I’m a longtime iPhone person, and I’ve been dying to get my fingers 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 flawed to assume it might be a big improve.
The Digicam Management button is thrilling, sure. It helps me take images sooner, however I barely use it, and it’s not as a result of I forgot it’s there. It’s the alternative, really. I’ve come to resent not with the ability to actually use it.
All of it has to do with the best way I maintain the iPhone 16 Plus and its total measurement. 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 telephone’s proper facet. It’s uncomfortable to invoke the digicam with a single hand. And neglect about making an attempt to snap any pics along with your ring or pinkie finger.
The protecting case I selected for the iPhone doesn’t assist both. It includes a cutout whose edges minimize into my fingers to the purpose the place I dread urgent the Digicam Management button.
Add the truth that Apple Intelligence isn’t accessible within the EU, and the iPhone 16’s distinctive Visible Intelligence function isn’t accessible wherever, and I’ve little purpose 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 an enormous button change to future iPhones. In flip, this might repair my Digicam Management issues.
A latest rumor mentioned that Apple may mix the Motion button and Quantity keys right into a single button as quickly as subsequent yr. The iPhone 17 could be the primary iPhone to function such button tech, assuming the rumor is correct. The declare is way from verified, and different sources haven’t talked about this purported design change.
However this isn’t the primary time we’ve got heard of Apple plans to alter the iPhone button design. Lately, we’ve got seen rumors about Apple designing iPhones with a unified quantity button. Stories additionally claimed that Apple needed to interchange bodily buttons with haptic suggestions buttons for the iPhone 15 collection.
None of that occurred. As an alternative, we received the Digicam Management button, which doesn’t exchange the Quantity keys. It’s a bodily button that additionally options capacitive components and presents haptic suggestions.
It seems Apple has carried out intensive analysis and testing for brand 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 telephone is a mixture of iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 components. It’s not a useful machine, and it doesn’t function an Apple emblem. As an alternative, it has a “Vesica Piscis” emblem on the bag that Apple may need used to hide the prototype’s id.
The handset has a unified Quantity button below the Mute change 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 presently sit. That approach, I’d have the ability to use my thumb to begin the digicam and take photos. The Quantity management buttons would sit on the appropriate, and I’d not often use them. You possibly can management the amount 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 situation, 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 flawed 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.
