Apple might offer 150W 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 cable for iPhone 15

Apple may separately sell a Thunderbolt cable for the upcoming iPhone 15 models for those who wish to transfer large files at up to 40Gbps.

The cable should be around 0.7 or 0.8 meters long. It’s said to support up to 150-watt charging, but the iPhone 15 models will only use a fraction of the power.

Earlier rumors said that the iPhone 15 will use up to 35 watts of power when paired with a USB-C Power Delivery charger versus around 27 watts for the iPhone 14.

Leakers @KosutamiSan and @MajinBuOfficial shared other claimed features of the cable on X, formerly known as Twitter:

• Type: USB4 and Thunderbolt 4
• Capabilities: Power and data
• Length: 70 cm
• Protocol: USB 4 Gen 2
• Rate: 20g
• Video: 4K at 60 Hz
• Power: 150 Watts

Apple currently sells the Thunderbolt 4 Pro cables in two lengths—1.8 meters ($129) and 3 meters ($159)—for USB-C-enabled iPads and Macs. The full-featured cable also works with the Studio Display and Pro Display XDR.

The leakers also speculate that Apple will offer this cable as a separate purchase to any buyers wishing to take advantage of the iPhone 15’s rumored faster fast charging and higher data transfer rates via the USB-C port.

Earlier, they said the iPhone 15 models will include a 1.5-meter USB-C cable in the box, limited to USB 2.0 data transfer speeds of 480 Mbps, the same as Lightning.

People who may be wondering why they might need a higher data transfer than the current iPhones should think about endless wait times when trasnfering 4K ProRES video files shot on their iPhone or restoring their iPhone from a saved iTunes backup.

The conflicting rumors

Other rumors suggested that the iPhone 15 Pros might ship with color-matched, braided USB-C cables supporting USB 3.2/Thunderbolt 3 transfer speeds.

Obviously, you should trust everything you read online—there have been conflicting rumors regarding the capabilities of the USB-C connector on the iPhone 15 family and the cables that buyers will find in the box.

The mystery will be solved in a matter of weeks. While Apple hasn’t announced a fall event yet, the company is widely believed to announce the iPhone 15 family, Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 on September 12.