Early iPhone 15 Pro Leaks May Have Gotten This Design Detail Very Wrong
Reliable tech analyst Kuo Ming-Chi shared interesting information regarding the planned solid-state volume and power button design on the upcoming iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Contrary to initial reports of Cupertino bringing back unified, single-piece volume rockers and mute button paired, it seems that technical problems have put that plan to a grinding halt.
In the post, Ming-Chi wrote, "My latest survey indicates that due to unresolved technical issues before mass production, both high-end iPhone 15 Pro models (Pro & Pro Max) will abandon the closely-watched solid-state button design and revert to the traditional physical button design”.
The much-ballyhooed solid-state button is/was Apple's plan to utilize a revised Taptic Engine under a single non-mechanical panel to improve the button press feedback experience. Abandoning this idea obviously makes a financial dent in the supply chain, namely to Cirrus Logic (Controller IC supplier) and AAC Technologies (Taptic engine supplier). Of course, there's a possibility that once the kinks are ironed out, the solid-state button could be reinstated in future batches of iPhone 15 Pros.
Ming-Chi didn't mention the base and Plus models in his tweet, leading us to believe that the plan was for those phones to have traditional buttons all along. This might also explain why the change hasn't, according to Ming-Chi's report, altered production timeline for the Pro models either, since the chassis is already pre-engineered for mechanical buttons.
Nonetheless, we can still expect some major niceties in the impending iPhones even without the unified solid-state button: pricing is expected to be similar to the current generation, the long-overdue migration from Lighting ports to USB-C, upgraded chipsets (improved A16 for standard and Plus; new A17 for Pro and Pro Max), and the non-Pro models getting the useful Dynamic Island feature.
