Sticking the 23-year-old USB 2.0 port on a device that is made in 2023 and costs $1k is inexcusable. [non-pro]
There is absolutely no excuse when we're talking about a device at this price point and this age.
It doesn't matter that it wouldn't be fully exercised by most users. These are premium products at a premium price point. It's insulting that they would cheap out like that.
It makes sense though. The non-pro models are using last year’s A16 SOC without any updates. I assume they’ll get USB 3 next year when the SOC is updated. I’d be much more disappointed if that’s not the case though.
I'd assume the non-pros will remain on USB2, and that serves as a segmentation feature. Especially since only the pros can shoot in ProRAW and ProRES.
On iPads, the "base" iPad is on USB2 speeds, the mini supports 5Gbps, the air 10, and only the pro supports 40Gb USB4. And while SoC differences could explain differences between the iPad (A14) and Mini (A15), the 5th gen Air uses the same SoC as the 5th gen Pro which already did support 40Gb USB4. So it's not an SoC limitation.
Although they ended up putting the 48MP main camera on the non-pro and I thought that'd remain pro-exclusive as well so...
It's a bit more complicated than that with the iPads. The Mini supports 5Gbps but only as USB Host mode. If you hook it up to a computer as a USB client, it'll still be USB 2.0 [0]
If you're familiar with the Raspberry Pi 4, those do the same thing. That SoC supports USB 2.0 client. The USB 3.0 host is done through an external (to the SoC) USB controller, a VIA Labs VL805. That's what the Mini and iPad Pros have done. The first iPad Pro didn't even have a USB 3.0 to USB-A cable for USB client because it didn't support it, just their host mode accessory. The newer Pros probably do the 40Gb USB4 through a similar USB controller and only in host most. Not client, where it's limited to 10Gb [1].
I have an iPad Pro 11-inch 4th gen and that supports Thunderbolt/USB 4 but when connected as to my MacBook Pro it shows up as USB 3.1 at 10 Gbps. So that is correct.
It would definitely be a disappointment if they have the hardware on the device for 3, but arbitrarily limit to 2 for pure market segmentation. The iPad situation as you described it is discouraging.
The Pros do use USB3? Or are you talking about the regular 15? I still agree with you, but unfortunately the vast majority of regular iPhone users aren’t transferring large files over a cable and won’t care.
The regular 15. And 3.0 also supports much faster charging.
Maybe most won't care, but I still think it's disgusting and pathetic for a company this size with products this expensive to cheap out by using USB 2.0.
They indicated in the pitch for the Pro that they added logic to the new CPU to drive USB 3 at 10gbps. The non-Pro is using last year's CPU, so while yes I guess that means they did "cheap out", I imagine the cost to include 3.0 on the non-Pro is pretty high and most people don't care.
This. Consider the market. Samsung also doesn't add its newly-engineered, top-of-the-line solutions to its lower-end new models.
Almost all the people on this forum are in the target market for the Pro. The standard iPhone is not built for us, nor will most of its users have a problem with 480Mbps-over-wire transfer speeds.
USB 2.0 vs 3.0 has nothing to do with power delivery.
The only meaningful difference between 2.0 and 3.0 for the iPhone use-case is transfer speeds, and the simple reality is that the overwhelming majority of iPhone owners only use a cable to charge their phone, not to transfer data on/off it.
USB 3.0 isn't really necessary to support higher charging speeds that is mostly through Power Delivery which I believe both the regular 15 and pro support since they both advertise 20W fast charging.
Could there have been other tradeoffs? Power consumption, silicon footprint, et cetera. Most people never use USB to transfer data to and from their phones. It would be slightly ridiculous to support 3.0 if it meant tradeoffs in anything practical just so they can say they support a new protocol.
Well for now it's likely just the IP blocks (the non-pros uses the A16 which was certainly designed without since none of the 14s was shipped with support).
When the non-pros get the A17 we'll see if they disable the USB3 controller and it's market seg. I'd assume so but...
On the other hand, the 6th gen Mini uses an A15, and has USB 3 speeds support (only 5Gb but still).
So apple might have had USB3 speeds support in the A15 specifically for the mini, or they might have included USB3 support for a while in all SoC and enable it selectively for segmentation purposes.
That would gel with the comparison between the iPad Air 5th gen and the iPad Pro 5th gen: they both use the desktop-class M1, but the Pro supports full TB3 and USB4, while the Air only supports 10GB.
Dunno, I don't own Apple products and was quite disillusioned with my one workplace MBP. I'm unfamiliar with their newest chips and feature support. Do they maybe have an off-chip USB controller on the tablet?
Honestly, I'd expect any Armv8.3+ or Armv9 to have USB PD/USB-C, Thunderbolt, etc. on the chip itself. USB PD is even halfway-or-more supported on some budget Cortex-M targets. Apple, though, is a special case; the chipmaker and developer are the same, so they have the freedom to say "no USB-C on mobile chips" and include only the features they want.
My post was pure speculation and a little giving them the benefit of the doubt.
> They could've easily done that on the iPhone 15, so it's market segmentation.
Adding additional chips/additional controllers is not "easily" done. The iPads have more space to spare on their boards, and have larger batteries that can absorb the additional power requirements for running those additional chips much easier.
USB 2.0 data rates have absolutely nothing to do with charging speed. You don't even need to support data (at least, USB data) at all to support fast charging speeds. You just need to support PD, which is on separate, required pins that both phones support.
There is absolutely no excuse when we're talking about a device at this price point and this age.
It doesn't matter that it wouldn't be fully exercised by most users. These are premium products at a premium price point. It's insulting that they would cheap out like that.