Comments on: Thursday Poll: Hardware, Physical or On-screen Navigation Buttons?

By: cizzlen

cizzlen — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 08:31:00 +0000

I see the fan boys down voting every one that speaks out against their precious Gnex. As an owner myself, Motorola > Samsung in build quality and battery life. Especially lately.

By: Nika05

Nika05 — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 16:59:00 +0000

Id rather have hardware or physical buttons because what’s the point of having a bigger screen if part of it is gonna be rendered useless and you still have a bezel around the phone where the hardware buttons should go.

By: LionStone

LionStone — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 20:49:00 +0000

Ok so you did just as I said and no doubt, the MaxxHD is a great phone, but it doesn’t have “all the latest stuff”, as you said you wanted. And the changing carriers comment comes from the fact that the N4 isn’t on VZ (which I assumed correctly that you were with) and if you want the soft keys and not a GN or Moto, you’d have to change carrier. Also there isn’t any “right” or “wrong”, not sure where that came from? If you want to limit yourself that is your choice and its ok man really. And as far as the poll is concerned, Detonation, JoshGroff and Litorofcola already said it like it is.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 02:27:00 +0000

Way prefer hardware capacative since physical buttons are an awkward difference compared to the touch scrren functioning and then they don’t use up screen space always. Maybe if they changed the ratio, but id prefer them always available even with full screen content

By: Phillip Bee

Phillip Bee — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 22:44:00 +0000

1 phone out of how many they have pushed out since the gnex ??

By: MooleyBooleyTroll

MooleyBooleyTroll — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 20:36:00 +0000

Do I? Yep I do lol

By: PhillipCun

PhillipCun — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 18:24:00 +0000

Your assessment of hard buttons being a “better experience” is subjective. The pros of on-screen keys are that they are the stock experience Google wants all OEMs to move forward so they can create a consistent experience on all Android devices. When there were 4 buttons OEMs kept rearranging them. Using one phone then using another Android it will cause confusion because of muscle memory of where the buttons should be.

Now Google created on-screen navigation so they can control it and make it adapt with certain apps. Sometimes there’s a 3 dot botton in the on-screen nav bar, hard buttons do not have that.

Furthermore Samsung but the back button the right instead of the left. That doesn’t seem logical to me when every back button I have seen is always on the left. Look at your browser, look at most apps, the back button is ALWAYS on the left. This is counter intuitive.

Look at the picture as a whole, it would be better for android if all oems can follow certain standards so the UI experience across devices will be the same.

My above comments are subjective, but I also state the pros of on-screen keys and what google is trying to establish is a good thing.

By: John Al

John Al — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:25:00 +0000

I like physical because when you do video out on the G-Nex the virtual buttons show up and consume real estate on the larger display. This negatively impacts the experience when hooking up the phone to an HD TV or my in-car LCD.

By: itznfb

itznfb — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:21:00 +0000

That’s why I like the “hardware” buttons on my TBolt. More screen real estate.

By: zUFC

zUFC — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 15:25:00 +0000

Yup!!!!! I already did. First off the specs are all close enough on the phones that you can chose certain features. I would never change carrier(I don’t know where that came from). I’m Vz period! I went from S3 to Maxx just because of the buttons. Guess what? I can’t tell the difference. Maxx is just as good at everything. if not better. So yes Lion, I will not get another new phone until it is one I want and has Soft keys. I see nothing wrong with this. I like soft keys. So i will wait for a phone i like that has them.
Again, the poll seems to agree with me. So everybody else must be wrong and your right……..I get it

By: LionStone

LionStone — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 15:16:00 +0000

On-screen buttons = limits your choices to phones with the latest tech.

By: LionStone

LionStone — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 15:07:00 +0000

I don’t know…I do like that HTC uses the volume buttons for zoom in/out control in the Camera, but I don’t know if the DNA does it also. I’d say it probably will though.

By: LionStone

LionStone — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 14:53:00 +0000

Wow…you’d pass up new technology, with all the new stuff (DNA) and settle (new moto) or keep an older phone (GN) with older specs, OR change carrier to have a N4 JUST so you can have on screen buttons…makes perfect sense… /s

By: tony

tony — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:54:00 +0000

Duh! Obviously not thats why there seperate from the screen. Where have you seen physical buttons on top of a screen? Lol!!!

By: eastbaycali

eastbaycali — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 12:56:00 +0000

On-screen navigation buttons > hardware and physical buttons