• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

why hard keys?

N

novemberwhiskey

Android Enthusiast
Why did the droidx get hard keys whereas nearly all other motor droid products (2, global, pro, 1) get the capacitive touch buttons? Is there some logic behind the decision?
 
novemberwhiskey said:
Why did the droidx get hard keys whereas nearly all other motor droid products (2, global, pro, 1) get the capacitive touch buttons? Is there some logic behind the decision?
Click to expand...
Size would be my guess. The buttons are much slimmer than any capacitive buttons and I'm sure the designers didn't want to increase the phone height any more.

It's a moot point. I was hesitant on the physical buttons but prefer them by far over capacitive ones. No more acciental pushes, plus the home key turns the phone on, something the other phones can't do.
 
nj02vette said:
No more acciental pushes, plus the home key turns the phone on, something the other phones can't do.
Click to expand...
I completely agree. I had a D2 for about 2 weeks before I made the switch to the X and one of my biggest gripes was having to press the power button to get to the lock screen.
 
I like the feeling of some hard keys on the phone - the touch-sensitive ones always make me feel like I don't have control.... perhaps not as accurate? :P
 
I love the hard keys. On my eris when typing iI would always hit another button but now I have no problems.
 
Why? So when you hold it in landscape mode you don't accidentally press the buttons.
 
nj02vette said:
Size would be my guess. The buttons are much slimmer than any capacitive buttons and I'm sure the designers didn't want to increase the phone height any more.

It's a moot point. I was hesitant on the physical buttons but prefer them by far over capacitive ones. No more acciental pushes, plus the home key turns the phone on, something the other phones can't do.
Click to expand...

+1

I can't count how many times I hit the home button in Fruit Ninja.

At first the buttons bothered me but after awhile I prefer them.
 
+1 to the above posts.

I also like the fact of hitting the home key to get to the lock screen. I always use that rather than the power button. On a side note, the hard keys have been pretty solid in the months since I got my DX. I've seen some complaints about these keys being/becoming loose but I haven't noticed that. Moto's build quality seems pretty damn good IMO.
 
They did it so people wouldn't go online asking why their phone had capacitive keys on it instead of hard ones.
 
I gotta go against the grain here and say I really don't like the hard keys at all (I do love my Droid X tho :) ). I really hate the extra pressure you need to use to activate the keys... I might complain about accidental pushes if they had 'touch' keys tho... but I really like my friend EVO touch keys instead.
 
All neat insight but I agree with the post about getting into recovery. They need something that doesn't require the software to be loaded. The camera and volume keys apparently weren't enough to accomplish this. But that brings me to another point the Droids thankfully have physical keys for the camera and volume. Too many phones are doing away with them and I personally cannot stand that.
 
mxsjw said:
Why? So when you hold it in landscape mode you don't accidentally press the buttons.
Click to expand...

This is huge. I gave my mother my old Droid when I upgraded to the DX and she often hits the 'back' or 'home' key when she is holding/turning the phone.
 
StrifeJester said:
All neat insight but I agree with the post about getting into recovery. They need something that doesn't require the software to be loaded. The camera and volume keys apparently weren't enough to accomplish this. But that brings me to another point the Droids thankfully have physical keys for the camera and volume. Too many phones are doing away with them and I personally cannot stand that.
Click to expand...

Huh?

All phones have bootloaders, including phones with only soft buttons. You don't need software loaded to use capacitive buttons, that firmware is built onto the chips.
 
the volume keys and camera button i dont mind but i really dont like the other 4. if the etna comes out 4g with same specs as the dx im jumping on that no hard keys!

motorola-olympus-gizmodo-510x416.jpg
 
My DINC always frustrated me with soft keys and exiting games by accidental brushing. Love the hard keys!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom