After months of leaks saying that Apple will drop the physical volume and power buttons on this year’s iPhone 15 Pro in favor of fancy solid-state replacements, one of the rumor’s original sources now says that it doesn’t happen.
“My latest research indicates that due to unresolved technical issues before mass production, both high-end iPhone 15 Pro models (Pro & Pro Max) will abandon the carefully reviewed solid-state button design and revert to the traditional physical button design,” Apple said. analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote in a Medium mail. 9to5Mac reports that another analyst, Jeff Pu of Haitong Tech, also thinks Apple is sticking with traditional mechanical buttons for iPhone 15 Pro models.
Rumors that Apple would switch to solid-state buttons for the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max surfaced around October last year. At the time, Kuo predicted that Apple would move to a solid-state solution, similar to what it used for the home button on the iPhone 8 for the upcoming phones’ volume and power buttons (although there was no mention of the change that would come to the iPhone 8). non-Pro iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus). Instead of mechanical buttons, a pair of Taptic Engines would generate haptic feedback when pressing a button. Then leaked phone renders seemed to confirm this design change.
In today’s note, Kuo doesn’t give many details about the “unresolved technical issues” that led Apple to remove the feature, but says switching to simpler physical buttons at this stage shouldn’t lead to delays in the phones’ production schedules . . However, Kuo notes that it’s not good news for the suppliers of the solid-state button hardware. That doesn’t mean it can’t happen again in the next few years, but not before 2023.
