Nexus phones no soft keys concept.

[georgeellis28]

How hard could it have been for Google to make their new Nexus line of smartphones without soft key? I am not really bothered by them but when using apps you lose mm. of screen. That is not the biggest issue though. When using YouTube some videos are full of annotations and constantly popping up during the videos. Result is that every time an annotation comes up the soft keys come up as well and I need to frequently be removing the annotations from the screen.

If google wants do avoid hard keys from home and recent apps then why not do something like this? The keys would not be on the front speaker way at all. It would be right right under. Also the keys would be like Samsung phone keys that are placed on each side of the home button. When reading a book or watching a video the key lights would simply turn off to avoid distraction. Why is that Google does not do this? Is there a licensing issue with Samsung or have they never though about it?

 

[Hadron]

No, there is no licensing issue. The first few generations of Android phones had either hard keys or capacitative buttons. Google decided they liked soft keys (which, like soft keyboards, can be programmable/flexible/whatever if manufacturers/developers make the effort), and most manufacturers followed suit. That's all there is to it.

Now not everyone is convinced this is the right answer, and you are clearly one of those (I personally have my doubts about soft keys). But I have to say you have more chance of convincing a commercial phone maker to listen to you than Google.

 

[svim]

I can't argue with any of your rant but at least with the Android platform there's no shortage of alternative phones to choose from. Since you're interacting with your phone multiple times a day if this hard/soft key issue really bothers you it would better for your mental health to find another viable option. Why torture yourself?

 

[georgeellis28]

I can't argue with any of your rant but at least with the Android platform there's no shortage of alternative phones to choose from. Since you're interacting with your phone multiple times a day if this hard/soft key issue really bothers you it would better for your mental health to find another viable option. Why torture yourself?

Haha! You know I did find another option. I traded my Nexus 9 tablet for a Galaxy Tab S 8.4 because I consume more media on my tablet than my phone. It is not so much that it bothers me, it's more of a curiosity of why Google rather go with softkeys than simply using capacitative buttons.

 

[glc]

For the same size phone with hard keys you would have a smaller display.
My soft keys disappear when running a program unless I pull them up.

 

[georgeellis28]

For the same size phone with hard keys you would have a smaller display.
My soft keys disappear when running a program unless I pull them up.

Is it rooted?

 

[glc]

No. It is not Nexus, but a Huawei phone with soft keys running apex launcher. There is only so much room on the front of the phone, so if you can make it serve dual purpose you are ahead.

 

[Gmash]

I prefer capacitive buttons. The phones with on-screen buttons still have about the same size bezels, but then you lose part of the screen. While they may go away when watching media, I spend much more time using web sites than I do watching videos on a 5" screen.

 

[mikedt]

Think it's purely down to whatever a particular manufacturer wants to do. I've got two Oppo phones here, both with Lollipop, one has capacitive keys, other has on-screen soft keys, which disappear when not needed, e.g. for watching a video on the whole screen.

 

[Hadron]

The obvious thing that softkeys can do and hard can't is you can change them: if your next OS release has a different concept (like replacing the menu key with a "multitasking" button, you can change what the key looks like.

Or you can change the number or position of the keys if you want (e.g the HTC M9 lets you have 4 if you want). You could even move them to one side so it's easier to use a phablet one-handed (though I don't recall anyone doing that).