Barely a month ago, OnePlus co-founder Pete Lau announced that the iconic two-step alert slider switch was moving away. Lau argued that the company wanted to embrace some more versatile and eventually decided on a button format.
Subsequently, the company did not share any other detail on what the button would look like, and more importantly, which functionality will bring it to the table. Well, now we do. An executive from OnePlus shared an image of the button on the upcoming phone, and has also shed some details on its utility.
The chairman of OnePlus China, Li G Louis, shared a teaser image of the upcoming OnePlus 13T on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo. The picture shows the side profile of the phone, focusing on the new button along the left edge of the device, located in the correct position where the alert slider sat.
The executive of the OnePlus mentioned that in its original format, this alert would maintain the functional side of the slider. For example, a press of the button will allow users to switch between muted, vibrate and ring sound profiles. However, he made it clear that the button would be optimized just like the action button on Apple’s current-generation iPhones.
Now, removing the alert slider is quite a historic departure for OnePlus, and shaken its proper part of the indifferent online post. But from a technical point of view, it matters a lot.
When the company first removed the slider at OnePlus 10T, it opened an additional charging pump, more powerful antenna hardware and enough interior to fit a large battery.
From a functional point of view, a button not only takes a low interior location, but also more versatile. There is definitely a vivid example for him. Apple removed its version of the alert slider on iPhones and eventually replaced it with a multi-function touch button.
Alert slider on OnePlus phone can not do much, but a physical button can be adapted for multi-repres, short-press and long-press gestures, each assigned its specific functionality with a proper bit of user adaptation thrown into the mixture.
As far as the debut is concerned, OnePlus will introduce its multifunction button on the upcoming OnePlus 13T, a compact Android flagship. It will reportly be equipped with Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Elite SOC, a 120Hz OLED screen, 6,200mAh battery with 80W charging support and a powerful camera array led by a 50-megapixel imaging sensor.
