As is common practice with almost all manufacturers, Apple uses prototypes of its devices to test new technologies that will be used in its future products. And for some time the Cupertino company used strange iPhone “Frankenstein” in which they allegedly tested the functionality of a feature that was rumored to be available in the iPhone 15: a haptic button.
This prototype was spotted in images and videos thanks to the account AppleDemoYTand became known due to its appearance at an electronic products processing plant. At first glance, it looks like a regular iPhone with a camera system, flat frames and a frosted glass back. However, there is an important difference on the back panel from other iPhone models: there is no company logo.
Instead of, Apple uses the Vesica Piscis logo.. It is a symbol that has been used many times to represent art and architecture. It consists of two crescent shapes, which mathematically represent the intersection of two disks of equal radius – what is called vesica piscis in Latin. And, interestingly, this has already been seen in other Apple products, such as AirTag.

Apple used this iPhone to test a tactile keyboard
However, the most striking thing about this iPhone Frankenstein is not the logo, but the components included in it. It’s something like the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14, Well, Apple seems to be using components from both models in one device. However, there are products that do not belong to either of these two models. In fact, we haven’t even seen them on current models. This is the volume button.
As seen in the images, the iPhone prototype has volume button that is not separated. Additionally, it is not a physical key per se; the button does nothing when pressed. That’s because it’s a haptic button, where Apple uses a vibration motor to make it feel like the user is pressing something.


The volume button is a solid piece as it allows you to increase and decrease the volume simply by swiping your finger over the area. We reiterate that this feature was supposed to be present in the iPhone 15, but Apple ultimately abandoned it. Some rumors indicate that the iPhone 17 may have this feature.
However, the iPhone prototype cannot be used. It does not appear to have any operating system installed on it, as when turned on it only shows a message stating that microcontroller initialization is complete.
Source: Hiper Textual

I’m Ben Stock, a highly experienced and passionate journalist with a career in the news industry spanning more than 10 years. I specialize in writing content for websites, including researching and interviewing sources to produce engaging articles. My current role is as an author at Gadget Onus, where I mainly cover the mobile section.