Apple's iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models might only be a few months old, but attention has very much turned to what comes next. That'll be the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro devices if everything goes the way we expect it to, and the four-iPhone lineup has been leaking in a number of ways over the last few months. Now, a new leak has given us our best idea yet of what the new handsets will look like — including that heavily rumored Capture button.
The iPhone 15 Pro brought with it a new Action button, a feature that allows owners to quickly launch apps, shortcuts, and more. Apple seems to have caught the new button bug and rumors have long suggested a so-called Capture button will debut this year. Now, new images claiming to show iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro dummy units have outed that very button including its size and placement.
If the units are accurate to what Apple will ship this fall the Capture button will take the spot below the power button on the right side of the device, where US iPhone owners would normally find the mmWave antenna. That matches previous reports. It also appears that the button won't be small like the Action button but rather much larger, similar to the power button in length. It still isn't confirmed exactly what the Capture button will be capable of, but it's suspected that it may behave in a similar way to a shutter button on a DSLR camera. If so, users will be able to lightly press the Capture button to begin the focusing process before pressing it more firmly to capture the shot.
Ready, camera, capture
The images of the new dummy units shared on the Chinese social network Weibo and then reported by MacRumors, clearly show the new Capture button in all its glory. Another photo shows the iPhone 16 Pro and an iPhone 15 Pro to highlight the slight difference in size. The iPhone 16 Pro is expected to use a 6.3-inch display while the current iPhone 15 Pro has a 6.1-inch display and the overall size of the handset is expected to grow slightly as a result.
Another image shows an iPhone 15 dummy unit with the redesigned pill-shaped camera area that has been recently rumored. The new layout is similar to that of the iPhone Xs rather than the diagonal arrangement of the more recent models. It's been suggested that the reason for the change is to allow iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus owners to capture spatial video which can later be viewed using the Apple Vision Pro headset. Such a feature requires the two cameras to be side-by-side when the iPhone is in landscape capture mode. Currently, only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max models are capable of capturing spatial videos for that very reason.
If Apple follows its usual release pattern it's likely that the new iPhones will be announced in September before being released for sale around 10 days later. It's also expected that Apple will announce the new Apple Watch X and potentially a refreshed Apple Watch Ultra during the same timeframe.
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