Is this the iPhone 15's USB-C port ahead of next month's unveiling?

If everything goes the way that we expect it to Apple will announce a new range of iPhones next month. The iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max are all expected to debut, and Apple is thought to be making a big change to all four models.

We've been hearing for months that Apple intends to ship all four iPhones with a new USB-C port, replacing the Lightning cable that we are all so familiar with. Now, it appears that the ports that the phones will use have leaked online weeks ahead of the expected public unveiling.

That's because two posts on X, as noted by MacRumors, appear to show the new USB-C port and associated flex cables. They were shared by leakers @lipilipsi and @John011235, and appear to be for the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

The leakers don't say all that much about the ports or the cables, but they do match up with reports by various well-connected analysts and reporters that this is the year Apple ditches Lightning for good.

Not that it has that much choice, of course. New European Union regulations mean that all phones and accessories must use a common charger, with USB-C being the obvious choice. All other smartphone makers use USB-C cables to charge their devices, leaving Apple as the odd one out thanks to Lightning.

The new switch to USB-C is expected to offer higher data transfer speeds a well as faster charging speeds, but that could well be limited to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Thankfully, we won't have to wait all that much longer before we can be sure what Apple's plans are. With a release of the new iPhones expected to happen towards the end of September, an announcement is likely to take place in the second week of the month. That means that we will only have to wait around five weeks before all of Apple's new iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro details are official and out in the wild.

All four new iPhones are still expected to offer MFi certification for USB-C, like with Lightning cables. That should allow Apple to make money on new cables that are sold while also limiting non-MFi cables from charging at full speed or limiting how quickly an iPhone will transmit data over unofficial USB-C cables. Whether that fits with the spirit of the EU's decision for a common charger, however, is another matter entirely.