This year's Apple iPhone 16 and 16 Plus do not recycle last year's chip but instead come with the new Apple A18 chip. With the introduction of this chip, many must have thought that it also comes with a fast USB feature. But Apple's official website has confirmed that both of the more affordable iPhone 16 models only support the slow USB 2.0.
USB 3.0 support is still exclusive to the two iPhone 16 Pro models only. USB 3 support introduced on the iPhone 15 Pro series enables support for saving recorded videos directly on an external SSD connected using a cable. Without USB 3 support, the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus cannot use this feature.
Clearly Apple makes users choose whether they need a faster data transfer system up to 10Gbps or stay with USB 2.0 with data transfer speeds limited to 480 Mbps only. Not only that, USB 2.0 only supports charging up to 20W which is slower than 27W on the iPhone 16 Pro model.