In the environment section of its iPhone Air press release this week, Apple revealed that the device is equipped with a 3D-printed titanium USB-C port.

Apple said the 3D-printed titanium USB-C port offers three benefits compared to one manufactured with a conventional forging process: it is thinner, stronger, and uses 33% less material to be more environmentally friendly.

3D printing for metal is also known as metal additive manufacturing, a process that involves creating objects layer by layer with powdered metal, based on a CAD model.

Despite this manufacturing innovation, the iPhone Air's USB-C port is limited to outdated USB 2 speeds of up to 480 Mb/s for wired data transfer.

Titanium cases for Apple Watch Ultra 3 and higher-end Apple Watch Series 11 models are also made with a 3D-printing process that uses half the raw material as previous generations of each device, according to Apple's announcements.

iPhone Air can be pre-ordered starting this Friday at 5 a.m. Pacific Time, while the new Apple Watch models are available to pre-order now, in the U.S. and many other countries. All of the devices are set to launch Friday, September 19.

Source: Macrumors