⌥ USB 3 Speeds Finally Come to a Non-Pro iPhone

One of the things I was most looking forward to when Apple announced it was moving to a new connector in the iPhone was the prospect of faster data transfers. It had been years since this new USB specification was finalized, and Apple was already supporting it in its newest computers, so it seemed predestined the new iPhone would get it, too. That was the naïve view I had in 2012. That September, Apple announced the iPhone 5 and, alongside it, the Lightning connector. Like the 30-pin “iPod” connector it replaced, it was limited to 480 Mbps as defined in the USB 2.0 spec. Surely I would not be fooled again next time Apple switched the iPhone connector. Right? Alas, while all models in the iPhone 15 line were equipped with a USB-C connector, only the top-of-the-line Pro models were capable of USB 3.1 speeds. Maybe that is because the standard iPhone 15s used the A16 SoC of the previous year’s Pro models, neither of which supported the faster USB spec. But that does not explain why the…