What is the deal with buttonless phones?

[jdub1981]

I am constantly seeing trash talk about samsung phones having buttons and how the gs4 still has buttons. What gives? I personally love my buttons. Big home button and capacitive back and menu buttons. I think its great looking. Plus, every phone needs buttons. Why give up valuable screen realestate to display an onscreen button. Personally I hate it.

Ive never had a phone that didnt have one. Does anyone else have an opinion on this?



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2

 

[1812dave]

I have a nexus 7. I HATE that it has no front (home) button. To wake it up I have to press an awkwardly placed power button on the side of a sloping edge of the device. Kudos to Samsung for giving us a physical button on the front to 1) answer the phone, 2) act as a Home button, 3) bring up task manager, task list, etc. I will be pissed when/if their future phones have no front buttons.

 

[dpham00]

I love the physical home button in phones. I hold my phone in my left hand, so one handed use makes it hard to turn on since the power button on most phones is either on the top or on the right side

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II

 

[itsdollar]

I like the buttonless. I have the Galaxy Nexus as my backup and once I got used to it I liked it a lot. This Note 2 was too good to pass up though regardless of the home button. The screen is used more with the way this phone is setup too so it works out well.

 

[rankar7]

I am constantly seeing trash talk about samsung phones having buttons and how the gs4 still has buttons. What gives? I personally love my buttons. Big home button and capacitive back and menu buttons. I think its great looking. Plus, every phone needs buttons. Why give up valuable screen realestate to display an onscreen button. Personally I hate it.

Ive never had a phone that didnt have one. Does anyone else have an opinion on this?


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2

I like the tactile feel of a button. It gives me positive reinforcement, especially when things aren't working and I at least know I'm clicking something.

 

[RobFreundlich]

I'm with you on this one. Buttons provide visual reference and tactile feedback as well as making it possible to do certain things without looking. I believe the current trend against buttons is another in a long line of mistakes stemming from the adoption of form over functionality. People (and, more importantly, companies) need to remember that ultimately, these devices are TOOLS, not pretty baubles.

One of the many things I miss the most about my old Palm Treo was the physical mute switch. This wasn't a button that told the OS to go into a mode where it turned off some sounds; it was a physical switch that interrupted the connections to the speaker. I could look at my phone, see that the red side of the switch was showing, and *know* that my phone was muted (or, if the red wasn't showing, know it wasn't and flip the switch). No turning on the screen, no swiping, no wondering whether some app would ignore a setting and make noise anyway. It was great.

More recently, the Motorola Droid X I replaced with My Note 2 had physical buttons for Home, Menu, Back, and Search. I could find them by feel. Now I don't have a Search button at all (which makes my favorite crossword puzzle app less usable), and I have to look to find the Menu and Back buttons. Progress? I don't think so.

 

[DaRkL3AD3R]

Not to mention the fact that onscreen buttons being in the same location almost ALL the time has serious implications on AMOLED displays with burn out.

I'll keep my hardware buttons thank you.

 

[Ry]

1. It supposedly goes against what Google wants for Android. Unless Google actually mandates "no physical buttons or you can't use Android", tough. OEMs can do whatever they want.

2. Even when every phone had capacitive buttons, the next phone seemed to have the buttons in different place. Example:

DROID: Back, Menu, Home, Search
DROID 2: Menu, Home, Back, Search

 

[Johnly]

AOSP

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

[RobFreundlich]

1. It supposedly goes against what Google wants for Android. Unless Google actually mandates "no physical buttons or you can't use Android", tough. OEMs can do whatever they want.

See my earlier comment about form over function. Google isn't the company I was referring to, but maybe they should have been.

2. Even when every phone had capacitive buttons, the next phone seemed to have the buttons in different place. Example:

DROID: Back, Menu, Home, Search
DROID 2: Menu, Home, Back, Search

I will not jump on my soapbox. I will not jump on my soapbox. I will not jump on my soapbox

Yes, yes I will. But only for a moment. I am extremely tired of companies moving things around in the UI of their products. Microsoft has been doing it for years, as anyone who has ever played "Find the Options menu on this version of MS Word" can attest to. Now Google is doing it with the buttons in Android. And not just the main buttons, but the buttons on dialogs as well.

The standard order for buttons on dialogs in GUI applications since at LEAST the early 90's has been [Positive Outcome] [Negative Outcome] [Help (if present)]. That is to say: OK, Cancel, Help. As someone who has been both using AND coding GUI apps since the early 90's, I find it extremely surprising and jarring to see the OK button on the right, and I have, in fact, pressed the wrong button on dialogs on my Note 2 several times because of the switch.

Can we please get over the "if it's the old way it must suck" trend, and toss it in the same trash bin as the "get rid of physical buttons" trend? (come to think of it, are they the same trend, expressed in different terms?)

 

[b0bbert]

Physical buttons do fail and are some what of an eye sore to me, they aren't perfect either. That and the different manufacturers can't seem to keep the same button layout between devices. I do like the look of a smooth screen surface better than having a physical button at the bottom. I will admit it does help with figuring my phones orientation when in my pocket or in the dark. Also, I've had a GNEX before my N4 and no issues with the capacitive buttons burning into the screen.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[1812dave]

See my earlier comment about form over function. Google isn't the company I was referring to, but maybe they should have been.



I will not jump on my soapbox. I will not jump on my soapbox. I will not jump on my soapbox

Yes, yes I will. But only for a moment. I am extremely tired of companies moving things around in the UI of their products. Microsoft has been doing it for years, as anyone who has ever played "Find the Options menu on this version of MS Word" can attest to. Now Google is doing it with the buttons in Android. And not just the main buttons, but the buttons on dialogs as well.

The standard order for buttons on dialogs in GUI applications since at LEAST the early 90's has been [Positive Outcome] [Negative Outcome] [Help (if present)]. That is to say: OK, Cancel, Help. As someone who has been both using AND coding GUI apps since the early 90's, I find it extremely surprising and jarring to see the OK button on the right, and I have, in fact, pressed the wrong button on dialogs on my Note 2 several times because of the switch.

Can we please get over the "if it's the old way it must suck" trend, and toss it in the same trash bin as the "get rid of physical buttons" trend? (come to think of it, are they the same trend, expressed in different terms?)

The two current androids i use are the Nexus 7 and the Note 2. Much of the UI is FAR different. back button is in different location, Settings is in a different location. When I pick up one after using the other, I invariably hit a "button" that I didn't intend, because its location is where I'm expecting the function from the previous device I was just using. A lot of apps have the settings at the opposite end of the screen. Top for N7 and bottom for the Note 2. Very frustrating!! I suppose this is a Touchwiz thing VS Jelly Bean on the N7.

 

[Josphe72]

I like the home button on my phone.
Even with the Verizon logo plastered on it.