Physical vs soft buttons

[barth2]

Do you prefer physical buttons or soft buttons?

I can see some advantages to the soft buttons. You can have the buttons at bottom of screen in any orientation. The mfgr saves a few bucks. Some devices have poorly designed and/or poorly placed physical buttons that make them a chore to use in which case you're probably just better off with soft buttons.

Me, I don't like soft buttons. I think the negatives outweigh the positives.

First, putting a touch home button right under the space bar is just dumb. Second, it takes up space. a 16:9/10 screen in landscape is already squashed, adding the soft keys only makes it worse.

Third, you're going to want to hide the soft buttons in application where you want immersion and maximum screen space, like gaming or reading, but when you do want to bring them up, it takes extra taps. That's assuming the app hasn't gone wonky and become unresponsive.

Unfortunately google has done away with the physical buttons and the others will follow. I like that samsung stick with the combination physical hone button and touch buttons for the others.

 

[Golfdriver97]

App developers have improved much on having the soft keys hide when you need the screen filled. As for the home button under the space bar, that becomes a learning curve about finger placement. When I got my Moto X, sure I hit it a couple times, but now, it isn't a big deal anymore.
The lost screen real estate isn't that much of a factor either, I hardly notice it.

 

[Euan Tan]

For me I don't have a preference... If my dream phone has physical buttons I'll take it... If it has soft keys I'll take it...my lg g2 has soft keys so throw in autohide and woo 5.2 inches for my self

Posted via Android Central App

 

[someguy01234]

I have never had issues with bringing up the navbar during immersive mode. By not having physical buttons it's possible to have a larger screen and keep the phone size down (most of the time).

Just get use to it, you'll have to go with a Samsung if you want these things: removable battery, microSD and Apple wannabe home button.

sent via tapatalk

 

[TANGOxOMEGA]

soft

 

[Google_Superuser]

I like the idea of hardware buttons creating more screen space but it depends on the phone. On my S4GPE it really feels off sometimes there are two ways to access a settings menu or no indication that the settings button accesses it. I also keep turning on the screen because the home button is placed right where I pull my phone out of my pocket.

 

[JRDroid]

I used to be a physical button diehard, because when soft buttons first came out, phone bezels didn't get smaller and the buttons didn't autohide, so there were no advantages. That has all changed and now I like soft buttons.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[mrsmumbles]

Soft buttons. My f7 has a physical home button and it's so hard I have to use my other hand to press it. It's a huge pain when I'm listening to Pandora and want to like a song.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Foramex]

I used to have a phone with capacitive buttons, and I didn't see anything remarkable in that, as it was pretty standard to have physical buttons.
I recently bought an LG G2 which has soft buttons, and I must say I'm loving it so far. If you need a recommendation, soft buttons would be my take.

 

[BinaryJuice]

I have a phone with soft buttons but I personally prefer physical buttons, I can't really find any positives for soft buttons.