11 Essential Accessories Your iPhone Wants for the Holidays
The USB-C cable coiled in the box on the back of the iPhone 15 and later models is… slow. Although USB-C is nearly universal as a plug shape, not all cables can transfer data as quickly as others. This product is really only suitable for charging, as it only transfers data at USB 2.0 rates (480Mbps, or megabits per second).
This is an astonishing speed – almost a quarter of a century ago when it was introduced. But if you want to back up your iPhone to a computer or record videos to an external drive, you’ll need a cable that can handle USB 3 speeds of at least 5Gbps (gigabits per second).
To do that, pick up this 1-meter USB-C cable from Cable Matters for just $13. It has data transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps and can also provide 100 watts of power to charge and run external devices.
But there’s a catch: The higher speeds are only available on the Pro models—iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max. iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 continue to support only USB 2 speeds.
