We have heard plenty of rumours and seen plenty of leaked images of the iPhone 7 so far. So what if all of them showed one big flaw? Well, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman just pointed out something that may have been missed by the rumour mills so far and that is the new home button on the iPhone 7. Apart from the home button, Gurman also gave out some information about how the dual lens setup on the iPhone 7 Plus will work as well.
If this does turn out to be true, Apple fans will have one big surprise for launch day indeed. According to him, sources who have used the actual model (and refused to be identified) have revealed that the device does not sport the standard home button. Instead the iPhone 7 seems to have a home button that sits below the glass screen similar to an earlier reported leak.
Apple will reportedly use a Force Touch-like mechanism to create the feeling of pressing down a button. This will deliver a feedback of a true physical click according to the source. Need to try it right away? Well just head into your nearest Apple Store and press down on the trackpads of the new MacBook Pros or the new MacBook.
Moreover, since there is no home button, Apple could be looking at using an ultrasonic fingerprint reader that can read through glass. A home button with Force Touch capabilities also points to the use of an updated scanning (presumably ultrasonic) technology which could come from Sonavation (because Qualcomm’s Sense ID if for Android), the only other company that has developed ultrasonic fingerprint reading technologies.
I am sure that the home button will add another layer of interaction to the UI similar to what Apple did with Force Touch on its recent MacBook lineup. The Force click on a Macbook for example lets you look up things, adding contacts addresses, events, flight numbers depending on what you select before pressing down. On iOS, most of these can be accomplished with 3D Touch. However, we could see Apple integrating Siri to take search requests similar to Google’s Now on Tap service.
And finally, we have some more details about how the dual lens camera onboard the iPhone 7 Plus is expected to work. Frankly speaking, it’s nothing new.
A source who used the camera revealed that the 7 Plus will produce brighter photos with more detail. The prototype version of the device uses both sensors at once, with each one capturing colour differently. The data from both sensors is then used to produce a single photograph.
Thanks to the higher level of detail (more data), low-light images will look sharper as well, which is similar to what Huawei had with its older Honor 6 Plus smartphone. Additionally, the same dual lens setup also allows for greater clarity while zooming in and clicking images. Indeed we would be looking at some software trickery here. But this coming from Apple, should look a lot better compared to past implementations by other smartphones makers.