Apple announced the iPhone 17E this week, and with it came a surprise: MagSafe support for magnetic charging and accessories. For an entry-level iPhone, I was expecting an updated processor and maybe more storage (both of which it got), so MagSafe is a nice bonus.
But one major iPhone feature didn't make the jump: the Camera Control button. And I'd say that's the right choice.
The Camera Control is simultaneously an ingenious idea, a masterwork of precision engineering -- and an utterly frustrating experience. It echoes the ergonomics of using a traditional camera shutter button, but creates complications in the name of cleverness. Of all the recent iPhone advancements, this is the one I most want to work well, which is why it's also the most disappointing.
As cameras take on a bigger role in smartphones (not just for capturing photos but also for powering AI features), phone makers like Apple and Honor are adding dedicated physical buttons to reduce friction when launching tools like visual search, camera controls and other AI-powered features.
A hardware solution a long time coming
As a professional photographer who also writes and podcasts about photography, I embraced the introduction of the Camera Control on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. Holding a phone horizontally like a traditional camera, my right index finger naturally landed on the top edge of the phone where the button was to trigger a capture.
Since the early iPhone models, people have tried to make the one-handed phone camera work. There have been hand grips with physical shutter buttons that plugged into the phone's port or connected via Bluetooth. The third-party app Camera Plus first came up with the idea of assigning the hardware volume buttons as triggers, and then Apple implemented it in a later iOS update.
But that involved remembering to bring and attach the accessory, or turn the phone the correct way (clockwise) to put the volume buttons in the right place. The dedicated Action button on the iPhone 15 Pro only complicated things further, making the volume buttons even harder to access.
The mechanism behind the Camera Control is impressive engineering. Apple/Screenshot by James Martin/CNET
The Camera Control is intended to fix all of that friction. It's a button that sits nearly flush with the right side of the iPhone case that can be pressed. But it's also a capacitive touchpad that registers finger movement and light pressure to control more than just the shutter -- essentially a small, thin version of the trackpad found on Apple's laptops.
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