Solid State Volume and Power Buttons for the iPhone 15

By Bruce Harrell, 11 November, 2022

Forum
Apple Hardware and Compatible Accessories

Hi Everybody,

Here's another head's up. Sounds like a bright idea, but wait a moment. What if these new buttons are flush with the surface of the phone? What if we can't tell where they are by our sense of touch? What will we do then?

A link to the article can be found at the end of this post.

The article states, in part:

"Solid State Volume and Power Buttons

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently said that Apple might add solid state volume and power buttons to the ‌iPhone 15‌ rather than physical buttons, which would be similar to the trackpad on Macs and the ‌iPhone‌ 7's Home button. The haptic feedback would mimic the feel of a button press on the solid button, replacing the mechanical button press.

Using solid state buttons would likely protect against water ingress and could allow Apple to provide better water resistance. Using haptic feedback for buttons would require Apple to add new Taptic Engines."

https://macrumors.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7d0106b433773bd0aef5828e0&id=61c51118b1&e=034c6d23bb

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Comments

By techluver on Thursday, November 24, 2022 - 12:39

it would make them too easy to press for people holding them, don't forget people holding them are looking at the screen not the buttons.

By OldBear on Thursday, November 24, 2022 - 12:39

I don't think flush buttons would be that big of a deal because you know generally where they are and, as it says, there would be haptic feedback. I do wonder how the protective cases would work with this. They would probably need some kind of opening over the button area...

By KE7ZUM on Thursday, November 24, 2022 - 12:39

I would not worry about this until it comes out. apple is really good atout makighn sure we have a way.

By techluver on Thursday, November 24, 2022 - 12:39

As long as cases work, the absolute worst case is we make a case with findable buttons haha.

By Igna Triay on Thursday, November 24, 2022 - 12:39

While volume hactic buttons are possible, I don't think its possible to do the same thing for a power button. With the iphone 7 and above, whenever you powered off the phone, the home button stopped working, until you powered back on the device. If apple does this with the power button, I have no ide how would one power the phone back on, given everything is turned off, hacticks included, meaning the hactic buttons wouldn't work when powered off.

By Saqib on Thursday, November 24, 2022 - 12:39

It's not a great idea as the phone will always come in to contact with other items in my pocket and the only work around is to disable these buttons when the phone is locked.

By Dennis Long on Thursday, November 24, 2022 - 12:39

I would think it would be accessible. Also I suspect through a case the cases might have a thing you could feel. As for how it work I suspect the phone would be off but have just enough power to detect when you want to turn it on.