I’m a longtime iPhone person, and I’ve been dying to get my arms on Apple’s latest {hardware} innovation: the Digicam Management button. After over a month with the iPhone 16 Plus, I can safely say I used to be fallacious to assume it might be a major improve.
The Digicam Management button is thrilling, sure. It helps me take images quicker, however I barely use it, and it’s not as a result of I forgot it’s there. It’s the other, truly. I’ve come to resent not having the ability to actually use it.
All of it has to do with the way in which I maintain the iPhone 16 Plus and its total dimension. I’m at all times holding the iPhone in my left hand, and most of my images are in portrait mode. The Digicam Management button is on the cellphone’s proper facet. It’s uncomfortable to invoke the digicam with a single hand. And neglect about making an attempt to snap any pics together with your ring or pinkie finger.
The protecting case I selected for the iPhone doesn’t assist both. It contains a cutout whose edges reduce into my fingers to the purpose the place I dread urgent the Digicam Management button.
Add the truth that Apple Intelligence isn’t out there within the EU, and the iPhone 16’s distinctive Visible Intelligence function isn’t out there wherever, and I’ve little cause to press the button I used to be so enthusiastic about some two months in the past.
However a brand-new discovery makes me hopeful that Apple will ship a giant button change to future iPhones. In flip, this might repair my Digicam Management issues.
A current rumor mentioned that Apple may mix the Motion button and Quantity keys right into a single button as quickly as subsequent 12 months. The iPhone 17 could be the primary iPhone to function such button tech, assuming the rumor is correct. The declare is much from verified, and different sources haven’t talked about this purported design change.
However this isn’t the primary time we now have heard of Apple plans to alter the iPhone button design. Lately, we now have seen rumors about Apple designing iPhones with a unified quantity button. Experiences additionally claimed that Apple wished to switch bodily buttons with haptic suggestions buttons for the iPhone 15 collection.
None of that occurred. As a substitute, we bought the Digicam Management button, which doesn’t change the Quantity keys. It’s a bodily button that additionally options capacitive components and gives haptic suggestions.
It seems Apple has carried out in depth analysis and testing for brand spanking new button designs. The clip you’ll see under from YouTuber Apple Demo options an iPhone with Quantity and Energy buttons unseen wherever else.
The cellphone is a mixture of iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 components. It’s not a useful system, and it doesn’t function an Apple brand. As a substitute, it has a “Vesica Piscis” brand on the bag that Apple may need used to hide the prototype’s id.
The handset has a unified Quantity button beneath the Mute swap and a Energy button on the opposite facet. Each of them are haptic suggestions buttons reasonably than bodily ones.
How does this innovation profit the Digicam Management button? Name it wishful considering, however I hope Apple unifies the Quantity buttons quickly. I’d additionally like it if the ensuing button was as huge because the Digicam Management button and labored identically.
The ultimate piece of the puzzle would come from iOS. Apple would let customers like me select which of the 2 buttons handles Digicam Management and which will get Quantity management duties.
If that had been to occur, I’d transfer the Digicam Management performance to the left facet, the place the Quantity buttons at present sit. That method, I’d have the ability to use my thumb to start out the digicam and take footage. The Quantity management buttons would sit on the suitable, and I’d hardly ever use them. You may management the quantity from the Management Middle. I’m hoping to make use of Apple Intelligence sooner or later to handle iPhone settings by voice.
In such a state of affairs, the Motion button would stay separate, able to act as a shortcut to different iPhone options.
Once more, it’s wishful considering. Nonetheless, the prototype within the following video reveals that Apple may be very severe about altering the design and performance of the iPhone buttons. No matter went fallacious throughout testing may be corrected for future generations. And I can’t be the one left-handed iPhone 16 person battling the Digicam Management button.
