Through the years, there have been rumors suggesting that Apple ultimately desires to make an iPhone with none ports, permitting for a totally wi-fi charging expertise. An iPhone with out ports has been speculated about, and Apple has even revealed patents for an all-glass iPhone with no ports or buttons.
Apple apparently thought-about making its dream a actuality with the upcoming iPhone 17 Air, however in the end determined not to take action. In his newest Energy On e-newsletter, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman says that one in all Apple’s concepts for the iPhone 17 Air was to design it with no USB-C port, which suggests it will solely cost through MagSafe.
Apple didn’t find yourself getting into that course, as a result of there have been inside considerations that eliminating the USB-C port within the iPhone 17 Air would get the corporate in hassle with regulators within the European Union.
With the iPhone 15 lineup, Apple transitioned away from Lightning and adopted USB-C for iPhones due to an EU regulation that handed in 2022. The regulation requires expertise firms to make use of a “widespread port,” aka USB-C, for charging functions. Technically, the regulation solely applies within the European Union, nevertheless it was simpler for Apple to make the change worldwide than to develop a particular USB-C iPhone in Europe and proceed utilizing Lightning elsewhere.
Together with doubtlessly angering the European regulators, eliminating the charging port on an iPhone totally would undoubtedly upset clients. When Apple eradicated the headphone jack from the iPhone 7, there was a lot of pushback from iPhone customers, and different smartphone manufacturers like Samsung spent loads of time making enjoyable of Apple’s selection earlier than in the end following Apple’s lead and eradicating headphone jacks from Android smartphones.
The iPhone 16 fashions now help MagSafe charging at as much as 25W, and may quick cost with MagSafe and a 30W energy adapter. Quick charging permits an iPhone to cost to 50 % in half-hour, and the quicker MagSafe charging places wi-fi charging on par with quick charging over USB-C. With quick charging out there with MagSafe, there would not be a draw back to eliminating the USB-C port by way of pace, however there could be far much less flexibility as a result of USB-C chargers and cables have turn out to be so common.
Although Apple is not adopting a port-free design for the iPhone 17 Air, it isn’t an concept the corporate is abandoning. If the brand new tremendous skinny iPhone sells nicely, Apple will revisit portless iPhones and slim down the remainder of the iPhone lineup, too.
