[hbn]

The new processor featured in the Pro models adds support for USB 3.0 transfer speeds. Apple started doing a thing last year where the non-Pro phones get last year's processor, and only the new Pros get the new one. So it's likely next year the entire lineup will get the faster transfer speeds.

[hbn]

Just to update a day later, I hadn't processed during the presentation that the new processor is named A17 "Pro," not "Bionic."

So my theory now is next year the non-Pro iPhone 16's will have an A17 Bionic that doesn't have the faster transfer speeds. It seems like Apple considers the fast transfer speeds a purely Pro feature, pretty much exclusively for ProRaw photos and ProRes videos. For all other use cases, I think they'd rather incentivize people to use AirDrop and iCloud for moving files around.