The line between expensive cameras and iPhones blurs every year, as Apple adds more professional features to its premium line of phones. From the high megapixel counts and wicked zoom lenses like the iPhone 15 Pro Max to the direct-to-external storage that professionals might want for massive, RAW videos, iPhones are becoming more and more a legitimate way to capture professional-looking photos and videos.
Now it appears that Apple is taking one of the most tactile parts of a DSLR — its two-stage camera button — and adding it and its functionality to the next generation of iPhones with the iPhone 16.
Putting the ‘Pro’ in Pro iPhone
As previously reported, the record button has been a rumor that has been circulating from various places. It already supposedly behaves like a digital camera button — a light press starts the focus, then a final hard press takes the shot.
Now Instant Digital also took to Chinese social media platform Weibo to reiterate claims about the feature, going further to say that a tap of the button will launch the camera app, ready to take a video or photo. The button was initially thought to be for recording video, though that use seems to have expanded now. It’s a cool-sounding feature and shows how much Apple wants these devices to be used as cameras by a variety of users.
Whether the recording button will replace the action button is another matter — it will take the place of part of the phone’s antenna, according to leaked prototypes, which will move below the volume controls. Let’s hope they don’t tell us ‘You’re wrong!’ because the 5G signal bar drops to zero when you go to call your grandma.