Barely a month ago, OnePlus co-founder Pete Lau announced that the iconic two-stage alert slider switch was going away. Lau argued that the company wanted to embrace something more versatile and ultimately decided on a button format.
Back then, the company didn’t share any further details on what the button would look like, and more importantly, what functionalities it would bring to the table. Well, now we do. A OnePlus executive has shared an image of the button on an upcoming phone, and shed some details on its utility, as well.
President of OnePlus China, Li Jie Louis, has shared a teaser image of the upcoming OnePlus 13T on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo. The picture shows the phone’s side profile, focusing on the new button alongside the left edge of the device, positioned right where the alert slider used to sit.
The OnePlus executive mentioned that in its native format, it will retain the alert slider’s functional side. As such, a press of the button will let users switch between mute, vibrate, and ring sound profiles. However, he made it clear that the button will be customizable, just like the Action Button on Apple’s current-generation iPhones.
Now, the removal of the alert slider is quite a historical departure for OnePlus, and stirred its fair share of nostalgic online posts. But from a technical perspective, it makes a lot of sense.
When the company first removed the slider on the OnePlus 10T, it opened up enough internal space to fit an extra charging pump, more powerful antenna hardware, and a larger battery.
From a functional perspective, a button not only takes less internal space, but also happens to be more versatile. There’s certainly a vivid precedent for that. Apple removed its own version of the alert slider on iPhones and eventually replaced it with a multi-function tactile button.
The Alert Slider on OnePlus phones couldn’t do much, but a physical button can be customized to multi-press, short-press, and long-press gestures, each assigned its own unique functionality with a fair bit of user customization thrown into the mix.
As far as the debut goes, OnePlus will introduce its multifunction button on the upcoming OnePlus 13T, a compact Android flagship. It will reportedly come equipped with Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, a 120Hz OLED screen, a massive 6,200mAh battery with 80W charging support, and a powerful camera array led by 50-megapixel imaging sensors.