The last thing the iPhone 17 Pro needs is yet another button

By September, you can expect fairly regular updates to the imminent launch of the iPhone 17. This is normal for the course at this time of the year. We will hear about the specifications, the design, the prices and the color finishes, each report obtaining a few things correctly, a few things that are wrong, but gradually building the existing consensus to get closer to the complete image.

But a story over the weekend was a little different. An anonymous prognostician has contacted MacRumors with a new one that the iPhone 17 Pro will receive three camera upgrades previously unknown. First, an increase in the maximum optical zoom of 5x to 8x. Quite fair: this is a new statement, but it largely corresponds to the 7X that we already expected. Second, Apple will provide a new pro camera application or a major upgrade to the final cutting camera. Again, new but not unreasonable.

And the third rumor? There will be apparently a second Camera control button.

Wait, what? Still another button? Now it’s surely madness.

If you ask me, the iPhone already has too many buttons. I lost the account of the number of times I accidentally triggered the control of the existing camera on my iPhone 16 Plus, because it is in a place where the middle or the annular of my left hand would naturally land during recovery. (This is such a common problem, Apple has an entire set of accessibility parameters to mitigate it.) The edge of a phone is not only a dead space; It has a function, which is to accommodate the user’s hand, and there is a limit to the number of material controls that you can add to this space before starting to become embarrassing.

The action button on the opposite edge causes me problems in a different way. It is next to the volume commands, which I usually use by Touch, but the presence of a third button complicates this interaction. Instead of feeling for the two buttons and pressing the top or the bottom depending on what I want to do, I must continue to explore the edge to determine if there is another button above or not. It’s not exactly the science of rockets, but when you just want to refuse volume without looking, it adds friction to what should be a simple and intuitive process. The mute rocking was much easier to distinguish volume controls; The action button is too similar.

Button

Apple’s approach to equipment was quite different. He would add material orders only as a last resort; More frequently, this would ruthlessly remove them, moving to the marble of foreign complications to reach the work of minimalist art inside. I even wrote an article on the fear of the company towards the buttons, arguing that it should prioritize conviviality on elegance. I always think that, but unfortunately, Apple’s new dependence to add physical commands (the Apple Watch Ultra has an additional button, which I continued to trigger accidentally during the test) is bad for conviviality And elegance.

Jim Martin / Foundry

The addition of a button to an existing product should be a big problem. Product managers should be forced to sweat before a fierce committee to justify the change. Why is it necessary? What is he adding? What will cost? What will customers think? And how will it change their relationship with the product?

Your mileage can vary, and I may be an atypical user, but I don’t think I get something from the camera or action button. I (willingly) I used the camera control maybe two or three times since I finished writing my quasi-revised. And although I use the action button all the time, I almost always use it as a silent switch, a vital work that the rocking does better. In both cases, the change has reached almost nothing, while interfering with the way I use the device and that I played with my muscle memory.

So no, I don’t want another camera control, thank you very much. The good news is that, realistically, we probably don’t get. The prediction is anonymous, so we cannot compare this prediction with a proven history of specific claims in the past. MacRumors acknowledges that it has not been able to corroborate information via other sources and says that “skepticism is obviously justified for the moment.” It is a change of equipment, and they generally flee much earlier than that thanks to prototypes and supply chain sources. But above all, it just doesn’t make much sense to introduce a button that does the same as another.

Maybe I’m wrong and Apple plans to further complicate the external design of the iPhone. This would adapt, after all, to the trajectory of the last two years, Cupertino adding the action button in 2023 and control of the camera in 2024. Perhaps the addition of an unnecessary additional button will become an annual ritual: the selfie button in 2025, you do not rely on the plane mode in 2026). Maybe. But probably not.

And that’s a good thing, because after years not to include enough pimples, Apple went too far in the opposite direction.