Ming-Chi Kuo: iPhone 15 Pro Series May Completely Cancel Buttons, But Uses “Solid Key” Design

Recently, Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that the iPhone 15 Pro will not have physical buttons, but instead use "solid keys". That is to say, the power button and volume button of next year's high-end iPhone 15 will adopt a "solid key" design like the pressure-sensitive Home button on iPhone 7/8/SE2 and other models.

(5/6)
我的最新調查顯示，兩款高階iPhone 15/2H23 新iPhone機型的音量鍵和電源鍵可能將採用固態鍵設計 (類似iPhone 7/8/SE2 & 3的Home鍵設計)，以取代實體/機械鍵設計。內部左右兩側將有Taptic Engines提供力回饋，讓使用者感覺就像在按實體按鈕。

— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) October 28, 2022

The principle of this button sensing is to sense the pressure in the designated area, and then mobilize the Taptic Engine linear motor to simulate the feedback vibration when the object button is pressed.

This technology first appeared on the iPhone 7, when some users didn't know that the buttons couldn't be pressed during use.

Ming-Chi Kuo said that the purpose of adding two Taptic Engine motors on both sides of the iPhone 15 Pro is to better simulate the state of the volume button and the power button being pressed, with a total of three.

If the news is true, then the iPhone is a little closer to realizing a completely non-porous mobile phone, but the iPhone still has a long way to go to achieve a completely non-porous mobile phone.

The next step is the charging interface, which is expected to be the charging interface of the iPhone next year. Will use USB Type-C as a transition.