Apple may ditch the solid-state buttons from the iPhone 15 Pro’s design, as the flagship devices could offer some UX changes, according to a new report. An anonymous leaker, who goes by the Twitter handle @analyst941, claims that the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will have a different way to turn off.
The leaker said that the iPhone 15 Pro will use a combination of the power button + action button to turn off the device or force it to restart. In comparison, all iPhone models that support Face ID from the iPhone X to the iPhone 14 series use the volume + power button combination to achieve the same thing.
Rumors of customizable action button for iPhone surfaced in recent weeks, suggesting that the new button will replace the current mute switch. The leaker added that the action button will do more on the device than just turning it off. For example, it will replace the work of the volume button in the camera app.
as per their tweet, users will be able to lightly press the action button to activate autofocus, hard press to click a photo, and long press to record a video. Apple already offers an orange action button on the Apple Watch Ultra that can be programmed to do various things like start a stopwatch. The button works with the Shortcuts app to perform various tasks.
While the leaker claims the button will be capacitive with support for force sensitivity, previous reports suggested that Apple is doing away with the solid-state buttons due to “unresolved technical issues.” Therefore, nothing can be concluded at this time. As far as additional functionality is concerned, the iPhone’s Back Tap feature already allows users to perform various actions without the need for an additional button.