No keys, no rockers: Xiaomi will beat Apple to a buttonless phone
Xiaomi could very well beat Apple to the rumored buttonless iPhone that has been bandied about for a while. The world's third-largest phone maker will be introducing a phone without any buttons, volume rockers, sliders, capacitive keys, or anything of the sort, similar to its Mi Mix Alpha concept of yesteryear that you can see above.
According to Smartprix's source, Xiaomi will showcase the buttonless phone concept early next year. Tentatively called Project Zhuque within the team developing it, the phone will be a high-end device powered by Qualcomm's upcoming flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset.
There will be a selfie camera hidden under the display that would allegedly be of higher quality than similar efforts by Samsung or ZTE. Navigating a buttonless phone would be tricky, of course, but Xiaomi has probably figured out a combination of inputs that could easily replace the power and volume keys, as well as any other paraphernalia that usually sticks out of a phone's sides.
Apple has been rumored to develop an all-screen iPhone without any ports or buttons for a good while, first for the iPhone 15, now for the iPhone 16, but its project won't materialize any time soon. Apple has reportedly found it tricky to replace tactile with capacitive keys, so instead of issuing a buttonless iPhone, it will add more elements around the iPhone 16 series.
First off, the Action Button of the iPhone 15 Pro models will make its way to all the phones in the iPhone 16 series. Second, the capacitive keys that Apple put so much work on will allegedly make a cameo on the iPhone 16 Pro handsets in the limited capacity of a camera Capture Button.
Thus, Xiaomi could beat Apple to the buttonless, all-screen phone game by introducing a truly all-screen device without camera punch holes or Dynamic Island camouflage, and without any keys around it to ruin the infinite display impression. A big unknown, however, is whether Project Zhuque will be a concept device, or an actual retail handset to buy and marvel at.
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