I got this 30 pin connector your going to absolutely love!
 
  • Haha
Reactions: compwiz1202
Its safe to say, at this point, Apple is playing musical chairs with the iPhone hardware.

Lets recap:

2007 - multitouch, all screen phone, Internet in your pocket
2008 - 3G
2009 - video recording
2010 - Retina, Facetime
2011 - Siri
2012 - bigger screen, 4G/LTE
2013 - A7 64 bit
2014 - 4.7, 5.5
2015 - Force touch, 4K video recording
2016 - computational photography
2017 - truly all screen, OLED, A11 Bionic, Face ID, Animoji
2018 - now this is where it starts to get muddy - what was the standout in XS and XR again? bigger scree, 6.5 I believe.
2019 - Three cameras, more computational photography, I must admit, I did see a dramatic improvement in the photos.
2020 - 5G
2021 - Blurring people when recording a movie
2022 - Always on display, Emergency services, Photonic engine (which some are debating make photos worse, dynamic island.
2023 - thinner bezel

It's a bit cruel to dismiss this as a "thinner bezel" redesign.
We'll have USB-C and periscope lens on the Ultra at least, plus industry-first 3nm.
You could see these as iterative upgrades, but even Apple doesn't expect to buy you every single yearly model.
It's safe to say that you could buy every 3 years without missing out on any serious content.
Just periscope on the Ultra will make this worth it for a lot of people.

Overall this isn't an iPhone 4 or iPhone X kind of leap, but I'd still rank it over most others.
Better than XS, 14. Also better than 7, 11, 12, 13 if you are an USB-C fan, most people will decide based on this, no doubt.
In my personal ranking this is on par with 5S, 6S, 11Pro which were truly groundbreaking for their internals.
 
At Newark's new airport terminal the other day, there was already a universal charging standard that powered my iPhone, my neighbour's Android phone, and my AirPods. Qi is an existing universal charging standard and the newer spec charges at or above the USB-C fast charging speed.
lol what? How in the hell is a Qi charger faster than USB-C that can deliver 100W.
Unless you're using the old 5W charger as the source.
 
  • Disagree
  • Like
Reactions: ipedro and 3530025
Still seems a little sketchy that an almost-final sample would come out so ahead of time.
Not even the Gizmodo iPhone 4 leak was so early.
Oh well.
You are obviously not in any sort of field that does procurement.

Do you think Apple just calls up the various companies after the iPhone announcement event and orders a billion chips for next day delivery? iPhone 15 design was completed last year, and this is the time when they are checking if it can be produced in mass and what changes might be needed. iPhone 16 features are nearing completion as well, so that its cycle can start.
 
Again, every leak purposefully looks like it comes from an iPhone 3GS camera. If just a bit more pixels would risk to reveal the leaker, I don’t understand how. Anyway, as others pointed out, why does Dynamic Island seem to be strangely misaligned?
 
Last edited:
Billions of cables and adapters going to the landfill. "Good for the planet" - Apple
Technically, these old cables and adapters only go to the landfill when the device / devices they were made for go to the landfill (or better yet, are recycled).
Just because a new generation device has a different port in no way means that old equipment becomes obsolete at this point.
I for one will use my lightning cables to charge Airpods, keyboard and mouse, as well as my iPhone 13 and iPad even after Apple puts USB-C on new phones and other devices. I will perhaps not buy a new lightning cable if one breaks.
 
Still have no idea what took Apple so long to implement this change. Maybe we will never ever find out!
Apple is a for-profit business which means that, like every other major tech brand, all their decisions are concerned with increasing profits.

Not calling them out. That’s just what big corporations do, make money for shareholders.

And if anyone has the audacity to suggest that Apple has been keeping Lightning around for so long for other reasons than profits then I appreciate they explain to me how we’re not living under capitalism, and how investors are okay with less growth if it means consumers can buy less cables, or saving the environment, or USB-C being inferior, or any other obscure argument.

The decision to finally do USB-C is one that EU regulators made for Apple, not something that Apple wants to do. End of story.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Denzo
Is this what we have to look forward to.. a new cable, which is just an old cable?

No thinks they should dabble in something a little more invigorating?
 
  • Like
Reactions: compwiz1202
Again, every leak purposefully looks like it comes from an iPhone 3GS camera. If just a bit more pixels would risk to reveal the leaker, I don’t understand how. Anyway, as others pointed out, why does Dynamic Island seem to be strangely misaligned?

I have just spotted another camera hole to the right of the DI spot, covered by the “e” of the leaker’s watermark, so alignment-wise it is actually alright.
 
Again, every leak purposefully looks like it comes from an iPhone 3GS camera. If just a bit more pixels would risk to reveal the leaker, I don’t understand how. Anyway, as others pointed out, why does Dynamic Island seem to be strangely misaligned?
Because there are small changes or markings that will identify the company. Or the person.

Elon Musk caught a leaker in Tesla by sending emails with different space characters.

What use is a 48MP photo going to be in anycase? They just want to show the port.
 
By now, the only next step is wireless.
Exactly - a change away from the ”standard” everyone else is following by that point.

I’m OK with my Apple Watch being wirelessly charged and having limited options / locations for charging, but I’m having a hard time warming up to a portless phone. Same for iPad or computer. Until data transmission rates are as good with wired, I don’t see the point in losing that 2nd charging option.
 
  • Like
Reactions: compwiz1202
That's funny, be a use there's no hard evidence at all to back up this claim. USB-C cables can last just as long as a Lightning cable if well maintained. The only issue would be needing to probably clean out your port every now and then, but that has nothing to do with durability. Not to mention, Lightning cables are heavily limited by Apple. And sure, they'll probably heavily limit their USB-C ports on their phones too, but even if they do, it won't be because of the cable. It would be because they themselves chose to do so. All around, USB-C is just the better cable.

(Also, just because the lightning cable may FEEL like it's in tighter, it doesn't change anything related to the USB-C connections that work perfectly as well)
>USB-C cables can last just as long as a Lightning
It's not about the cable, it's about the connector.
USB-C ports seem to become unstable easily on Mac Books. I've experienced and know of two other owners who have.
The Lightening is cleary a snugger firm design.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: compwiz1202
I just don’t like the curves much…am I the only one who likes the flat design?

also: as mentioned in the last post about this, looks a bit like titanium…👀
Isn't the chnged curves note referring to the corners?
 
Neat. Now we can mass throw away lightning cables to help reduce waste!

Someone (like Apple) aught to come up with a recycling program. There's not much copper in each cable, but not nothing either. Add up all Lightning cables ever sold, and it's probably a very substantial amount of copper.

When the landfills are full of Lightning cables we shall all be free.
Or, you know, keep using them with our many existing lightning devices.
Or give them away to the many people who still use a lightning iPhone or other lightning devices. Just because the newest iPhones will be usbc doesn’t mean everyone is going to switch all at once. Relatively few will switch per year. If everyone who does switch gives away their cables (to friends/relatives, on Craigslist, etc.), people will probably stop buying new lightning cables and we can probably ease off them without wasting much. Hopefully there will even be drop off and pick up programs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: oneMadRssn
Isn't the chnged curves note referring to the corners?
from what I can tell, you are correct, the border radius on the screen itself looks to be bigger. but—and my eyes could be totally deceiving me, in all fairness—from the second picture, showing off the USB-C port, it seems to have a frame that's at least a little curved.

I will say, upon second glance, it seems like they might've hit the mark between overly curved (i.e. the 6, the ugliest iPhone ever in my opinion [many people might jump to say "the 5C!" but I thought that was a fun design, even if it was plasticky, the array of colors was reminiscent of golden-age iPod nano days {but the nano did it better with aluminum}]) and completely flat. just ergonomic enough with the curves, but just aesthetically flat enough.

either way, I love my 14PM. I don't see myself upgrading for a good few years. especially because I have a certain payment plan to pay off…gotta love AT&T!

(read: even if I had bought it full-price, I still don't see myself upgrading. the two most important things to me on iPhone are screen quality and camera quality, and the 14PM hits it out of the park with those. camera bump be damned. Deep Purple is also one of my favorite Pro colors ever [if not my single favorite].)
 
>USB-C cables can last just as long as a Lightning
It's not about the cable, it's about the connector.
USB-C ports seem to become unstable easily on Mac Books. I've experienced and know of two other owners who have.
The Lightening is cleary a snugger firm design.
Lightning is beyond repair since it has not enough pins. End of story, it simply cannot compete with current and established technology.

If any evolution of the Lightning standard would have been possible, Apple would have done it. But it switched to USB-C itself. I'm charging my USB-C iPad Pro with the same cable since 2018 nearly every day and everything is still perfect.

For every other case that may occur: The repairability of the iP14 improved dramatically (the iP14 Pro still has the old crippled design). So lets hope, all the iP15 models will adopt the mechanics of the iP14 and a new connector won't be a big issue in the future.
 
Exactly - a change away from the ”standard” everyone else is following by that point.

I’m OK with my Apple Watch being wirelessly charged and having limited options / locations for charging, but I’m having a hard time warming up to a portless phone. Same for iPad or computer. Until data transmission rates are as good with wired, I don’t see the point in losing that 2nd charging option.
Another big problem is to do any troubleshooting, iDevices still need to be connected to a PC/Mac. Without any port, Apple has to rethink the basic foundations of iOS itself. Even Android can troubleshoot itself through recovery mode, but iOS, the so called post-PC devices, cannot. :rolleyes:
 
When iPhone finally gets USB-C, we will begin to hear rumblings about how it is the greatest thing since sliced bread from people who previously said "I love lighting, nobody wants USB-C, lighting is great!" 🤣
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.