broken flyer
Newbie
I've been watching tread after thread, researching phone after phone, trying to find the latest and greatest, and what might be the latest and greatest in the near future... One of the big things I was really looking for my next phone to have was true software keys (keys on the screen) with the only physical buttons being power and volume. I've yet to see this, or at least yet to see what I consider software keys. However I thought it might be good to discuss this, as well as the general definitions for the different types of keys we currently see on smartphones. Below if my understanding of the definitions of soft key's, software keys, and physical buttons...
Soft Keys : Key's that have space reserved specifically for them within the overall architecture of the phone (the design) but don't actually have a physical contact and instead use a sensor and they tend to be lit up or white in color. An advantage to these is that there's no physical contact to wear out, thus they should last longer.
Software Keys : Key's that are integrated into the OS and are on the screen itself. They can disappear, for certain tasks/move out of the way, allowing the space normally taken up by keys to be fully utilized such as for movie watching, game playing and or other applications that don't need the keys to function. Two big advantages to these in my mind is, they don't wear out due to the lack of a physical contact and they better take advantage of allotted space as they can share it with other processes/applications.
Physical Buttons : Just that... There is a physical piece of material such as plastic or metal sitting on/connected to an electrical contact that moves resulting in either a positive or a negative signal going to the phone which is then translated by the OS to mean something such as return to home screen. The main advantage to these is the satisfaction of actually feeling something respond under your finger when you use them, but they do wear out at some point and will fail due to friction causing wear on the contact. Examples might be power buttons, volume rockers, and physical home buttons
If anyone would like to elaborate on these or correct my analysis feel free. I'm hoping through this discussion I might be able to better understand what is the generally excepted definition for these different forms of keys/buttons and if other people want true "software" keys as badly as I do.
Discuss...
Soft Keys : Key's that have space reserved specifically for them within the overall architecture of the phone (the design) but don't actually have a physical contact and instead use a sensor and they tend to be lit up or white in color. An advantage to these is that there's no physical contact to wear out, thus they should last longer.
Software Keys : Key's that are integrated into the OS and are on the screen itself. They can disappear, for certain tasks/move out of the way, allowing the space normally taken up by keys to be fully utilized such as for movie watching, game playing and or other applications that don't need the keys to function. Two big advantages to these in my mind is, they don't wear out due to the lack of a physical contact and they better take advantage of allotted space as they can share it with other processes/applications.
Physical Buttons : Just that... There is a physical piece of material such as plastic or metal sitting on/connected to an electrical contact that moves resulting in either a positive or a negative signal going to the phone which is then translated by the OS to mean something such as return to home screen. The main advantage to these is the satisfaction of actually feeling something respond under your finger when you use them, but they do wear out at some point and will fail due to friction causing wear on the contact. Examples might be power buttons, volume rockers, and physical home buttons
If anyone would like to elaborate on these or correct my analysis feel free. I'm hoping through this discussion I might be able to better understand what is the generally excepted definition for these different forms of keys/buttons and if other people want true "software" keys as badly as I do.
Discuss...