We’ve been on a real rollercoaster ride when it comes to upcoming iPhones, and solid-state button rumors. The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models were tipped to get such buttons this year. Then a report said they were not coming, after which a conflicting rumor surfaced, and so on. Well, a trusted source now decided to confirm that solid-state buttons will arrive on an iPhone next year.
This year’s iPhone models will not offer solid-state buttons after all, it would seem
In other words, the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max/Ultra are expected to include them. The vanilla models will have to wait to get that feature, as it will be exclusive to the ‘Pro’ models.
This information comes from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who seems to agree with Ming-Chi Kuo and Haitong Tech’s Jeff Pu in that regard. Both of them said that solid-state buttons are not coming this year.
Why is that, though, if they were originally planned? Well, it seems like Apple decided against it due to additional costs, and the complexity of designing, manufacturing, and engineering those haptic buttons.
Apple seemingly wanted to take more time to do it properly, and hopefully doesn’t spend as much introducing it. Those buttons are expected to be multifunctional offerings, even though we don’t yet know exactly what we’ll get.
There are several reasons why Apple decided to push them back, including software
Apple also has concerns about integrating the software for those buttons. All those are the reasons why the company decided to hold off on implementing them this year.
It is also noted that test units within the company still sport the haptic buttons. Production models, on the other hand, seemingly don’t have them. Considering the sources of the news, we presume that the iPhone 15 Pro series won’t include solid-state buttons, despite some contrary rumors.
The ‘Action Button’ that is meant to replace the mute switch may still be implemented, though. Mark Gurman did not mention it this time around, it would seem, but it has been mentioned several times lately. The new iPhones will drop in September.
2023-05-08 15:19:10