Apple might ditch the solid-state buttons from the iPhone 15 Pro design after all as the flagship devices could offer some UX changes, according to a new report. An anonymous leaker, who goes by the Twitter handle @analyst941, claims that iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will have a different way of shutting down.
The leaker said that iPhone 15 Pro will use a combination of the Power button + Action button to turn off the device or force restart it. For comparison, all Face ID-enabled iPhone models starting from iPhone X and all the way up to iPhone 14 series use the Volume Up + Power button combination to achieve the same.
Rumors of a customizable Action button for the iPhone surfaced in recent weeks, suggesting that the new button will replace the current Mute switch. The leaker added that the Action button will have more work on the device than just powering it off. For instance, it will replace the job of the volume button in the Camera app.
As per their tweet, users would be able to light-press the action button to trigger auto-focus, hard press to click an image, and hard long-press to record a video. Apple already offers an orange-colored Action button on the Apple Watch Ultra that can be programmed to do different things such as starting a stopwatch. The button works with the Shortcuts app to perform various tasks.
While the leaker claims that the button would be capacitive with support for force sensitivity, previous reports have suggested that Apple is doing away with solid-state buttons due to "unresolved technical issues." Hence, nothing can be concluded at the moment. As far as extra functionality is concerned, the iPhone"s Back Tap feature already allows users to perform different actions without the need for an extra button.