Six months from Launching iPhone 16Rumors are starting to crop about what Apple has stored for us this September, when the company is due to announce the 2025 -taught mobile device. At the top of the list, and right in the trend, it could be a iPhone 17 AirThat can not only be superthin but also free ports.
One Perceived Roadblock Creating a portless iPhone is the possibility that regulations in the European Union can make it impossible, due to the rules around universal chargers. That's not really the case, as 9to5mac reported Now and confirmed by CNET. According to European Commission spokesman Federica Miccoli, Apple is free to create a port-free iPhone that can be charged only with a wireless magician charger. The company did not respond to a request for comment on whether it was considered to be making an iPhone without a port charge.
If you have been a iPhone The user for longer than last year or more, there is no doubt that you will remember now-defunct lightning. Apple was forced to Leave the technology of charging its owner For the iPhone due to EU policies that took place last year, dictating that all small, portable electronics with charging ports are required to be compatible with the same type of charger: USB-C.
That doesn't mean a device should Be compatible with USB-C, though. Last year's European Commission's guide issued a standard directive's standard Charger Directive said it was good for companies to sell phones and other devices that could only be recharged only through wireless billing procedures. So there may be a wired charger to rule over them all, but Apple can choose whole if choosing it.
But is this? It is possible, but perhaps not – and for some reason, which begins with the current design priorities of the company.
“It always felt like having an iPhone with no ports or buttons was the ultimate endgame when Jony Ive was leading the design on Apple,” Wood said. “His minimalist product development approach has seen Apple removed the home button and the SIM card slot in the US, where only the iPhone can be used with the eSim today.” That has changed from Ive's removal, though, Wood added, pointing to the addition of the camera control button on the iPhone 16.
If anything, recent iPhones, along with their overwhelming camera modules, are less soft than their previous counterparts. That is not to say that Apple doesn't want to go back to minimalist Ive designs if tech breakthroughs are allowed, but now it's ready to make a small compromise to prioritize operating, including superior cameras.
Phones are already getting Continue to be thinner this yearBut at a certain point, phone makers are restrained by the fact that the minimum size for the USB-C port is 2.6mm. No matter how much they can flatten the rest of the innards of a phone, universal charger regulations mean there is no way of compressing the depth of that port.
And even if Magafe charging is available, the USB-C port still plays often important role for the iPhone. Nor is it about charging. Over-the-air data transfers or software updates sometimes fail, and when that happens, there is no replacement for plugging your iPhone to your laptop. Without that port, you would have no backup when other methods floped, which could render your $ 1,000-plus device with a good thin but functionally useless metal slab of metal and glasses.
“It's hard to believe that any company will look to remove this port in the near term, providing its need for fail-safe charging and accessing device access to the example of software failure,” Wood said.
An iPhone without charging ports is desirable in theory – the seamless design, combined with (maybe) better water resistance and dust. But unless Apple has some tech wizardry up to its sleeve that allows to overcome potential drawbacks, it seems unlikely that we will see a USB-C-free iPhone anytime soon.
