iPhone 16 Pro I predict the Camera control button will be gone in less than 3 years

[nycgeo]

Personally I love it. My criticism is that it’s not tactile enough, it’s hard to easily find on the side of the phone. If it was raised a bit, and half-press pressure adjusted with firmware to be improved, it would be even better

 

[applepotato666]

My theory is that it's there so that it's not too weird once it becomes the fingerprint sensor in a few years. They'll have to get rid of Face ID at some point to get a true edge to edge display once the tech for an under display camera gets there. The dot projector and other stuff Face ID uses are a harder feat of engineering if not impossible to put under the screen. Of course we've had ultrasonic sensors like the Samsungs have for a while, but maybe they'll reserve that for the Pro models.

I tried it out on launch day at the store, but I didn’t find it particularly useful. I wouldn’t personally use it because the position is awkward unless you’re taking photos in landscape mode, which I rarely do. I prefer tapping the screen to fiddling with this UX. For instance, the flash settings are just a tap away, so I don’t understand why I need this too. For zoom I can hold down and swipe across where my thumb naturally rests on the lower part of the screen. I’d call it a gimmick, but I wouldn’t compare it to the Touch Bar. With the Touch Bar, we were supposed to get useful and contextual app shortcuts that resurfaced based on our actions, so it had more of a use case.

I am left-handed and I imagine it's supposed to be a bit more comfortable for me to use especially with the ring finger but it wasn't in reality.

 

[klasma]

I thought the new camera button was way down on the right, about an inch from the bottom of the phone, where the mmWave antenna was?

That's nowhere near the location opposite the volume buttons.

They mean diagonally opposite. If you turn the phone 180 degrees, it would be in the same position.

 

[SnyG]

I genuinely quite like it.

 

[klasma]

My theory is that it's there so that it's not too weird once it becomes the fingerprint sensor in a few years.

The placement doesn’t make sense for a fingerprint sensor.

 

[WilliamG]

Is there a way to disable the digital zoom? I’d just like to change optical zoom length.

*Edit*

That is there actually if you just use the “Cameras” option when using the new camera button. Yay.

 

[Tyler O'Bannon]

I like it? I think all the buttons except the lock button (for hard restart purposes) will become haptic aka not real buttons but akin to the home button that wasn’t actually a button.

Cameras are an enormous feature of the phone, one of the most used.

A hardware button to accompany that hardware feature is probably not going to go away.

I believe one reason it’s there is moving forward to Apple Vision Pro, Apple wants to move people back to taking landscape photos and videos. The placement of the camera button makes it natural like a camera when in landscape, pressed on the top right with right index finger.

This will encourage people to do 16:9 spatial videos and all that.

I truly believe this is a non-spoken driving factor of it.

As we move toward AR and VR, back to full screen landscape stuff will do better and I guarantee this is something they are pushing towards internally.

 

[newellj]

Personally I love it. My criticism is that it’s not tactile enough, it’s hard to easily find on the side of the phone. If it was raised a bit, and half-press pressure adjusted with firmware to be improved, it would be even better

I agree and have a few other issues. I think that the OP might be right if you added "...in its current form." I think it's currently too low, too short, not sensitive enough and difficult to use with the cases I've tried. Sensitivity is presumably mostly an iOS issue and cases can be redesigned (not really an iPhone issue). I think next year there will be a significantly improved camera control button.

 

[Natzoo]

Yea it seems very poorly done. I tried using it and I always push the phone down, no matter how much support I put on all corners of the phone. What am I doing wrong?

 

[cjsuk]

I found the action button to be fairly useless but this thing is on another level of pointlessness.

I rather like the action button. It doesn’t collect as much crud as the switch did when I don’t use either of them.

 

[Chancha]

I thought it was as bad as the MacBook Pro’s touch bar, but then realize the button didn’t take anything away, you can ignore its existence so it is all good. In fact you can cover it up with a case even.

 

[bcemail]

I have it set to launch a shortcut, and that shortcut is a menu with like 7 things that I found useful. So when hit my action button a menu with many actions pops out.

About to get my first phone without the switch. What type of things can you put in your shortcut/pop up menu?

 

[Chancha]

Yea it seems very poorly done. I tried using it and I always push the phone down, no matter how much support I put on all corners of the phone. What am I doing wrong?

You did nothing wrong. It is a very poorly thought out interface especially in Apple’ standards. It takes finesse and particular holding posture to comfortably use it that not everyone has.

 

[Velin]

Totally disagree with the premise. I saw the Apple presentation. Dedicated camera button made instant sense.

You need to understand, for 95% of the population, maybe even 99%, the iPhone (or another smartphone) is their only still and video camera. That's it. The phone. And it's going to be the one device the overwhelming majority of people have on their person when they need to record something.

Makes perfect sense to dedicate a button to this function. Added bonus: photos and videos shot with the proper phone orientation.

 

[ttyRazor]

I’m curious if this was the plan for the rumored capacitive buttons all along, or if we could have instead gotten this as a consolidated action button and volume control?

 

[Sippincider]

It's not a gimmick. It's just really poorly placed in both orientations.
(...)
The idea of what it offers is great. But the button placement is just not right no matter how you hold your iPhone.

The real problem is how this made it through Apple's entire concept/design process, and got released as a key feature in a major product.

Nobody in that entire spaceship HQ to say "Maybe this isn't right"?

 

[applepotato666]

This will encourage people to do 16:9 spatial videos and all that.

I truly believe this is a non-spoken driving factor of it.

As we move toward AR and VR, back to full screen landscape stuff will do better and I guarantee this is something they are pushing towards internally.

Honestly, I don’t believe it will lead to more people taking landscape photos. Instead, it’s likely that they’ll continue using the screen to take the same portrait photos as they’ve always done. It’s challenging to break a deeply ingrained habit like this, especially when there’s no immediate tangible benefit. Only a small percentage of users have a Vision Pro (or plan to buy one this decade) to realize that it makes a difference how they film their videos and take their photos. For those who do, it should be relatively useful, but not a game-changer.

 

[klasma]

As we move toward AR and VR

I don’t see this happening though, at least not this decade.

 

[klasma]

I think all the buttons except the lock button (for hard restart purposes) will become haptic aka not real buttons but akin to the home button that wasn’t actually a button.

This isn’t a necessity: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/03/29/iphone-15-pro-low-energy-microprocessor/

Though personally I hope they stick with physical buttons, the haptics are just better.

 

[CooKieMoNs7eR]

I think it's a decent feature but nothing groundbreaking, it feels more natural to take pictures using the button, but again nobody asked or requested this, wish they at least integrated touch ID into it but knowing apple they'll wait to dripfeed us more features for next year's model.

 

[Funny Apple Man]

Not a bad gimmick if you ask me. I’m seeing mixed responses here, works for some while it doesn’t for others.

I’m not sure if the average iPhone 16 user agrees it’s a bad gimmick, but I guess it’s too early to tell right now.

It will quietly be converted into a fingerprint sensor.

Touch ID’s return on flagship iPhones sounds nice. It should be on the power button instead of replacing the camera control button.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I agree and have a few other issues. I think that the OP might be right if you added "...in its current form." I think it's currently too low, too short, not sensitive enough and difficult to use with the cases I've tried. Sensitivity is presumably mostly an iOS issue and cases can be redesigned (not really an iPhone issue). I think next year there will be a significantly improved camera control button.

If the button were any higher, it'll be pressed by mistake too much.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

You heard it from me first.

Truly a gimmick.

Really - you’re predicting that a feature will change within 5 years on a technology product? 🧐

Bold choice! 🤣

 

[DDustiNN]

I predict they’ll move it further down the phone so it’s actually comfortable to use

It’s already too far down. I want to take pictures one-handed, and this button borders on awkward positioning. If I’m using two hands, why not just use the screen for smoother and more accurate zooming?

 

[Ctrlos]

Having wandered into the Apple Store earlier today it’s certainly a talking point. Had a play on all the phones and there is no way anybody is accidentally triggering it in their pocket. It’s actually quite stiff to depress.

The contextual awareness is all over the place. You’d think that the default use from a cold start would be zoom but its exposure, something nobody really tweaks on the fly. At the same time you can’t hold to focus and then depress to take a picture! This should not be a software update but a day one bullet point.

I think they’ve tried too hard to make it into something useful. Had it sat closer to the base like it does on Xperia devices and older Lumia handsets they could have relegated focus and shutter to it, freeing up your thumbs to mess with settings. Single handed portrait users (ie teenagers) will just use the screen anyway so don’t need to be appeased.

Move it closer to the base, make it easier to focus with and not require such a hard press to take an image with. Making it lighter won’t trigger by accident. I used Sony Xperia phones for years and never had that problem.