Rumors swirled back and forth about Apple’s plan to use solid-state buttons on the upcoming iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Unfortunately, due to technical complications and issues, we won’t be seeing this hardware change debut with the new flagship models, so we’ll have to wait until the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max launch next year to experience those buttons.
The ‘Pro’ models arriving later this year reportedly still come with an ‘Action’ button, but the solid state models would have added more functionality
As simple as these may seem, solid-state buttons are incredibly complicated to integrate into a smartphone, which is understandable considering Apple’s competitors haven’t followed through with this hardware change. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his latest Power On newsletter, Supercharged states that the reporter is talking about the same issues previously mentioned by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, but this time Gurman delves a little deeper into his explanation.
Gurman believes that in addition to the complexity faced by manufacturing, the distinctly higher cost was also a factor in why solid-state buttons didn’t debut this year, along with proper software integration. It looks like Apple has delayed this feature until next year with the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, giving the company and its employees some much-needed breathing room to perfect the technology. Fortunately, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are still rumored to arrive with the action button.
The ‘Action’ button will be a single physical button found on the high-end iPhone offerings this year, and according to previous findings, it can not only turn the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max on or off, but photos and record video depending on how hard you press it. While this will be a useful feature once those premium iPhones become available to buy, having extra solid-state buttons would have been a significantly better approach from Apple.
Assuming you don’t want to wait for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max would offer more exclusive features to generate more demand. These upgrades reportedly include a Type-C Thunderbolt port, a 3nm SoC, new build materials and a new periscope zoom camera, but the latter is rumored to remain exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
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