According to ChargerLAB, which took exclusive images of the USB-C connectors for the iPhone 15, the new smartphones will support Thunderbolt technology.

Thunderbolt is a hardware interface developed by Intel in collaboration with Apple to transfer data at high speeds. The current version of Thunderbolt works via the USB-C connector and is available on many Apple devices such as the Mac and iPad Pro.

ChargerLAB states that the leaked iPhone 15 components contain a Retimer chip. This chip is commonly used to restore and reduce signal jitter in Thunderbolt-enabled devices.

The iPhone 15’s USB-C connector will be able to transfer data at much faster speeds than the Lightning connector can. For example, the Lightning connector is based on USB 2.0 transferring up to 480 Mbps. Typical USB-C connectors transfer data at speeds between 5 Gbps and 10 Gbps. When it comes to Thunderbolt, data transfer rates reach 40 Gbps.

This allows you to quickly transfer 4K ProRes video to a computer. In addition, this technology can provide more power for fast charging. It is not clear at the moment whether Thunderbolt will be on every iPhone 15 model or only on Pro models.

It was previously reported that the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will use the USB 2.0 version with a transfer rate of up to 480 Mbps, similar to the previous Lightning interface. At the same time, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will receive USB 3.2 and the transfer rate can reach 20 Gbps. According to rumors, the iPhone 15 is expected to be announced in September.