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The iPhone has too many buttons now as Apple plays yo-yo with ergonomics

Published: Oct 07, 2024, 8:57 AM

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Instead of the oft-rumored buttonless, bezelless soap bar of an iPhone, Apple keeps introducing more buttons and keys around its handsets.

It seems to have exited the building dedicated to phones with no buttons, and left it entirely to the mercy of companies like Xiaomi, which is rumored to release a version of its own buttonless handset as many other makers before it have tried.

Why did Apple decide to introduce another physical control instead of going all nude on the sides of its iPhones is anyone's guess, but it may have something to do with the latest design trends, as well as ergonomics and even advertising?!

Touchscreen fatigue

Apple has rightfully caught the whiff of touchscreen fatigue that is sweeping through the user experience lately. Touchscreens and capacitive keys have become so ubiquitous that consumers are longing for something new, fresh, and tactile they can interact with.

The novelty of the touchscreen, introduced en masse with the OG iPhone, is quickly wearing off as people realize that companies are resorting to touch displays and capacitive buttons on everything from cooking stoves to cars just to save money.

Ergonomics be damned, as anybody who has had to guess how a cooking top in a rented Airbnb apartment works can attest to, or even tried to adjust the A/C on a modern Tesla car equipped solely with a touchscreen. Even turn signals have become are a problem now.

Stalkless design literally painful to drive in Europe
byu/bareov inTeslaModel3

Those newer Teslas are being sold as having a modern minimalistic interior, but in essence have just one big touchscreen to control it all, as that is the cheapest way possible. Starting in 2026 the Euro NCAP safety body will start assigning lower safety ratings to stalkless vehicles without the necessary set of tactile buttons and turn signals precisely on account of the capacitive touch phenomenon that is very visible in the latest Model 3.

No stalks, no selectors, no physical buttons, just capacitive touch and Dog Mode. | Image credit – Tesla

Design schools and company departments are now increasingly drifting away from the display trend that swept the industry in the last decade or so. There is an ever-growing number of cooking tops, home stereo sets, and even cars with things to push, click, or rotate physically with one's finger.

Apple has seemingly caught on and has introduced a new Camera Control key in the iPhone 16 series that can serve as a shutter button, as well as a capacitive zoom key when sliding your finger alongside its surface.

Button-less phones

Touchscreens still make sense on phones and smartwatches, though, which only leave their sides to experiment with when it comes to the trend for returning the good ol' physical controls like buttons, knobs, and crowns. Apple has reportedly been mulling a button-less handset for a while, but gave up on the idea for some reason.

Has the new design paradigm been too strong of a factor? Hardly, as other phone makers are still planning to release button-less phones that are a new and intriguing approach in their own turn. Xiaomi's recently leaked prototype of such a phone may have never seen the light of day, but the company is reportedly planning to out a version of what you see below next year, dubbing it Project Zhuque.

There were plenty of such prototypes or concepts just five years back, from the likes of Oppo, Vivo, Meizu, or Honor, basically that whole top tier of Chinese cell phone makers, like the Meizu Zero that was the first such concept announced back in 2019.

The iPhone has too many buttons

It is undoubtedly less than ergonomic to make a completely buttonless phone, but there is also something to be said for a phone with too many buttons, and that is what the iPhone 16 has become.

Between the volume and power buttons on the left, plus the new Camera Control and Action Button on the right, there are no less than five physical controls around the sides of each member of the iPhone 16 series.

The redundancy of the iPhone 16 Camera Control key

Not only does the Camera Control key feel redundant and just there for the sake of it, but its ergonomics leave a lot to be desired, too. First off, it requires a special case like, uhm, Apple's official cases that cover the button and yet offer the same tactile and capacitive feeling as the naked key underneath. Not every case maker has those, and some are simply opting for a cutout, which makes the sliding zoom gesture even more challenging than on the naked iPhone 16.

Apple has calculated the capacitive key zoom pressure to be neither too light, to avoid accidental slides, nor too heavy to require too much pressure, hence interfere with the smoothness of the zoom motion. That does take some getting used to, though, since one has to exert a predetermined amount of pressure for anything to happen.

Another gripe is the sheer usefulness of the Camera Control key. Besides having the design ready from its efforts around the buttonless iPhone, Apple reportedly added it in order to force users to record landscape footage, as plenty of advertisers were complaining that video shorts from the iPhone are mostly coming in portrait mode and there is not enough space to fit ads there.

That the iPhone 16's fifth button is aimed at video shorts seems a plausible scenario, as it records footage only by pressing and holding the button while filming, which precludes any long-form videos from happening.

Apple is playing yo-yo with the iPhone buttons

In essence, Apple seems to have slapped the new Camera Control key on the iPhone 16 because it can. In one fell swoop, it followed the current design trend of resurrecting physical controls, put the R&D around its buttonless iPhone to good use, and introduced something novel as a stopgap before the deeper design changes that may arrive with the iPhone 17 Slim model.

Even Apple, however, may have realized that having five buttons with not-so-discernible functions around the iPhone is simply too much. That is why it may reduce the number of iPhone 17 buttons back to three, by merging the Action Button and volume keys into one big, beautiful, clicky capacitive unit, 2024 Camera Control style.

One may argue that this is the typical Apple approach of gradual introduction that eases users into new designs or technology, but for the regular iPhone user, this could feel like Apple is playing yo-yo with the buttons and ergonomics on their beloved phone for no particular reason.

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Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena since 2010, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.