iPhone 15 Pro's Action button shown off in these new case leaks

News
By
published

It's shrinking.

iPhone 15 Pro concept
(Image credit: Konstantin Milenin)

If Apple follows its usual release timeframes we can expect it to announce the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro lineups later this year, likely in September. Now, new leaks appear to have confirmed at least one of the latter's features.

Rumors have long pointed to Apple's best iPhones doing away with the mute switch in favor of a new Action button, much like the one that is already present on the Apple Watch Ultra. If that's the case the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will no longer have a physical mute switch, but they'll gain something much more useful.

Now, two case leaks show the cutout where that Action button will live.

There are two leaks that have cropped up very close to each other. The first comes via Twitter leaker Majin Bu and is said to show an iPhone 15 Pro Max case complete with a redesigned area for where the mute switch would normally be.

The second comes via MacRumors and shows an iPhone 15 Pro case that was seen on Chinese social network Weibo. That leak is perhaps the most interesting because it puts an iPhone 15 Pro case alongside that of an iPhone 14 Pro, giving us a better look at the differences.

Those differences aren't huge, but they're noticeable. The main one is that the area where the mute switch would normally be is now smaller, likely hinting that whatever will be inside that hole no longer needs to physically move in order to function — hinting that the removal of the mute switch is indeed happening.

It also appears that the volume buttons will be slightly lower on the new iPhones, although it's difficult to be 100% sure given the way the two cases are being held.

We can expect there to be more leaks like this as we edge nearer to the expected September unveiling of course. The same can also be said for the rumored Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra refresh, too.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.