One of the biggest things at the Wonderlust event was the new USB-C port on the bottom of the iPhone 15 — although now it looks like there is more to it than meets the eye. Apple's support site has confirmed something that might give you one more reason to upgrade this year.
As well as reaffirming the ability to charge other devices from your iPhone 15 and connecting it to Apple devices, the Apple site confirms that you can connect an iPhone 15 to a USB-C display or TV via its USB-C port. This means you can watch your iPhone on a big screen.
To connect to a USB-C display, use any cable that supports USB 3.1 to get up to 4K resolution and 60 Hz. Just plug it in and you’re ready to go. It’s not going to extend your home screen like you’ll find on a MacBook, but it duplicates and blows up what is already there — for the likes of Netflix and YouTube, that could be huge with bigger screen viewing.
A little more is needed to get the iPhone running with a traditional HDMI display. You will need to grab an adapter from USB-C to HDMI and the screen has to support HDMI 2.0 to get 4K resolution and 60Hz.
Only the start — iMore’s take
As well as all of the above, the support site confirms the ability to connect to the following devices:
- CarPlay compatible cars
- External storage devices
- Monitors and external displays
- Microphones
- External battery packs
- USB to Ethernet adapters
- SD cards using SD card adapters
Though the idea of connecting to an external display to annoy your friends with TikToks or share family photos is great, this is only the start of where your iPhone 15 could take you. I take particular interest in the microphone element. Potentially, with nothing but a USB-C mic and Garage Band, you could put together entire albums worth of material. This is particularly useful for artists who use beats and other artist's music to make new songs.
Your iPhone 15 could help you create live shows and, with the ability to connect external hard drives, could record hours’ worth of high-quality video. Apple has a fantastic suite of creative apps and changes like this only further support creatives who want to use their devices on the fly.
