The iPhone 16 collection is now official, and whilst you get the standard {hardware} upgrades and iterative adjustments to the design, the newest units aren’t meaningfully totally different to their predecessors. Apple is not one to introduce drastic {hardware} adjustments year-on-year; what it does higher is roll out distinctive options that really make a distinction.
Hardwired
In Hardwired, AC Senior Editor Harish Jonnalagadda delves into all issues {hardware}, together with telephones, audio merchandise, storage servers, and routers.
This 12 months, that honor belongs to Digital camera Management, a button that is situated on the decrease proper nook. The button is out there on all iPhone 16 fashions — together with the usual variants — and that is good to see. Because the title suggests, Digital camera Management is a devoted button that permits you to launch the digital camera, take pictures and movies, and modify modes — all with out having to work together with the viewfinder.
It’s primarily a capacitive button with a haptic motor that delivers suggestions, and it’s strain delicate. The very best half is the flexibility it gives: a brief press launches the digital camera, and when you’re within the viewfinder, one other brief press takes a photograph, and a protracted press begins recording video.
My favourite characteristic is the flexibility to regulate the zoom stage simply by swiping on the button; I consistently fiddle with the lenses on my telephones, in order that’s certain to come in useful. In fact, the flexibility to launch the digital camera and take pictures or movies with a button is not new on Android — most telephones have that characteristic baked into the ability button.
The truth is, ASUS supplied an analogous characteristic on the Zenfone 9 and Zenfone 10, integrating a capacitive module into the ability key that had first rate customizability. The ZenTouch key allowed you to drag down the notification pane to view notifications, scroll by way of web sites, and even modify media playback. It was top-of-the-line options on earlier Zenfone units, and I am aggravated that ASUS did not retain it on the Zenfone 11 Extremely this 12 months.
That stated, I wish to see an analogous button make its strategy to extra Android telephones. It is not unreasonable to suppose that could be the case; Android manufacturers love borrowing options from the iPhone, as evidenced from the half-baked Dynamic Island clones you get with ColorOS. A {hardware} button to manage the digital camera has larger potential on Android — notably on units just like the Xiaomi 14 Extremely and Vivo X100 Extremely, which have excellent cameras.
Whereas Xiaomi would not provide any further buttons on the 14 Extremely, it sells a Pictures Package that is incredible; it features a case, a pictures grip that attaches to the system, and it has a 1500mAh battery. The attachment brings a standard shutter button, report button, an adjustable dial, and zoom controls, and it totally transforms the 14 Extremely, making it simpler to carry the telephone and take pictures and movies.
Utilizing the accent with the Xiaomi 14 Extremely made me notice that there is a particular have to have bodily digital camera controls, and if it may be achieved by providing one thing like Digital camera Management, then producers want to begin doing so on Android. Chinese language manufacturers specifically have pushed the boundaries of imaging tech over the past two years, and {hardware} buttons to make the cameras simpler to manage would go a good distance — at the very least in my very own use case.
