iPhone 16 Non-Pro Models Still Use USB 2 Protocol, Pro Models Continue with USB 3

In the recently launched iPhone 16 series, Apple has made no changes to the USB interface transfer speeds, maintaining the same protocol versions and transfer speeds as the iPhone 15 and previous models.

The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus continue to use the USB 2.0 protocol, offering wired transfer speeds of 480Mb/s, which is quite slow by today's standards.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max models continue to use the USB 3 protocol, which provides a transfer speed of 10Gb/s, significantly faster for transferring large files.

However, Apple's decisions can sometimes be perplexing. During the launch event, Apple mentioned that the Apple A18 Pro chip has faster USB 3 transfer speeds, which seems like an improvement at first glance. But, the technical specifications reveal that the transfer speed remains unchanged.

So, it seems Apple is comparing the A18-equipped iPhone 16 non-Pro series with the A18 Pro-equipped Pro series models to claim faster transfer speeds, essentially promoting a feature/characteristic that was already present in the iPhone 15 series.

Currently, using USB 3 or a 10Gb/s transfer rate should be sufficient for most users. However, the iPad Pro models have already adopted the Thunderbolt protocol, offering transfer speeds of 40Gb/s, making the iPhone's supported transfer speeds seem much slower in comparison.

As for the USB 2.0's 480Mbps, it's considerably outdated. The A18 chip is certainly capable of supporting the USB 3 protocol, but why Apple chooses not to upgrade the transfer speeds for the non-Pro models remains unclear. This decision might be to emphasize the superior performance offered by the Pro models.