What are the hot trends on Android phones next year? Our prediction is a dedicated button to control the camera like the Sony Xperia series devices and the iPhone 16. We say this because iPhones may be slow to take inspiration from Android but their versions often follow suit. As we reported last week, Oppo and Nubia will offer iPhone 16-like Camera Control buttons on their devices.
Last weekend Realme shared a video showing an early prototype of their own camera control button on a mysterious device. The video shows Chase Xu, Realme's vice president showing the button located on the right side of the device.
The button is elongated and slightly protrudes from the side frame of the device. Like Camera Control it's not just a camera button used on Sony Xperia. Instead it supports touch with zoom control done by moving a finger on the button surface. This is still just a prototype and it is not yet known if Realme will offer it on a real smartphone in the future.