Every year the same rumor: the new iPhone will have USB-C. But, luckily or unfortunately, it never comes from reliable sources and every year we end up seeing the same connector Lightning always. And it is not necessarily bad, as it also has its advantages. However, there are many reasons to ask that once and for all Apple give the arm to twist and incorporate this universal standard in its iPhone.
It should be remembered that it would not be, far from it, the first device of the brand to adopt this standard. The iPads have progressively left Lightning behind to adopt USB-C, leaving only the basic range without changing. The same thing happens in the field of Macs, having already had this type of connector for years, although in their case they never had Lightning. In the same way, the iPhone itself offers cables in which one of its ends has that connector.
Advantages that an iPhone with USB-C can already take advantage of
The iPhones already launched on the market will not be able to reverse their situation and go on to have USB-C, but if the new ones begin to incorporate it, they will be able to offer advantages to the user from minute zero. The first and probably most interesting is universalize the connector and in this way practically any phone or tablet in the world, whatever the brand, share cable. It is true that for those who have been using iPhone for years, the cables they already have would stop serving them, but in the long term they win.
Also be able to enjoy a higher fast charge it may be another compelling reason in favor of leaving the Lightning behind. But if there is something that has been necessary for a couple of years now, it is for the speed when transferring data and more specifically the photographs and videos. In the iPhone 12 Pro, the Californian brand added compatibility with ProRAW formats for photos, while in the ’13 Pro’ it not only added that, but also added ProRes for video.
These high-quality formats result in files of great weight, which cannot be quickly transferred with Lightning due to Lightning limitations. If you want to transfer these files to a computer, even more so if it is for a professional task, you have to be patient because not even Lightning to USB adapters can achieve decent speeds. And yes, there are other alternatives to do it, such as AirDrop, but in the end they also have their limitations.
Will it end up coming?
Well, despite those rumors that we referred to at the beginning, no. The iPhone will not incorporate USB-C or at least in the short term. In fact, it is possible that even Apple itself has realized how late it is coming and they are already more concerned about advancing a new technology than to adapt to the one that already exists.
In recent years, the idea of seeing an iPhone without ports, which would be charged using a wireless standard and would use an improvement in AirDrop for data transfer, has sounded strong. In any case, this still looks a long way off and, like it more or less, the Lightning aims to remain the companion of the iPhone for a while.