We’ve seen plenty of rumors and supposedly leaked CAD designs that show Apple is going to change the left side of your iPhone. Well, if you buy an iPhone 15 Pro. On more expensive iPhones, the up and down buttons are being replaced with a single volume button, and the mute switch we had on iPhones from the beginning will now also be a button.

Obviously, these will be solid-state buttons that are not actually pressed. Just like the Touch ID modules on the iPhone SE, the trackpads on the MacBook, or the virtual buttons on the stems of the AirPods Pro, these buttons will actually be just touch areas connected to Taptic Engine haptic devices that mimic a touch screen. feel clicks when pressed, even if nothing is moving.

It’s an interesting new development, a curious little detail among the more interesting new features, but I can’t quite figure it out. Why Apple can do it. It doesn’t seem to solve any problems or provide any great new features or features that aren’t possible today. And it may even create some new problems.

Cost and durability

It’s tempting to think that the switch to solid-state buttons is meant to make the iPhone more durable. But the buttons are not the weak link that causes the iPhone to shatter, glass front and back.

Apple also doesn’t seem to have a problem making the iPhone as waterproof as it needs to be with the current button designs. Of course, the Lightning port (or USB-C on the iPhone 15 Pro) is a limiting factor, as evidenced by the Apple Watch’s excellent waterproofing, but still with buttons to press.

It doesn’t seem to be a cost-saving measure. In fact, adding a touch sensor and Taptic Engine to the iPhone will likely more than make up for the cost of today’s traditional buttons. And switching to solid-state buttons doesn’t seem to save interior space – the current button mechanism is smaller than even the smallest Taptic Engine would be.

It’s certainly possible that Apple has some clever engineering solution that makes solid-state construction cheaper, or smaller, or both, but it’s hard to imagine that this is the case. And if that were the case, you might think it wouldn’t just be for the Pro model. So why is Apple making this change?

Advantages and disadvantages

When Apple switched to the Force Touch trackpad, it brought obvious benefits. It was hard to click on the trackpad near the top edge where the hinge was, and Force Touch fixed that. It also makes it easy to “click” in multiple places and apply different levels of force.

With things as simple as volume buttons and a mute switch, it’s hard to imagine scenarios that would be better with a Force Touch solution. One volume button could be swiped for quicker volume adjustments, but that sounds like a nightmare for those who use a case (which is most iPhone users). He could detect different levels of power, but to what end?

Perhaps Apple could do a quick tap, double tap, hard press, or something that triggers playback or access controls or the like. But it’s doable with today’s buttons – it’s a software problem. Also, this is a disturbing idea, as without a visual indication that the volume button is doing something else when pressed or tapped in a certain way, it will constantly be accidentally triggered by confused users (like 3D Touch was before Apple got rid of him).

It’s easier to understand why sound replacement switch with the dumb button may be desired. Yes, you lose the ability to just look at the side of the phone to visually see if it’s muted or not, but the tiny mute switch is often hard to manipulate. For those who use a case or have fine motor control issues, the button will be much easier to manipulate than the current tiny switch. And how many of us have accidentally turned up the volume on our phone when we took it out of our pocket? I’m still not convinced that it should be solid, but the mute button would be an improvement.

It’s all about the software

I keep thinking about why Apple made this hardware change. It’s not cheaper, it doesn’t save interior space, it doesn’t necessarily improve durability or waterproofing, and usability is kind of a “better in some ways worse in others” situation.

But then I remember Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro. Prior to its official introduction, we had credible leaks that Apple was going to have a punch-hole “pill” area for Face ID sensors and a “hole” next to it for the front camera. There were all sorts of mock-ups showing what it would look like.

It was the software that made it special. The “pill and hole” was hidden behind a completely new element that turned a hardware problem into an interface solution. Because the hardware requires a lot of parts suppliers and manufacturing partners, the physical aspects of the new iPhone are often leaked. Software tightly controlled within the walls of Apple is always surprising. Hence the influence of the Dynamic Island.

I hope a surprise like (if not as big as) Dynamic Island is exactly what Apple has in store for us with this new forced-touch solid-state tom and silent design. Because if it’s just a scrollable touch volume control, I have to wonder…Why?