iPhone 15 Pro capacitive buttons are gone, says insider

The iPhone 15 range has arguably seen more leaks than any other. Pretty much as soon as the iPhone 14 range was unveiled, rumours started to fly about its replacement.

That furore came with good reason. If all rumours are to be believed, there's a fairly extensive redesign coming, with a whole host of changes inside and out. Those include a new 3nm processor and a titanium frame on the Pro variants.

But now, one of the most anticipated features on the new handsets is not going to happen. That's according to renowned leaker, Ming-Chi Kuo, who announced the news in a blog post. Kuo is well-regarded in the tech industry, with the inside track on a lot of manufacturers and companies in Asia, particularly relating to Apple.

The feature that's gone is the capacitive buttons, which looked set to replace the physical buttons on the side of the handset. It could also mean the end of the action button, which looked set to replace the mute switch. Instead, Kuo says that the 15 Pro variants will revert back to the traditional physical button arrangement we've seen for generations.

I think that's a real shame. Sure, the solid-state buttons were always going to be divisive, but it was also great to see a company of Apple's stature making bold moves to further their device. I'll be especially sad to see the action button canned, as I think that had real potential for customising a device to the users specific preferences.

I'm sure the technology will make another appearance further down the line, though – potentially on the iPhone 16 range. The iPhone 15 line-up is expected to launch sometime in September, so we still have a while to wait. Let's just hope that the remaining rumoured features all manage to hold on.