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Disappointed with the onscreen buttons

S

SharpBarb

Member
When I first heard the Genes would have a massive screen with onscreen buttons, I was excited. I thought it would be nice to play games, watch videos, browse the web on such a large screen. I also figured the screen buttons would be customizable in some way. It seemed obvious to me, otherwise you might as well use capacitive or hardware buttons.

So far the only thing that utilizes the larger, battery sucking screen is watching videos. I really hope this changes in the future, cause right now I'm disappointed.

Thoughts?
 
Control of the onscreen button arrangement is part of the API for ICS. If devs are coding for ICS they can take advantage of the additional real estate if they wish.
 
They make more sense. They work fine, and they can move around with the screen orientation. The menu button can come and go (as needed, because there's non reason for it to be there if there's not a menu currently available). The screen is plenty big. For the screen to be this big PLUS hard buttons, the phone would be bigger. For the screen to be made smaller just to have hard buttons, it seems like a waste, because as it is apps can take control of that real estate if they want to.

The iPhone is the most popular phone in the U.S. and has a noticeably smaller screen. And they say they are sticking with it.
 
I'm a fan of them. Keeps the GNexus from feeling too big, then they disappear during videos so you can take advantage of the big screen.
 
It doesn't give the phone a cleaner look, the phone wouldn't have been any bigger with permanent buttons, and it does not make sense.

Let me clarify my position, I think it's a great idea to have these buttons in software. My gripe is that there is a lot of potential that isn't being utilized. 95% of the time I use my phone, those buttons are in their "normal" state.

I don't think watching videos with a little more screen justifies the added battery burden that the larger screen requires. Capacitive buttons could have provided the same effect...
 
SharpBarb said:
It doesn't give the phone a cleaner look, the phone wouldn't have been any bigger with permanent buttons, and it does not make sense.

Let me clarify my position, I think it's a great idea to have these buttons in software. My gripe is that there is a lot of potential that isn't being utilized. 95% of the time I use my phone, those buttons are in their "normal" state.

I don't think watching videos with a little more screen justifies the added battery burden that the larger screen requires. Capacitive buttons could have provided the same effect...
Click to expand...

I don't think google is aiming for an environment where the buttons are never on the screen. If that's what you're hoping for in apps and games, you're going to stay disappointed. Even in the stock google apps, the software buttons are still on the bottom. I think the only advantage of the software button was supposed to be fore watching 16:9 video. Playing games or using apps in portrait mode on a 16:9 screen would be weird since it would be so tall. Also, it would be difficult and require a lot of app redisigns if we no longer had a home, back, or app switcher button.
 
I don't understand why people are complaining because they are losing what .25" of their 4.65" screen. You have one of the biggest screens for phones out right now and THE best screen available for phones at the moment. I just don't understand why even complain, but that's just me. I'm happy with a 4.4" screen i guess because its still freaking huge!
 
hurricane630 said:
I don't understand why people are complaining because they are losing what .25" of their 4.65" screen. You have one of the biggest screens for phones out right now and THE best screen available for phones at the moment. I just don't understand why even complain, but that's just me. I'm happy with a 4.4" screen i guess because its still freaking huge!
Click to expand...


I think maybe because when they hear 4.65 screen they think "holy crap, a 4.65" screen!!! " and they find out that part of the screen is basically our old buttons but included in the screen size. I definitely wasn't expecting that, and its not something i would have searched out beforehand either. But yea, the screen is still plenty big :D
 
SharpBarb said:
It doesn't give the phone a cleaner look, the phone wouldn't have been any bigger with permanent buttons, and it does not make sense.

Let me clarify my position, I think it's a great idea to have these buttons in software. My gripe is that there is a lot of potential that isn't being utilized. 95% of the time I use my phone, those buttons are in their "normal" state.

I don't think watching videos with a little more screen justifies the added battery burden that the larger screen requires. Capacitive buttons could have provided the same effect...
Click to expand...

It wouldn't have been bigger, but the screen would have been smaller. Even though that area is utilized by the buttons most of the time, it's utilized by the whole screen when watching movies and playing games. Also, if they wanted to keep the true 720p aspect ratio (which I love) and have permanent buttons, they would have had to make the phone bigger to account for the lost space, or make the screen narrower to keep the ratio. So yes, it does justify it, sorry.
 
when i say it makes the screen look cleaner. I'm referring to this:

Put a ReZound or RaZR next to a G Nex......lock the phone so the screen goes off. Which phone still has ugly buttons showing on it in some way/shape/form?
 
Do any of you use a dock with dedicated icons? I always took the on-screen buttons on some Android devices to be a sort of "dock" that was in the way whether I liked it or not.

The real dock on the stock launchers I remove right away (along with the completely useless, to me, notification bar) with a 3rd party laucher (ADW at the moment).

The result on my old X2 is a full size screen (4.3 at 960 by 540).
 
I think it'd do people well to recognize that this is the first device with soft buttons, and the first release of Ice Cream Sandwich.

I'd be willing to bet good money that Google decided to go this route because of future flexibility. I'd rather have them nail down a quality build than try and do to much with the soft buttons on the first release of a major change to the Android OS.

So, three brief points:

- Be patient. Changes to the soft buttons may be on their way.

- The dev community is already working with them. You can have your fun that way, as well.

- In reality, you don't want too much to happen to the buttons. They're a primary navigation for the device. You don't want them going away when they aren't supposed to, or having trouble calling them back when you need them.
 
Sounds to me like maybe the GNex just isn't the phone for you. You complain the buttons take up too much screen space, yet you call the screen the "battery sucking" screen. I'm not trying to be sarcastic at all, but I really think you would be happier with a different phone. If you want fixed buttons, maybe the Rezound, since it has a beautiful screen and an unlock able boot loader with fixed buttons. Or the Galaxy Note since it has a very large screen, but understand it will be a battery sucker. Its a trade off until there is an advancement in screen and/or battery technology for phones.

As for me, I love the soft keys. They work very well and are something I thought should have been utilized long ago.
 
SharpBarb said:
It doesn't give the phone a cleaner look, the phone wouldn't have been any bigger with permanent buttons, and it does not make sense.
Click to expand...

Yes it does, you're splitting hairs with the word "cleaner." I just means less clutter. And yes, the phone would have been bigger with permanent buttons unless they made the screen smaller to compensate.
 
trophynuts said:
when i say it makes the screen look cleaner. I'm referring to this:

Put a ReZound or RaZR next to a G Nex......lock the phone so the screen goes off. Which phone still has ugly buttons showing on it in some way/shape/form?
Click to expand...

Lol...who cares what the phone looks like when its off and not in use.
 
thisthreadwas128641887588512679.jpg
 
Jay3 said:
Yes it does, you're splitting hairs with the word "cleaner." I just means less clutter. And yes, the phone would have been bigger with permanent buttons unless they made the screen smaller to compensate.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily, as the Galaxy Nexus has a HUGE amount of wasted space below the screen. Much more than many other devices.
 
It might be cool if the control bar was skinnable. Or if the backround could be transparent on the homescreen so the background extended to the edge of the screen. You know the quick control bar on the stock browser? Maybe implement something like that, but for the control buttons.
 
Mr. Orange 645 said:
I do and so do a lot of people. Aesthetics are certainly a consideration when making a phone purchase. And since the screen spends around 95% of its life OFF, then it does matter to a lot of people.
Click to expand...

Not that it matters but the rezound's capacitive buttons are dark red and when not backlit look quite fetching against its sleek dark surface. Sometimes I find myself staring at it. Then I think she is so smart she sees me staring. And then I feel embarrassed. You know beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And when my girl is turned off she looks prettier than yours.
 
There's barely any space below the screen! And also, you can't just draw on buttons and think they will work, there's electronics that are placed under the shell in order for them to function.. Therefore the phone would have had to be bigger if you wanted to put buttons there.. Also it would look very unbalanced because there would be no "whitespace"
 
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