Apple may separately sell a Thunderbolt cable for the upcoming iPhone 15 models for those who wish to transfer large files at up to 40Gbps.
Apple’s suspected Thunderbolt cable for iPhone 15 | Image: Majin Bu/X
The cable should be around 0.7 or 0.8 meters long. It’s said to support up to 150-watt charging, but the iPhone 15 models will only use a fraction of the power.
Earlier rumors said that the iPhone 15 will use up to 35 watts of power when paired with a USB-C Power Delivery charger versus around 27 watts for the iPhone 14.
Leakers @KosutamiSan and @MajinBuOfficial shared other claimed features of the cable on X, formerly known as Twitter:
- Type: USB4 and Thunderbolt 4
- Capabilities: Power and data
- Length: 70 cm
- Protocol: USB 4 Gen 2
- Rate: 20g
- Video: 4K at 60 Hz
- Power: 150 Watts
Apple currently sells the Thunderbolt 4 Pro cables in two lengths—1.8 meters ($129) and 3 meters ($159)—for USB-C-enabled iPads and Macs. The full-featured cable also works with the Studio Display and Pro Display XDR.
The leakers also speculate that Apple will offer this cable as a separate purchase to any buyers wishing to take advantage of the iPhone 15’s rumored faster fast charging and higher data transfer rates via the USB-C port.
Earlier, they said the iPhone 15 models will include a 1.5-meter USB-C cable in the box, limited to USB 2.0 data transfer speeds of 480 Mbps, the same as Lightning.
People who may be wondering why they might need a higher data transfer than the current iPhones should think about endless wait times when trasnfering 4K ProRES video files shot on their iPhone or restoring their iPhone from a saved iTunes backup.
The conflicting rumors
Other rumors suggested that the iPhone 15 Pros might ship with color-matched, braided USB-C cables supporting USB 3.2/Thunderbolt 3 transfer speeds.
Apple’s Thudnerbolt Pro 4 cable | Image: Apple
Obviously, you should trust everything you read online—there have been conflicting rumors regarding the capabilities of the USB-C connector on the iPhone 15 family and the cables that buyers will find in the box.
The mystery will be solved in a matter of weeks. While Apple hasn’t announced a fall event yet, the company is widely believed to announce the iPhone 15 family, Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 on September 12.