New iPhone 15 Pro chip will keep solid-state buttons alive when power is very low

A new rumor claims that Apple is adapting a super-low energy mode so that whether a battery is dead, or the phone is turned off, its new buttons can react to touch.

Apple's A16 Bionic, and other A-series chips, already feature an energy-saving mode. It's specifically designed so functions such as Find My and Apple Pay can work when a battery is so depleted that the phone has turned off.

The new rumor says that for the iPhone 15 Pro, this functionality will be extended to include being able to sense touch on the buttons.

"The new micro-processor that will ship in the 15 Pro models will not only manage those tasks," claims leaker Anonymous A.S., "but will also be able to immediately sense capacitive button presses, holds, and even detect their own version of 3D Touch with the new volume up/down button, action (currently ringer switch) button, and power button, while the phone is dead or powered down."

This leak came on the MacRumors forum, and the publication notes that the same leaker was previously accurate about the then-forthcoming Dynamic Island.

According to this leaker, while the low power mode and button sensing is set, Apple is still testing whether or not to add Haptic feedback to the controls.

The leaker also says that those controls include an "Action" button, which replaces the Mute switch. Apple previously launched an Action button on the Apple Watch Ultra.

12 Comments

9secondkox2 8 Years · 3148 comments

About 1 year ago

Better solution: keep actual buttons.

Also: action button is cool so long as you also have a mute switch.

Never accidentally switched the mute toggle. Have accidentally pressed buttons countless times. Going to be lots of complaints with this.

tht 23 Years · 5654 comments

9secondkox2 said:

Better solution: keep actual buttons.
Also: action button is cool so long as you also have a mute switch.

Never accidentally switched the mute toggle. Have accidentally pressed buttons countless times. Going to be lots of complaints with this.

It's a stupid headline. I'm not sure I'm understanding the amazement here. On phones with mechanical buttons, they have to have power to work! Guess what happens when a battery is depleted? Mechanical buttons don't work. You need to plug in to charge up the battery a little before the boot firmware can power the buttons.

All electronic devices need power for their buttons to work. These force touch buttons are no different. It's actually mechanical if they are force touch. Strange that the rumors really don't say capacitive. They always say solid-state, which isn't clear to me what it means.

igorsky 9 Years · 775 comments

9secondkox2 said:

Better solution: keep actual buttons.
Also: action button is cool so long as you also have a mute switch.

Never accidentally switched the mute toggle. Have accidentally pressed buttons countless times. Going to be lots of complaints with this.

None of these are better solutions as they don’t push any technology forward. You’ll figure out how to deal with these new buttons like the rest of us.

radarthekat 12 Years · 3904 comments

Without power to the device, what's the point of the buttons working? That shouldn't be left for the reader to determine.

tht said:

9secondkox2 said:

Better solution: keep actual buttons.
Also: action button is cool so long as you also have a mute switch.

Never accidentally switched the mute toggle. Have accidentally pressed buttons countless times. Going to be lots of complaints with this.

It's a stupid headline. I'm not sure I'm understanding the amazement here. On phones with mechanical buttons, they have to have power to work! Guess what happens when a battery is depleted? Mechanical buttons don't work. You need to plug in to charge up the battery a little before the boot firmware can power the buttons.

All electronic devices need power for their buttons to work. These force touch buttons are no different. It's actually mechanical if they are force touch. Strange that the rumors really don't say capacitive. They always say solid-state, which isn't clear to me what it means.

AI and others are using similar “solid state” to mean touch sensitive.

Might be better for water-proofing, but some obvious usability caveats.