Home button and Taptic Engine. Curious couple that they form one of the fundamental parts of the iPhone since its launch in 2007 with one of the most recent to be incorporated to its components. So curious that, on paper, it is even hard to imagine how it works as a whole.
And it is that the novelty that this supposes is much more than the fact that "it does not sink" when we press. This is a single change that results in many improvements, many more than it might seem at first. And, best of all, we are going to notice them from the first moment and during our day to day.
New, yes. Weird, too.
It is notorious that Apple has decided to include an option through which we can adjust the degree of haptic response that we want to receive from this small motor with each press. This means that Apple assumes that not everyone has to be convinced by the same level of response it offers. The truth is that we will get used to any of the levels that are proposed to us without problems, but it never hurts to be able to choose which of them best suits our taste.
One of the most important parts of the button no longer having the physical parts of before, in addition to avoiding possible breakdowns, is that makes possible the IP67 certificate that the iPhone 7 against dust, sand and water. In this way, we can submerge the device without having to worry about possible damage. Of course, we remember that the Apple warranty does not cover liquid damage.
It will also slightly improve our way of accessing multitasking by pressing the start button twice, being now faster than in previous models. By not having to do any route, it is easier to perform that "double click" that opens multitasking, facilitating to a large extent the change between apps in a more fluid way. As in the previous generation, 3D Touch allows us to access it by clicking on the left edge of the screen, but this method is noticeably slower than if we use the start button.
We don't know if this will be the last step we see before the disappearance of the Home button as we know it, but what we can say is that we love this review of it that includes the iPhone 7.