- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
The latest iOS 18 update strongly hints that Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 16 lineup might incorporate the highly anticipated solid-state buttons.
Unveiled at the recent WWDC, iOS 18 includes a much-discussed “hide and lock apps” feature that some worry could be misused for privacy concerns related to infidelity. Among its other noteworthy additions are many AI features and several notable improvements, including enhanced visual effects.
People seem to hate on this for one reason or another, but I think it’s great if done well. It’s not actually “buttonless”, it will still have a frame with shapes for something looking like a button, it just won’t physically move when pressed. If they make it work as good as their trackpads (which are the best trackpads out there no contest imo) or similar to the solid state home button the iPhone 7, 8, SE2 and SE3 have, I’d say it’s better than actual physically moving buttons: the button will feel consistent between devices of the same model (you can get slightly different feeling physical buttons between the same iPhone model or also another manufacturer’s phone model because of tolerances), it could be configurable (sensitivity and feedback, like you were able to configure the home button starting with the iPhone 7), it makes the frame more rigid, solid state buttons basically never break, they could have different actions at different pressure levels (with feedback to match) etc.
I just like the sensory feedback of feeling buttons clicking downwards. I’ve used solid state buttons before and while they’re far better than pure touch control “buttons,” they still don’t feel like real buttons to me. Haptics help the illusion, for sure, but it can’t match the analog feeling perfectly.
And like the other comment said, how do they get around frozen software and being able to use the buttons to force power cycle a device? Unless the buttons have a completely separate controller outside of the OS?
Apple’s solid state trackpads are downright eerie. It feels so damn weird when they’re turned off. It feels like they should physically move, but they don’t.