Apple’s future iPhone might include one more novel specification.
While there are many speculations surrounding Apple’s next iPhone, it doesn’t end with rumors about it being the slimmest Apple phone ever. It’s been reported that the company could also make it its first portless smartphone.
Apple has already had to change its Lightning port to USB-C, according to European Union (EU) legislation, which focuses on reducing electrical waste. The EU decided to require all devices sold within the EU to have a universal charging port.
Apple has already been using USB-C charging ports for products such as Macs and iPads. However, its iPhones were still equipped with Lighting ports.
According to the law, the company had to change the ports by January 2025. The only remaining iPhones with Lightning cables were the iPhone SE and iPhone 14, and the company has stopped selling these models before the deadline.
Besides speculations on certain iPhone 17 Air specifications, such as that it might include a camera with a different placement or become the company’s slimmest smartphone, it’s also expected that the new device might come without any charging ports.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company had an idea to make its iPhone 17 Air a port-free phone. This would require users to switch to wireless charging and data syncing via the cloud, which is already a common practice for some.
However, the company decided not to pursue this idea because of the same EU legislation, thinking that it could go against the law.
Later, it became clear that the EU’s Common Charger Directive isn’t against port-less devices. The law only states that if a certain device has a charging port, it must be a USB-C.
The news about Apple shifting to fully wireless charging started a discussion online.
“It has definitely been a goal of Apple since waterproofing has been a big deal,’ wrote one user, contemplating the reason behind the company going with the port-less design.
“Waterproofing is a big deal, but Apple won’t validate any warranty for water damage,” noted another Redditor.
Another user shared how this could be an issue for those who use Apple standard for cars, stating: “I think the big problem would be wired CarPlay. A lot of people bought cars based on CarPlay but many are not wireless.”
While some users were surprised that the company hadn’t adapted this change sooner, with the release of iPhone 16, others had concerns over the effectiveness of wireless charging, stating that “wired charging is still more efficient though than wireless charging.”
“30% of the power is converted to heat during wireless charging. It’s dumb to do it all the time. You would just be heating that battery over and over,” added another Redditor.
Some users also referred the whole situation back to the EU requiring Apple to shift from a Lightning port to USB-C.
“They’re still sulking about the EU making the switch to USB-C.”
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