Precious screen space being used by virtual buttons...

[natehoy]

I didnt explain that properly....I mean in the area below the screen that is current empty on GN and N4. It would be cool if manufacturers added a 48 pixel high screen there to house the onscreen buttons.

I know, I was being a smarty.

Seriously, though, running a second screen would require a lot more hardware (two video cards), and leave you with a strip of dedicated screen where it could just have been part of the main screen in the first place. If they are going to go to the trouble of extending glass down there, just expand the whole screen down there and call it a love story.

Plus, then you'd have the buttons always on a fixed, short side of the screen. The whole point of eliminating the dedicated buttons was to put them on the screen so they could stay on the "bottom" whether you were in portrait or landscape.
With my Nexus 7, I frequently find myself reaching for the volume control and realizing it's at the bottom left in portrait instead of the top right. The entire operating system has been quietly compensating for the fact that I'm holding it upside down!

EDIT TO ADD: One clumsy compromise is extending the glass and touch sensor but not the actual display down to a dedicated area and screen-printing on a common set of buttons. That's how my HTC Thunderbolt works. And I like the new way better.

 

[Jnorton2724]

I don't really like having physical buttons honestly after using the GS3 for alittle bit. I'd rather have them built into the display giving the phone a cleaner look.

 

[Fairclough]

To me it makes the phone look beautiful.

 

[Convert2]

I'm in the "software buttons suck" camp. Google adding software buttons in ICS so that it could control button placement was too apple-esque. Three reasons why software buttons suck:
1) They take up 3mm of real estate. Mobile phones are used in portrait mode most of the time where software buttons always are displayed, so they take up valuable screen space.
2) Functionality errors. Who cares how "clean" a phone looks with software buttons if, when using your phone they create errors? This happens too often when typing an important email, thinking you're hitting the space bar but you accidentally hit the home button. Or when using any app where there is a button at the bottom and you inadvertently hit one of the software buttons by mistake.....happens way too frequently.
3) They make comparison of phone display specs like comparing apples to oranges. I go look at a new phone with a supposed 4.8" display, compare it to my current phone with a dedicated 4.5" display - and the actual display real estate is the same. But the new phone has larger overall phone dimensions, so what is gained? Nothing. In my opinion, it is actually false advertising of phones with software buttons to claim e.g. 4.8" display -> they should quote specs as "4.5" display, expandable to 4.8" in landscape mode."

It's great that top 2012 selling phones like the HTC One X and Samsung GSIII ignored the ICS functionality of software buttons - you get the full specs of the large beautiful displays.

 

[Nonymous666]

The soft buttons don't bother me. The only time I want them gone is when watching videos or photos full screen. The decently written apps all hide the buttons for that.

If phones ditched the soft buttons and used hard buttons, many of them would just use smaller displays to make room on the lower bezel for the hard buttons.

 

[DeadpoolJunior]

2) Functionality errors. Who cares how "clean" a phone looks with software buttons if, when using your phone they create errors? This happens too often when typing an important email, thinking you're hitting the space bar but you accidentally hit the home button. Or when using any app where there is a button at the bottom and you inadvertently hit one of the software buttons by mistake.....happens way too frequently.

I stopped pressing the nav buttons while typing about a week in to having this phone. I admit when I first started playing around with it, it was frustrating, but I've gotten use to it and it doesn't happen at all anymore.

I honestly can't see what you guys need the extra 3mm for anyhow as opposed to other phones with the same screen size. As long as it disappears when im watching videos, I could care less.

 

[m3lover1]

I love the software nav buttons. Always wished I had them on my evo 4g lte. I think it gives us options; you like them great. If you don't many Roms have the capability to make it smaller in size or disable them. Plus like others said, apps that need full screen and written properly should include the capability to hide the navbar when the app is used. With capacitative buttons, they are there permanently. I mean you could disable it with Roms as well, but you would have a huge bezel doing nothing below the screen

 

[Hubertsng]

If you don't like it you can remove it anyways

Sent from my Nexus 4

 

[mcelmeel17]

Stop complaining and get a different phone then. Its not like there aren't hundreds of android phones with capacitive buttons instead of software buttons. You may want the capacitive buttons back but I would venture to say that most people who have used the galaxy nexus and N4 don't want those again. Go get the M7 when it gets released and call it a day.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

 

[teletraan1]

I prefer the capacitive buttons. Not a complaint. Just an opinion. Coming from a One X (which is very close in size to the Nexus 4), the loss of screen space is definitely noticeable. Especially when you have the keyboard onscreen.

 

[Matthew Lenard]

I honestly don't care because if the buttons weren't onscreen then they would be touch sensitive which would still take away space from the device that could be used for the screen and plus touch sensitive buttons don't go away when your watching YouTube or netflix

 

[chestont]

I like the virtual buttons for a few reasons. On tablets, it means the virtual buttons can remain on the bottom portion of the screen regardless of the screen orientation.

Additionally, I hope that in the long term the continued use of the virtual buttons means that the bottom bezels of devices can decrease in size.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[anon5664829]

I dont' care that the buttons take up real estate. The only time I really want full screen is for pics/videos and I've never noticed that I'm losing any screen space. It's a very clean look in my opinion, when you go buttonless you can't really go back.

Agreed.

 

[DroidXcon]

I dont' care that the buttons take up real estate. The only time I really want full screen is for pics/videos and I've never noticed that I'm losing any screen space. It's a very clean look in my opinion, when you go buttonless you can't really go back.

Don't agree. I was buttonless on my gnex over a year and I'm perfectly happy without them on my Note 2

From my Galaxy Note 2 via Tapatalk

 

[Johnly]

Don't agree. I was buttonless on my gnex over a year and I'm perfectly happy without them on my Note 2

From my Galaxy Note 2 via Tapatalk

Wisdom^

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

[BlueTimber]

I think they should give you the option to remove the nav bar in favor of something like the cameras controls. Push somewhere on the screen and then a number of options pop up.

The biggest problem is games. IMO, most games on phones suck due to it being a touch screen and you having no feedback when you're doing something.. But accidentally hitting the back button when you meant to shoot? Annoying. You can feel when you're sliding from the glass screen onto the plastic body and towards the capacitive buttons on say, the S3, but how can you tell you're drifting from the part of the glass screen for games, to the part of the glass screen for navigation?

I don't HATE softkeys, but the option to add more buttons, change the buttons, rearrange, and remove entirely, should be included stock. You shouldn't have to root your phone to web browse with the full 4.7 inch screen.

 

[philopek]

it obviously depends if someone has a smartphone to use it or to look at it. in terms of display size which is so highly rated and discussed, space used by software buttons is a waste of space and at least they could give a joice to get rid of the semi opaque button background or an even smarter solution like auto hide and show up upon gesture solution. i have both, note 2 and nexus 4 and it's absolutely clear that the samsung solution is better if the phone is not for showing off but to work with