Does any one else hate capacitive buttons?

[mellofello]

Right now I speaking this post to my new 2013 Nexus 7. The placement of the capacitive Home button makes it nearly impossible for me to type on this device. Every time I hit the space bar it we'll shoot me back to the home screen. There is a 5mm gap between the space bar and the home button. I sat down try 2 bang out A few emails and nearly flew this tablet across the room.


What exactly the problem with a physical button? I think that removing button is A answer to a problem that no one asked for. I am seriously considering returning this tablet 4 1 with a physical button. I love everything else about it but not being able to type is a deal breaker.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Right now I speaking this post to my new 2013 Nexus 7. The placement of the capacitive Home button makes it nearly impossible for me to type on this device. Every time I hit the space bar it we'll shoot me back to the home screen. There is a 5mm gap between the space bar and the home button. I sat down try 2 bang out A few emails and nearly flew this tablet across the room.


What exactly the problem with a physical button? I think that removing button is A answer to a problem that no one asked for. I am seriously considering returning this tablet 4 1 with a physical button. I love everything else about it but not being able to type is a deal breaker.

Well, the problem is you keep missing.

Try a few alternative keyboards that let you adjust the size of the space bar and space bar height. Plenty of them out there. You can start with Kii Keyboard, one of my favorites. It's free, and it's feature-rich. Think of it as stock Android keyboard plus. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zl.inputmethod.latin&hl=en

And if not, I guess you're not ready for on screen buttons (on screen buttons are different from capacitive buttons, if I'm not mistaken).

 

[mellofello]

What is the benefit of removing the physical button in your opinion? Of everything you do with your phone there is nothing more jarring then accidentally going back to the home screen. You should have to hit a physical button so it never happens unintentionally.

 

[sddabrow]

What is the benefit of removing the physical button in your opinion? Of everything you do with your phone there is nothing more jarring then accidentally going back to the home screen. You should have to hit a physical button so it never happens unintentionally.

I would imagine the benefit is to not have moving parts. Moving hardware parts, such as buttons are more likely to fail than a touchscreen. Just my $.02

I use that argument when I try to sell Solid State Drives over Hard Disk Drives... Figured it would apply here too

 

[linkgx1]

I hate softbuttons in many ways because it just seems like more things go wrong. At least with every product I've had that had soft buttons.

 

[Technarchy]

I personally prefer a physical home button.

I hope samsung keeps it for the GS5.

 

[Saturn1217]

When I first got a smartphone (an old my touch 4g with physical buttons) I thought I would feel the same.

But the truth is that physical buttons are really annoying IMHO. Especially when you are trying to use you phone/tablet quietly in a quiet room (say in bed with your partner asleep next to you). It is also just nice having all interface interactions uniform rather than sometimes touching on screen elements and sometimes having to click a physical button.

Typing this post on my Nexus 7 BTW and I don't have that problem. I think you just need to get used to the device.

 

[strausd]

I'm against the soft buttons that Google is in love with, but mainly because it takes up screen real estate when the buttons could be on the bottom bezel. Although sometimes I miss and accidentally hit a button, that is fairly rare.

 

[sviato]

I like the physical home button on my iPhone.

I'm surprised that the software on your tablet doesn't disable the button during typing. It should do so if the keyboard is being actively used and then re-enable the button once typing stops for like 2-3 seconds.

 

[Oohara]

I'm against the soft buttons that Google is in love with, but mainly because it takes up screen real estate when the buttons could be on the bottom bezel. Although sometimes I miss and accidentally hit a button, that is fairly rare.

Same here. What I really like are capacitive buttons, such as the back and menu buttons on the Note 2, which are invisible for the most part but can be lit up from inside the casing.

Something that could be quite elegant for tablets might be to have capacitive buttons for home, menu and back on two sides of the bezel - one set at the bottom of portrait orientation and one set on the bottom of landscape. Then when you change orientation, the capacitive buttons could follow, activate and light up on the new bottom side.

That would do away with both the screen area stealing soft buttons and the physical home button, which always ends up in a weird spot whenever you turn the tablet over IMO. I've always thought that looks kind of lame even on the iPad.

 

[strausd]

Same here. What I really like are capacitive buttons, such as the back and menu buttons on the Note 2, which are invisible for the most part but can be lit up from inside the casing.

Something that could be quite elegant for tablets might be to have capacitive buttons for home, menu and back on two sides of the bezel - one set at the bottom of portrait orientation and one set on the bottom of landscape. Then when you change orientation, the capacitive buttons could follow, activate and light up on the new bottom side.

That would do away with both the screen area stealing soft buttons and the physical home button, which always ends up in a weird spot whenever you turn the tablet over IMO. I've always thought that looks kind of lame even on the iPad.

You wouldn't even need that. The iPad keeps the physical home button in the exact same position. So if you go to landscape, you know it is on the side. Nobody complains about that. On a Nexus 4 if you turn to landscape, the home buttons are on the side and not at the bottom.

 

[tbayrgs]

Same here. What I really like are capacitive buttons, such as the back and menu buttons on the Note 2, which are invisible for the most part but can be lit up from inside the casing.

Something that could be quite elegant for tablets might be to have capacitive buttons for home, menu and back on two sides of the bezel - one set at the bottom of portrait orientation and one set on the bottom of landscape. Then when you change orientation, the capacitive buttons could follow, activate and light up on the new bottom side.

That would do away with both the screen area stealing soft buttons and the physical home button, which always ends up in a weird spot whenever you turn the tablet over IMO. I've always thought that looks kind of lame even on the iPad.

This will never happen, especially on smaller tablets as it would require large bezels all around the screen. The trend is for smaller bezels, not larger.

I personally prefer the soft buttons but do wish they would allow the user to hide them more often--maybe in much the same way the dock can autohide on OS X. Even better would be purely gesture based navigation, as it would allow for minimal bezels and no longer require part of the screen for on screen buttons.

 

[Oohara]

You wouldn't even need that. The iPad keeps the physical home button in the exact same position. So if you go to landscape, you know it is on the side. Nobody complains about that. On a Nexus 4 if you turn to landscape, the home buttons are on the side and not at the bottom.

Yeah, it's clear where they are but I still don't like it. Anyway just a pet peeve of mine as noone else does complain about it

This will never happen, especially on smaller tablets as it would require large bezels all around the screen. The trend is for smaller bezels, not larger.

I personally prefer the soft buttons but do wish they would allow the user to hide them more often--maybe in much the same way the dock can autohide on OS X. Even better would be purely gesture based navigation, as it would allow for minimal bezels and no longer require part of the screen for on screen buttons.

True, gesture based navigation would be the ultimate method. I'm already planning to use Swipe Home Button if I do pick up one of the Note tablets.

 

[spinedoc77]

Why Google wasted screen space with those stupid buttons AND made those humongous bezels on the N7 I will never figure out. I would figure one or the other, but both?

 

[mellofello]

Yeah I'm pretty sure this thing is going back. Probably snag a note 8 tablet. Samsung's won't win any beauty pageants but I applaud their determination to put function over form and stick to things like physical buttons, expandable storage, and swappable batteries.

All these things may take away from beauty of the minimalist tablet, but I would rather have function then fashion.

 

[matthewh]

Same here. What I really like are capacitive buttons, such as the back and menu buttons on the Note 2, which are invisible for the most part but can be lit up from inside the casing.

Something that could be quite elegant for tablets might be to have capacitive buttons for home, menu and back on two sides of the bezel - one set at the bottom of portrait orientation and one set on the bottom of landscape. Then when you change orientation, the capacitive buttons could follow, activate and light up on the new bottom side.

That would do away with both the screen area stealing soft buttons and the physical home button, which always ends up in a weird spot whenever you turn the tablet over IMO. I've always thought that looks kind of lame even on the iPad.

I believe the HTC did exactly this in the Flyer. Unfortunately it did not sell well. I wish HTC would keep trying. I'd like my N7 2012 had capacitive buttons like the Flyer. On the N7, I often bring up google now when I try to scroll down a long webpage.

 

[Hastings101]

YES!!! I hate them, capacitive and onscreen, with a passion but I live with them because there's not really much of an option.

I'd love a high end Android phone with physical back/front/menu keys.

 

[guitarboi]

Love how my S3 has capacitive back and menu buttons and physical home button. I catch myself tapping to the right of the home button whenever I use an iPhone. This has been my only experience with capacitive buttons.

 

[alice04]

Hahahaha. almost everyone hates the capacitive button

 

[Oohara]

YES!!! I hate them, capacitive and onscreen, with a passion but I live with them because there's not really much of an option.

I'd love a high end Android phone with physical back/front/menu keys.

Well look what Santa has brought for you!

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Hahahaha. almost everyone hates the capacitive button

Let's not get things confused here though - the thread title is actually wrong, what the OP hates are the onscreen/soft buttons on the N7. Capacitive buttons are those like the back and menu buttons on the S3, S4 and Note 2.

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Love how my S3 has capacitive back and menu buttons and physical home button. I catch myself tapping to the right of the home button whenever I use an iPhone. This has been my only experience with capacitive buttons.

I'm the same way. I thought that was something people just said to exagerrate things but now I actually do find myself tapping to the right of the home button on iPhones. The back button is the best invention since sliced bread. And the menu button is pretty nifty too, I have it bring up an app that sets all system volumes using longpress on Nova Prime.

 

[ReanimationN]

100% agreed, I hate capacitive and onscreen home buttons with a passion. The reason you gave is one of the big reasons as to why onscreen home buttons are awful, especially when you have huge fingers and when the home button is always located below the space bar- it makes typing a horribly clunky task. It also makes turning on a device an unnecessarily fidgety process. Not to mention that if an onscreen button is being unresponsive, you can't tell if it's your error (I.e. not pressing the button properly, missing the button etc.), or if it's the fault of the system. You always know if you've pushed a physical button (that doesn't have anthing wrong with it, before anyone jumps in with broken home button stories)

Samsung and Apple, please never drop the physical home button.

 

[Fernandez21]

I don't like on screen buttons because also, I'd prefer to have that extra screen space for content and have the buttons on the bottom bezel. If you look at the LG G2, the buttons could easily fit where the LG logo is on the bottom, giving you more screen space.

As for capacitive over physical? I don't care either way, I like the clean look and reliability of capacitive, but I do get more accidental presses than I would with a physical button.

 

[JaySoul]

Agreed with OP. I prefer at least one proper physical home button.

Capacitive is fine when it works but unfortunately the design is sometimes a bit counterintuitive.

 

[steviewhy]

I actually prefer the software buttons on my Nexus 4 to the capacitive and hardware buttons on my Note II. Nevertheless, the Note II is still my daily driver for now. A Note II or III with software buttons would make me a happy man. Here's hoping the Nexus 5 has a larger screen than expected.

 

[kasakka]

The problem is that on bigger devices it's a lot easier to hit the capacitive buttons by accident because of the way you hold the device. Part of my palm often brushes either of the capacitive buttons on the S4, resulting in annoyances.

Basically what would be needed is to make them less sensitive or the software to be able to discern between a finger and some other part of your hand.