iPhone 15 Pro 'Buttonless Design' Rumors: Everything We Know

[sunapple]

Looking at Apple Watch, they do know the value of buttons. Though iPhone X proved the home button wasn't needed, they would have to come up with something insanely clever to replace these tactile volume controls that can be used even through jeans while phone remains in pocket. So convenient.

Power button though, not that essential as a physical button IMO.

 

[Solomani]

What about the silence switch above the volume buttons? Will this also be taptic.

And a prescription for millions of "accidental silences"....


"Sorry honey, I had no idea the dog was killed, run over by a car. I didn't know you kept calling. Didn't hear the phone ring. I had no idea the phone was on Silent since this morning."

 

[Will Co]

I think we'll always need some sort of hardware reset. Software is too buggy to rely on if something crashes and a restart is needed.

This is my concern too.

If the Taptic is completely in hardware, managed by a chip that drives a hardware line - just like a real button - then I'm less worried. So long as that chip is reliable, we shouldn't see a problem whereby something crashes and the button-less system fails to work.

Problem is that my understanding of Taptic suggests that it's so complex that firmware is likely to be in the way - mean that it cannot be considered just as reliable as a real button.

 

[crsh1976]

Hey what’s wrong with the buttons we got

They clash with the absence of novelty items to showcase.

Once they're gone, you can bring them back as Physical Buttons+, exclusively available on the iPhone 16 Ultra+ only.

 

[subjonas]

Not sure how this will benefit the user. Also not sure how this will benefit Apple. Anyway, I’m preparing myself to be disappointed.

 

[compwiz1202]

Hard pass. I have enough trouble with butt dialing or hitting play on my audio books in my pocket, now I'm going to change the volume too? Not to mention not having a way to restart the phone, when, not if, it crashes.

Unless they could make them unresponsive when locked, or at least a toggle. Worst case I could just turn the phone off while on the floor at work, since it takes like 30s now to boot instead of my whole 15m break

 

[compwiz1202]

And a prescription for millions of "accidental silences"....


"Sorry honey, I had no idea the dog was killed, run over by a car. I didn't know you kept calling. Didn't hear the phone ring. I had no idea the phone was on Silent since this morning."

Or accidental unsilencing. Will get in trouble if phones are heard at work.

 

[bobcomer]

Myself, I was VERY tempted to get a car that was made from few years ago just so that I could have a CD player*, and more physical controls for climate/heat/air conditioning controls. However, I'd be getting only a few thousand $'s off, on a vehicle that had 10K miles on it. Nah.. I decided to just pay a little more to get this year's model.

My 2022 Subaru Legacy still has a built in CD Player.. Way to many touch controls though, but it does have a dial, buttons that actually push in, and levers...

I haven't tried my CD player yet though, and only found it about 3 months after I bought it. It's in the center console. It wasn't why I bought the car.

 

[Lakersfan74]

Can’t wait to upgrade from my 12 Pro and go larger. Pro Max 256gb.

 

[bobcomer]

I’ve read the title as “bottomless design” at first. I admit it would be far more intriguing 🤨

A Möbius strip?

 

[bobcomer]

Unless they could make them unresponsive when locked, or at least a toggle.

I wish they'd do that now.

 

[DMinTX]

My biggest complaint about the iPhone is the camera bump. I wish they would make it flush (I know that will make the phone thicker).

 

[compwiz1202]

I wish they'd do that now.

There was only one iPhone I had with some funky shaped silencer that would someone get unsilenced in my pocket at work. Had to use Accessibility so it would stay silenced there.

 

[IIGS User]

Not likely First and foremost, a mandate (forgot which gov't agency) in May 2018 stated that all vehicles created then and after that point must have a backup camera. This means the console MUST have a display, so that'll eat up a fair amount of space alone.

We have a few cars in the motor pool here that have the backup camera screen incorporated into the rear-view mirror.

When the car is put in reverse, the back up camera image appears in the rear view mirror. When placed in drive, the mirror looks like just a regular old mirror.

It's a pretty clever design. It's intuitive because it's where a driver would look for this information anyway, and it takes up zero space in the dash.

 

[bobcomer]

There was only one iPhone I had with some funky shaped silencer that would someone get unsilenced in my pocket at work. Had to use Accessibility so it would stay silenced there.

I'm always flipping the silence switch too.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

This. I have a 2022 VW Tiguan and the climate controls are all smooth and you have to look at them to change them - it just feels like an unnecessary distraction.

My father in law has a 2022 Tiguan too and complains about the haptic buttons and sheer amount of controls that require you to take your eyes off the road. Modern cars eh? Lol

 

[ghanwani]

Oh no. More “innovation” coming our way.

 

[MrDerby01]

Oh this is so cute! another phone that looks just like the last and the one before and that before.. Little to no innovation.

 

[QuarterSwede]

This is a fix to a problem that didn't exist with the buttons. No one is complaining about physical buttons, I prefer the buttons where I can reach them on my pocket without ever looking. Now it would be much harder along with no longer have the ability to restart your phone from a software freeze. How is that going to work? Wait 24 hours until the battery dies? Or stop by the Genuis bar to reboot your phone now? (One step forward 2 step backwards)

You’re missing the reason. It’s to save cost and be more reliable for the company. That most likely won’t be passed on to the consumer in $. You have to think of it from an engineering, manufacturing, and repetitive use case point of view.

 

[AF_APPLETALK]

I'm all for this. Plan on upgrading from my 13 mini to base 15 Pro this fall. Battery life on the 13 mini already taking a massive dive. Battery life is really bad when I have the Apple Watch on... will drop 20% each hour even if mostly inactive.

Mini phone again for me? Probably never. XS still the best phone they ever did.

 

[QuarterSwede]

I’m not sure why the writer calls the idea buttonless. It’s not. It has buttons, they just don’t correspond to a physical dome switch. Instead it would more than likely be a solid state force sensor with a “button” on top of it. Would it still be capacitive like the TouchID? I’m not sure I see why since that adds needless complexity. There is a reason it is in TouchID, that reason doesn’t exist for a volume or Siri button.

 

[compwiz1202]

I'm always flipping the silence switch too.

But for me it was just the one. I think the 5S. I could feel it was made different. It curved at the top instead of being straight. For all I know, it could have been a defect. I never look at others of the same model.

 

[erikkfi]

So if they have that capacitive pass through you will be able to press the capacitive volume buttons as well.

I’m glad we agree this is much less convenient than buttons that mechanically press.

 

[ackmondual]

My 2022 Subaru Legacy still has a built in CD Player.. Way to many touch controls though, but it does have a dial, buttons that actually push in, and levers...

I haven't tried my CD player yet though, and only found it about 3 months after I bought it. It's in the center console. It wasn't why I bought the car.

Oh.. also miss having a dedicated button (physical knob in this case) to change channels on Sirius XM/radio. This has to be done through the buttons on the touchscreen, and it's much slower and less responsive (before, I can rapidly turn the knob to quickly get through channels). Oh well. Better fuel efficiency and safety do take precedence. :|

 

[compwiz1202]

Oh.. also miss having a dedicated button (physical knob in this case) to change channels on Sirius XM/radio. This has to be done through the buttons on the touchscreen, and it's much slower and less responsive (before, I can rapidly turn the knob to quickly get through channels). Oh well. Better fuel efficiency and safety do take precedence. :|

Yes or at least keep the 1-0 buttons. I had what channel every one was memorized. Just feel for the top or bottom curve and move my finger and push accordingly