TL;DR
- Nubia has confirmed that its next smartphone will offer a camera shutter button.
- OPPO is also said to offer a camera shutter button on the Find X8 series.
- Realme has also demonstrated this feature on a smartphone.
Update: September 16, 2024 (1:20 AM ET): It looks like Nubia and OPPO might not be the only Android OEMs following in Apple’s footsteps by offering a camera button. A Realme executive has posted a video of a camera button on one of the brand’s phones. Check it out below.
The clip shows someone using a Realme phone with a camera button. The user can swipe on the key to zoom in or tap it to take a picture. It wouldn’t be the first time Realme copied a feature made popular by Apple, though. The company previously cribbed Apple’s Dynamic Island notch for its budget Android phones, and it also copied the iPhone maker’s MagSafe tech (although Realme’s MagDart ecosystem wasn’t commercially released).
Original article: September 11, 2024 (2:19 AM ET): Camera shutter buttons aren’t new in the Android smartphone world, but Apple’s iPhone 16 series debuted a shutter key of its own this week. Now, it sounds like at least two Android brands could offer the feature soon.
Nubia president Ni Fei claimed on Weibo that the upcoming Nubia Z70 Ultra smartphone would offer a “more realistic” camera button. The executive also confirmed to a follower that this would be a two-stage key, ostensibly allowing you to focus with a half-press and capture with a full press.
Nubia isn’t the only Android phone maker poised to offer a camera shutter button after Apple’s launch. A leaker previously reported that OPPO’s Find X8 series would copy the iPhone 16 and offer a so-called Quick Button to “freeze the action.” It’s unclear if this would be a standard physical shutter button or if it’d support gestures like the iPhone 16’s button. Apple’s Camera Control key is a two-stage button that also supports swipe gestures for actions like zooming in and out.
It almost goes without saying that early smartphones offered camera shutter buttons way before Apple, with Sony still offering a two-stage capture key on its recent Xperia 1 VI and earlier. But the iPhone’s swipe gestures are a handy addition to the legacy button, so we hope Android OEMs offer this added functionality too.
We’re particularly keen to see the OPPO Find X8 series in general, as the Pro/Ultra variant is tipped to offer a 10x telephoto camera. This would be the first time since the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra that a smartphone has shipped with a 10x camera.
