148
iPhone 15 Models Have 'Completely Standard' USB-C Port Without Restrictions on Accessories
(www.macrumors.com)
this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2023
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Also the article states the lower price models will get 480Mbits, the more expensive ones will get 10Gbits. There is your artificial limitation. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same hardware inside
Older chip doesn't have a 3.0 controller. While disappointing, not really an artificial limit
(Android fan btw)
The cost difference to a 3.2 controller is trivial. It's an arbitrary limitation to differentiate it from the Pro model. They are capitalising on the work done by USB-IF to improve the spec in a way no other member would dream of
Edit: Thanks for telling me about how a $1000+ flagship phone shipping with industry subpar connectivity is OK because they used the SoC from last gen. Truly a revelation.
The difference isn’t just upgrading to a 3.2 controller, it’s literally a different chip. The A16 vs the A17. Unless you’re suggesting they add a secondary controller to the board? Which doesn’t actually work, since the A16 wouldn’t be able to support the speed difference, so you’d have a 3.2 controller locked down to 2.0 specs anyway.
You ever see a comment that is so clearly ignorant. It just makes you shake your head.... congrats my friend
Crack open an iPhone sometime. The mainboard is a tiny little thing with only a couple of chips on it. In general- CPU, storage, RAM, baseband (cellular radio). Sure they could add a USB 3.2 controller, but that's another chip sucking power and taking board space, increasing BoM cost, and since most iPhone users never plug their phone into a computer it'd be wasted.
So they use the USB controller built into the SoC (system on chip), and with the old chip that's 2.0 only.
Guess they must have a surplus of A16 chips and/or the A17 is proving expensive to make.
The controller is a part of the SoC. It would be a completely different SoC, not just an additional controller. The SoC in the 15 is essentially the 14 Pro SoC. Possibly binned from last year’s production line.
It's like you're making all these connections and then still coming to the conclusion that my premise is false. Yeah, the 2.0 controller is bad, because the choices Apple made to design the iPhone 15 SoC weren't about bringing new features to users. They are about posturing features in a particular way for business reasons. Churning through models means each year they need new features to sell. They need to introduce compelling new features at a faster rate than they are being developed, so they drip-feed them instead. And if you actually care about getting the baseline i/o upgrades on new models you'd get from literally any other manufacturer, you have to buy a Pro.
Not just that, lightning was a similar speed to usb2. It's in their interest to make the pro look like an upgrade rather than highlight just how bad the lightning was really for the consumer
Lightning WAS usb2. Like, USB 2.0 signalling was present on some of the pins on the Lightning port. Since USB 2.0 only needed two data wires that was easy to do.
They could use an external USB controller.
Well, they decided to stick to USB 2 instead of USB 3.2 for their base model, despite the high cost of the phone.