The era of the button was bound to come to an end; the same way video rental stores and physical media slowly faded into obscurity. It may be a while before it comes to smartphones sold in the U.S., but overseas, smartphone manufacturers are already talking about dropping physical buttons from the chassis.
This idea comes from the deep in the Android rumor mill—I’m talking, like, billionaire-backed carbon fiber submarine diving down to the Titanic depths of the rumor mill. An oft-referenced leak site, SmartPrix, published a report from a tipster alleging to have the exclusive on the button-less smartphone Xiaomi plans to launch in 2025. The phone is codenamed “zhuque,” which refers to the Vermilion Bird in Chinese mythology. The report states the unreleased phone will run on the next Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 4 processor—which hasn’t been announced—and boasts an under-display selfie camera. It will also be entirely devoid of physical buttons.
The leaker says the project is in its early stages (sure, Jan), so there’s not much to say about how the buttons will be constructed and whether they’ll provide gesture controls or rely on pressure sensitivity to function. Xiaomi could even dump all that and go full voice control, making the phone more accessible for the visually and physically impaired. Conversely, a buttonless phone is less accessible for folks with motor skill limitations.
Xiaomi phones are popular overseas—the third most sold smartphone worldwide—which is why this supposed reveal is gaining traction. It’s not the first time we’ve seen a smartphone sans buttons. Button-less phones have already existed in international markets, with brands like Vivo, owned by Oppo’s parent conglomerate, BBK, showcasing concepts as far back as five years ago. The ASUS ROG II smartphone also introduced the idea of touch-sensitive buttons with Air Triggers, which mimics much of how this buttonless future will come to be.
If you recall this year’s rumors about the iPhone 16 Pro, the gossip was that it would also have a dedicated haptic button on the bottom side for snapping photos quickly and organically. It would be called, aptly, the Capture Button. However, its existence wouldn’t eliminate all the buttons; the iPhone’s Action Button would be there and even extend to the rest of the iPhone 16 family. And the volume rocker still shows signs of existence, at least in the design leaks circulating all year.
Still, it’s fun to imagine life with a buttonless smartphone. At the same time, I’d want something that is fully voice-controlled so that it would be accessible to more users than just those who can interact with a touchscreen.
