We have seen what is claimed to be CAD renders of the iPhone 15 Pro, which showcases its Taptic Engine feedback buttons and the mute button in place of a switch. It looks like this button may be a customisable multipurpose button, akin to the Action button on the Apple Watch Ultra.
An anonymous tipster shared as much on the MacRumors forums. Said tipster also claims that the button is internally called the action button. They did not mention the extend in which the action button can be customised, but if it’s remappable then an alternative shutter button for the camera is one use case that comes immediately to mind.
Beyond the multi-functionality of the action button, the tipster also claims that capacitive volume rocker may provide more ways to increase or lower the sound output of the iPhone 15 Pro. The tipster claims that you can press on the capacitive volume rocker harder in order to increase or decrease the volume at a faster rate. You can also slide your finger up or down to change the volume that way, rather than the simple pressing of the buttons.
Powering all these is supposedly a new low-energy microprocessor, which will be replacing the current Super Low Energy Mode. As it is now, the mode allows a fair number of functionality like using Apple Pay when the phone has no juice left, as well as powering the Find My Network. In addition to those, the new microprocessor will also be adding to the things that the equipped iPhone 15 Pro can do while turned off. This includes using NFC, as well as the capacitive volume rocker and action button.
There’s some credibility to the tipster’s claims, as MacRumors points out that they were the one who leaked accurate details about the Dynamic Island on the current iPhone 14 Pro models. That being said, and despite the tipster’s bold claim that “this is almost fully definite for iOS 17 and the new Pro model iPhones”, we’d still be taking all this with a pinch of salt.
(Source: MacRumors [1], [2])
