Tuesday 9 October 2018

EVOLUTION OF IPHONE HOME BUTTON

The most used and the most important button on the iPhone is a Home button. As the Home button serves many purposes, the mechanical switch is a subject to a high level of use, and potential for wear and tear. That is why, more than any other physical button, the Home button has been a source of problems over the years, both for Apple and its consumers.
The Home button has come a long way since its debut on the original iPhone in 2007. Check below how the Home button has changed over these years.

A RELEASE OF IPHONE

The original iPhone was released in 2007; it set the standard for future touchscreen smartphone interfaces. This iPhone introduced the Home button design as a rounded rectangular icon along with the basic functionalities. The button was mainly used to access the single press home screen, so the original iPhone boasted low failure rates in comparison to its successors.
Its Home button was a part of the docking assembly, not a physical display assembly. Getting to it was a hard task, so if repairs were necessary, they were difficult: the Home button as a part of the docking assembly, required the phone to be taken apart completely.
When looking at failure rates, the original iPhone didn’t have as many failure rates as more recent generations of iPhones.

THE IPHONE 3G AND IPHONE 3GS

The iPhone 3G was introduced in 2008, and the 3GS followed in 2009. Both models were remarkably similar regarding the Home button. Different from the original iPhone, where it was a part of the dock connector assembly, in these new models it became a part of the display assembly.
In both the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS the display assembly is divided into two parts: the glass assembly, and the frame assembly. One of them could be replaced without the other. Considering that the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS opened from the front, the display assembly was straightforward to remove. As the Home button was part of the frame on display, a faulty Home button assembly was easy to repair as well.

THE IPHONE 4

The iPhone 4 released in 2010, and it brought a completely redesigned iPhone with a sleeker, slimmer profile. Due to its new design, once again it had to be opened up from the back which made the Home button and other components challenging to replace.
The iPhone 4 the included fast app switcher and multitasker accessible through a double press, so Home button usage spiked causing more Home button failures. Besides, the iPhone 4 Home button used a flex cable, which became an additional point of failure. Due to that cable, in some cases, the Home button would stop working completely. The reason was that this Home button flex cable relied on the Home button being able to depress and “click” the disc-like metal contact on the cable underneath. Gradually, that disc was worn down and became less reliable as a connection point.

THE IPHONE 4S

The iPhone 4S debuted in 2011 with a few changes to the Home button. Overall, not much changed compared to the iPhone 4. Additions were a rubber gasket and adhesive which attached the Home button more safely to the display assembly. However, the underlying cable stayed untouched, so the iPhone 4S was a subject to the same long-term disc depression failures as the iPhone 4.
Apple introduced assistive touch to combat the hardware issues of the Home button. When turned on assistive touch showed virtual controls on the screen which removed the need for hardware buttons. Additionally, iPhone 4S introduced the virtual assistant, Siri, which could be accessed by holding down the home button.

THE IPHONE 5 AND 5C

The iPhone 5 and iPhone 5C were introduced in 2012 and 2013 respectively. They had a new thinner profile and a Home button that was flush to the glass. They had a different feel, but like the iPhone 4S, the physical Home button was attached to the screen and contained the same ribbon cable underneath. In these new models, Apple included a stronger rubber gasket, added yellow tape to secure the cable, and reduced the gap between the glass and the button. However, these changes didn’t affect long-term wear and tore on the metal disk which tends to fail eventually.

THE IPHONE 5S

The iPhone 5S debuted at the same time with the iPhone 5C, but it had radical changes regarding the Home button. Although the button retained its circular shape and position, it lost the square icon with the new fingerprint touch id. The new button was made of scratch-resistant sapphire and a finger detecting steel ring. It used a biometric sensor to learn the user’s fingerprint adding more security and convenience to the phone. Now the Home button flex cable became unique to the phone, so it couldn’t be replaced without affecting the touch id functionality.

THE IPHONE 6 AND 6S

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S released in 2014 with the same fingerprint touch and cable problems as the iPhone 5S. With the larger screens of the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple introduced the feature Reachability: with just a double touch read on the Home button without press, the interface of iOS was lower to allow to reach any point of the screen with a single hand.
iOS 8 also introduced activating Siri by voice command “Hey, Siri,” which decreased the load of the Home button functions. With the iOS update, lots of users received security ‘error 53’ which happens when the touch id sensor doesn’t match the other components of the device after repair from a third party. This decreased the number of repairs options iPhone 6, and iPhone 6S users can have.

THE IPHONE 7 AND LATER MODELS

The iPhone 7 was the first device without a physical Home button, replaced by the Taptic Engine, which simulates the mechanical pressure. This iPhone was also the first one to integrate the function “raise-to-walk” with the automatic activation of the screen without using the Home button. The iconic “slide to unlock” disappeared.
The iPhone X marked the end defined as the Home button on the next Apple smartphone. iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are still with the Taptic Engine, but by 2018 all of the models followed the line of the X. Most of the functions of the Home button were replaced by the key on the side (formerly the Sleep button), and various gestures.

CONCLUSION

We are now eleven years into the iPhone product cycle, yet Apple keeps repeating the same mistake regarding the Home button. It creates the question if there is a logical hardware solution? Cables and components fail over time. Features like Assistive Touch show that Apple has experimented with virtual gestures to replace hardware functionality. It seems like there`s only one real solution – software.
For now, there are still many users with different iPhone models having the Home button problems. The Home button repair options still vary per each iPhone model and if you have troubles figuring them out, approach rocketfix.

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