Apple iPhone 15 relegated to USB 2.0 unless you buy the Pro

casualhippo@sh.itjust.works to Technology@lemmy.world – 469 points –
Apple finally put USB-C in the new iPhone, but it's inexplicably limited to 23-year-old USB 2.0 speeds
pcgamer.com
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Welcome to the Android world where even good smartphones worth 400 $ only support USB 2.0

My cheap android phones have had usb3 for like 5 years =\

Most Androids still only get USB2.0, but not the ones that are in the price range of the iPhone.

Edit: Feels like I'm back on Reddit with people not reading my comment, I just said that although most units of Android phones are budget to mid-range, mine being a mid-range (Poco F3), Android phones anywhere near the range of an iPhone in Cost is USB 3.0+

I bought my oneplus 10 pro for sub $500 during a sale, and it has usb3.1. It's last year's model. You can get a pixel 6 with usb3.1 for less than $400. A Galaxy S21 has usb3.2, less than $500.

That's almost every major android brand for $500 or less with 3.1 or better. The cheapest you can buy an iPhone 15, the one with usb2.0, is $800. What are you on about?

Cheap as in 100 and less brand new? The third-party market can get you a usb3 type c port from a 2 year old phone at that price range. This is cheap to have. Apple is not doing it because it costs money, but it is a plus for them. They are doing it to push power users, who know enough about technical specs, to buy the more expensive product. The pro has USB 3, and even then, the charging speeds are 12 watt. They are trickling the upgrades ever slower now because the technological advances have slowed down. They are doing it to create hype and advertising the new stuff every year instead of drastically changing their product. It is planned absolesence from making certain parts weak on purpose.

Most units are budget/mid-range, I've got a fairly good mid-range Poco F3 and it's still USB 2.0, most units of android phones are that or below.

I said that everything close to price range of an iPhone is USB 3.0 or greater. The point was that the iPhone 15 is A$1500 and has the same port as my A$600 2-yr old android. The budget specs of the base model is absurd enough without being hyperbolic.

I don't use data on the USB port very often and when I do it's always to make an access point over USB so the USB2.0 bandwidth is enough for my use.

I wonder if people really have a use for USB3.

Apart from making phone more expensive, I don't see a real need for me

Argument can be made if your camera doesn't support 4k or 60fps, there's very little need for higher speeds than USB2.0 since files generated won't be as big. However if you keep using your phone as a camera to record long videos, then yes it's annoying to have slower interface.

That's a valid point.

Also is there's a USB3 controller at all in the phone to connect the camera inside the phone? Or does the camera talk on a different bus on the SoC?

With Apple devices I honestly don't know. With others SoC is the one exposing the rest of the hardware and acts are intermediate. Historically in general giving DMA access to any hardware on the system has proven fatal when it comes to security. You do gain speed, but expose so much in the process.

it's not universally true, there are plenty of cheap and expensive models with USB 3

My phone is 6 years old at this point, was only $350, and uses USB-C.

USB-C is a connector and, by itself, says nothing about the protocol in use. That’s the important part.

5Ghz wifi and Airdrop is what Apple wants people to use. I stopped connecting a USB cable except for doing a physical backup with iMazing on this 256GB model. I just trust the hard line more when making a 232GB backup.

  • USB2.0/3.0 = 480MB/s
  • USB3.1 G1 = 625MB/s
  • 5Ghz Wifi = 850-1000MB/s
  • USB3.2 G2x2 = 2500MB/s

Source: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/usb-3-2-explained

5 Gbps to MB/s = 625 MB/s 6 Gbps to MB/s = 750 MB/s 7 Gbps to MB/s = 875 MB/s 8 Gbps to MB/s = 1000 MB/s 9 Gbps to MB/s = 1125 MB/s 10 Gbps to MB/s = 1250 MB/s

Source: https://www.convertunits.com/from/Gbps/to/MB/s

Is it USB 2.0

It only fast charges in a 3.0 port so I'm gonna have to assume it's 3.0 not 2.0.

That has nothing to do with whether it's USB 2.0 or 3.0 because it's backwards compatible. What phone do you have?

How is it backwards compatible with fast charging if it only fast charges in 3.0 ports but not 2.0 ports? It will work in 2.0 sure, but it doesn't fast charge over it since 2.0 doesn't have the same electrical output as 3. I have a LG Thinq V6.

That phone isnt 6 years old, it was released in 2020. It wasnt $350 either but $800. Weird points youre trying to make...

after a little time most of these handsets see deep discounts and special pricing from carriers

I paid $350 for it, for certain. I thought I got it in 2018 but it seems I'm just misremembering.

The main point is that android certainly uses USB 3.0 pretty commonly, and not just 2.0. If it fast charges, it ain't fucking 2.0.

Bro, you don't really know anything about USB

The port being USB-C has nothing to do with USB 3.0

The port supporting fast charging has nothing to do with it being USB 3.0

Unless you have transferred data over the wire and seen USB 3 speeds, you can't claim it to be USB 3 based on circumstances alone.

On the other hand, I can totally imagine that 99% people never transfer any data over the wire anymore. Airdrop is fast and convenient if you have a Mac and other solutions exist if you don't. You can easily get 10 MBps+ transfer rates over Wi-Fi and that works fine for most people, if they ever need to transfer data over to a PC anyway. So I'm guessing Apple just took what majority would accept and went with it, just like any other company does these days.

Really now?

USB 2.0 has the same power output as USB 1.0 and does not support fast charging.

From wikipedia. If the port on the device only supports 2.0, how does it handle the extra power input to allow fast charging? And what devices have a USB-C port that isn't using the 3.2 standard?

It's a little complicated. A USB-3 connection must provide higher current 900mA than a USB-2 connection 500mA. As such a USB-3 data connection can charge faster than a USB-2 connection - some people may call this "fast charging".

However USB-PD (Power Delivery, aka fast charging) was released as part of the USB 3.1 specification, but it does not require a USB-3 data connection and neither does a USB-3 data connection require USB-PD. You can see all the different USB-C modes on Wikipedia as well, where USB-2 and Power Delivery are listed separately: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C#USB-C_receptacle_pin_usage_in_different_modes

That's the part you are missing. Modern charging doesn't use standard USB power. That's the whole fast charging landscape is addressing.

Read this https://www.androidcentral.com/qualcomm-quick-charge

The power brick can supply more than 5 V over a standard USB port because it's not adhering to USB standards for supplying power. As a result, data and power are decoupled, allowing the power brick to supply more than a standard USB port over a connector and cable which are identical to USB ports and cables.

Disagree. My Redmi Note 11 can charge up to 33W using my current Anker Nano II (65W), previously UGREEN 20W charger. It has USB-C 2.0 port.

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