Apple, please don’t take all of the buttons away
ALLISON JOHNSON
Apple is planning to remove the physical buttons from the iPhone 15 Pro,
replacing them with solid-state “taptic” buttons. Some new, alleged
renders of the iPhone 15 published by 9to5Mac seem to confirm the news: ;
it’s time to bid the physical volume rocker and power switch goodbye, at
least on some upcoming models. Surely it is too late to change anyone’s
mind in Cupertino, but I’m going to make the case anyway. Please don’t
take the buttons away, Apple.
For starters, there’s just no haptic button that feels as good or
reassuringly clicky as a physical button. This is a completely objective
observation based on data gathered by one individual: me, a person who
has been pressing buttons for several decades. They rule.
I rest my case, your honor.
It’s not that I think every button should be saved. I’ll admit that I
don’t really miss the home button. I’m fine using on-screen or gesture
navigations to get around. But that’s because I’m already looking at the
screen when I’m doing something I used the home button for — that’s not
always the case with the volume controls or wake button. Sometimes you
want to check that the alert switch is set to off without taking your
phone out of your pocket. Maybe you’re in public and you started
accidentally blasting TikTok out of your phone’s speakers rather than
your earbuds. In that scenario, I want a real button at my fingertips to
reduce any further shame as quickly as I can.
Physical buttons do not suffer this problem because they just work every
time you press them
And gloves! Sure, gloves with capacitive fingertips exist, and Apple
will probably engineer ways for these pretend buttons to play nicely
with gloves. But you can’t deny that physical buttons are easier to use
when you’re wearing gloves, even if these new haptic buttons are really
good. Same goes for damp hands — it’s possible that you’ll need to try a
couple of times to hit that haptic volume button if your hands are a
little wet. Physical buttons do not suffer this problem because they
just work every time you press them. Apple knows this, too — that’s why
it put one on the Watch Ultra.
It’s possible that Apple can make some haptic buttons that feel almost
as good to use as physical ones — the Force Touch trackpad is a good
example. It uses haptics to simulate the feel of a button press, and
it’s like 95 percent as good as a trackpad with a real button press. But
here’s the thing: why? Physical buttons are working just fine for us.
Why replace them with a technology that’s a little bit worse when
absolutely nobody was asking for it?
But here’s the thing: why?
Will removing physical buttons save some space? Will it cut down on
weather sealing costs? Is this just a stop on the journey toward a
little black box with no buttons and no ports? Will it be the ultimate
manifestation of Steve Jobs’ hatred of buttons? I have a feeling it is
and that moving to a buttonless iPhone has very little to do with the
person using the phone and a lot more to do with aesthetics.
If this is the future we have to look forward to — and it seems like it
is — then I guess all we can do is cherish and protect the buttons we
have left. Because truly, what’s next, cars??
https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/18/23604808/apple-iphone-15-pro-button-rumor-haptic
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