According to the latest disclosure, nearly all designs since March 2022 of the new iPhone use USB-C instead of Lightning.
Apple is said to be moving to USB-C for the entire iPhone lineup, marking the end of 10 years of Lightning connectivity. After the iPad switched to USB-C over the past few years, the iPhone is the last major device that still uses Lightning alongside AirPods cases and Mac accessories.
Most rumors about the iPhone 15 emphasize that this is the first iPhone to ditch the Lightning port and replace it with USB-C. Since the European Union (EU) approved a law requiring portable electronic devices to use the same connection standard for charging from 2024, there have been many reports that Apple has refused to comply. However, the reality may not be so
Macworld recently reported that Apple has been testing the iPhone 15 with a Lightning port since January 2022, but the prototype was quickly scrapped to switch to USB-C from March 2022. The change is not new to Apple, but it does show an interesting perspective on the iPhone development process when the product launch this year has been planned for quite a while.
The move from Lightning to USB-C is not a small change and requires many updates to the internal components and layout. This may be part of the reason Apple struggled with the haptic feedback tool for the pressure-sensitive buttons on the iPhone 15 Pro.
Along with the ability to charge, the Lightning port is also used for data transfer and reaches a maximum speed of 480 Mbps. Switching to USB-C will allow Apple to offer much faster data transfers, possibly up to 40 Gbps if Thunderbolt is supported on the iPhone 15 Pro models