The phone that ushered in the modern mobile age was a Nokia, but not the one you’re thinking of – not the Nokia 3210 (the one with Snake). The Nokia N95, a multimedia wonder, predated the iPhone by a year and offered more features than the iPhone would have for generations. Finally, the rumored iPhone 16 might bring back one of my favorite lost features, the same camera button as the N95 – and it would be the best thing that ever happened to iPhone photos.
If a camera button sounds simple, I swear it’s the biggest change that will come to smartphones this decade … forgetting AI, of course. This camera button will make all of your photos better, especially when you zoom. This new camera button is going to do more for smartphones than the invention of the Megapixel. It will be bigger than selfies. It’s the button I’ve been begging for.
The Nokia N95 had lots of buttons – lots of buttons. There were 13 buttons on the front of the Nokia N95, including Send and End, and a 4-way pad. You could also slide the phone one way to reveal a 12-key number pad, or you could slide it the other way to reveal media playback controls. The iPod was all the rage, so media playback keys were a standout feature. Those aren’t the buttons I’m talking about, though.
On the side of the Nokia N95 was a camera button, much like the Action Button on today’s iPhone 15 Pro. You could press and hold the button to activate the camera. Actually, the very first Nokia N95 had a sliding camera cover, and the camera turned on when you slid it open. It still had this awesome camera button, the same type of button you’ll find on any standalone camera today.
What makes a camera button awesome? If you press it just a little, the camera will focus first. Then, you squeeze harder to take your shot. There is even some resistance when you press halfway down to let you know it’s focus time.
All standalone cameras have this type of shutter button, and other smartphones, including recent Sony Xperia phones, have used it as well. The ill-fated Windows Phone OS required a two-stage camera button on all Windows Phones.
A shaky hand is a photographer's greatest enemy
I’m so excited about this feature ... that I may have to upgrade
The biggest problem with my camera phone isn’t the camera, it’s me. My shaking hands ruin far more photos than my iPhone could.
A good rule of thumb for photography is that you can reduce hand shake if you use your focal length as the fraction's denominator for your shutter speed. I’ll explain: if you use a 35mm lens, you would need a 1/35 second shutter speed to eliminate shake. If you have a 200mm lens, you need a shutter speed of 1/200 second, or faster.
The 5X zoom lens on my iPhone 15 Pro Max is equivalent to a 120mm lens, and lo and behold, I see that my iPhone shoots photos at 1/120 second when I use that lens. That’s good, but it could be better. Knowing that my iPhone is shooting at the lowest shutter speed for my shaky hands makes me wish I could shoot faster or shake less.
That’s what my favorite old Nokia button is for! The camera shutter button helps me shake less. Actually, it helps with the shakiest moment of all – the moment I tap the shutter button. Think about it: I have my photo lined up perfectly, my hands are steady, and then I go and poke my phone?! That’s how I take my photo? Of course, my shots look blurry. I moved my camera at the worst moment.
Of course, there are other options on today’s cameras, but they aren’t as satisfying as a real, two-step camera button. On many phones, like my Galaxy S24 Ultra, I can activate voice commands to take a photo. With a Samsung phone, I can just say “Shoot,” or “Cheese.” Um, yeah. That’s not ideal. Try walking around a crowded arboretum yelling, “Shoot!” “Shoot!” at your phone for a day. You’ll get plenty of looks.
You can also use the volume keys by default on almost every smartphone to take photos. However, that still adds a little bump to the side of the phone when you want to take a photo. What I need isn’t a bump or a single press: I need to squeeze.
The two-stage camera button lets me squeeze the shutter slowly. I line up my shot and then press a little bit, which tells the camera to autofocus. It also gives me a slightly tighter grip on the camera, which means there is less travel when it’s time to press the shutter. To take the photo, I just squeeze a little harder, and it's done. I’ve moved as little as possible.
This is a feature that makes me want to upgrade
I’m so excited about this feature coming to the new iPhone 16 Pro that I may have to upgrade from my iPhone 15 Pro Max. I wasn’t going to; I felt like the Action Button was enough, especially once I learned I could press it to open the camera and then again to take the photo. It’s like having the camera button I crave … but not quite.
I promise, whatever upgrades Apple makes to its camera, nothing would improve photo quality for all iPhone users like a two-stage camera button. We would need to teach iPhone owners how to use it properly, but that’s our job here at TechRadar. We’ll write the How-To story, Apple. Just give me my camera button, please. I’ve waited too long for this advancement to come back.
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