LIGHTNING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE USB-C
iPhone Life Magazine|Winter 2023
FIVE REASONS WE'RE THRILLED & READY
CULLEN THOMAS
LIGHTNING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE USB-C

Apple has retired the decade-old Lightning cable from every product in its lineup. As our existing devices age out of use and we update to new devices with USB-C, we will finally recycle our tangled drawers of old Lightning cables, only to invest in a new collection of USB-C cables to tangle in our drawers. Despite this inconvenience, we’re excited to make the switch. Here are five reasons this change is welcome, plus one thing to bear in mind:

1) SPEED: USB-C CAN LEAVE LIGHTNING IN THE DUST

The maximum data transfer rate of a Lightning cable is 480 Mbps, or about one music CD in 25 seconds. The maximum data transfer rate of a USB-C cable is currently 40,000 Mbps (usually written as 40 Gbps, but I’m using the same units for the comparison). At that rate, you wouldn’t notice any transfer time for a music CD, it would happen before you could blink.

As startling as that difference may appear, we must moderate our expectations. A USB-C cable can be built to a few different specifications, and only the very fastest (USB 4/Thunderbolt 4) achieves that 40 Gbps transfer rate, and only in certain applications such as very fast solid-state hard drives. iPad Pro models offer USB 4/Thunderbolt 4, but the iPhone 15 Pro models use the older and slower USB 3 standard, which offers a potential transfer speed of 5,000 Mbps (5 Gbps). At that lower spec, a whole music CD’s worth of data should transfer to the 15 Pro in about one second. A regular iPhone 15 uses the USB 2 standard, which is similar to Lightning.

この記事は iPhone Life Magazine の Winter 2023 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

この記事は iPhone Life Magazine の Winter 2023 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。