One minor annoyance: hard home button

[LoneWolfArcher]

Why did Sammy go with a hard home button? Coming from 2 previous phones with a soft button I kept touching it (not pushing it) and then remembering that I have to press it. A minor annoyance I know, but just seems like:

a) it would have helped with their water resistance
b) it would be one less thing that could fail (mechanical over software)

How far back in the Galaxy series have they used a hard home button? Or is it driven by the thumbprint reader (which I am loving!).

 

[Jonny Kansas]

They've had the physical home button forever. I know for sure that the S3 has one. I'm pretty certain the S2 has one as well, which would lead me to believe that the S1 did as well. AFAIK, the Note series has had one all along as well.

 

[TisMyDroid]

I've had the notes from N2 to N5. All have the hard home button. And I have to agree, I would rather have a soft home button.

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[bsweetness]

Samsung has had a hardware home button for a very long time. It's become part of their design language. And at this point, it is in part driven by the fingerprint reader.

 

[mountainbikermark]

Samsung had a track pad on the WM Omnia that doubled as a home button. The rectangular one started with the Galaxy series. The last one I remember with only soft keys was the Fascinate except for some pre pay versions of the Fascinate.
Samsung has been trying to copy Apple since before Android .

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[jackiescivic]

The S2 still had software home key. I believe it was the s3 that was first. Then the Note followed, of course.

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[neomancr]

my buddy works on the design team for Samsung and if I recall correctly he mentioned among the advantages are, in no specific order:

1. Ease of gripping the phone by the bottom in landscape mode without accidentally triggering what would otherwise be a capacitor button.

2.The doubling of the fingerprint scanner as a power button.

3. The ability to provide a reliable swipe up gesture that recently effectively implemented for Samsung pay, again without risking an inadvertent button press.

4. The ability to embed the fingerprint sensor where it would take one hand to power on and unlock the device while it is laying flat on its back.

5. A reliable tactile method to provide instant access to features such as the camera from when the phone is powered off and also one handed mode with 3 clicks when the phone is on.

I tend to agree. I personally appreciate and find myself very often using the instant access to the camera, and the swipe up for Samsung pay all the time. I also have a hard time holding any other phone sideways in landscape mode for gaming, taking pictures, and watching videos without this "safe touch zone" provided by the home button and the space around it where I could mindlessly grip it.

Capacitive buttons are fiddly, that's why the Samsung Galaxy Active series does away with them completely as to prevent any accidental button presses entirely.

I'd say 80% of the time I'm either using the back button or switching between recent apps anyhow and rarely return to the home screen once I've been using my device for a little while.

The nexus series deals with the landscape gripping issue by relegating the navigation keys to the bottom of the display itself. I personally hate to waste precious screen space. in fact the button layout of the galaxy works so well for me I would say it is probably the chief reason I intuitively chose galaxy devices to begin with before I even considered anything else.

I doubt they'll ever change it and I'm happy that way. They're spending extra money to provide us with a better, more thoughtful user experience. Going with a full stripe of capacitive "buttons" actually would save them a lot of money.

what downsides are there to it? the only one I see is the desperate attempt Apple fan boys make to assert that it is merely a cosmetic imitation but I can find devices from Samsung and other manufacturer with the primary button dead center under the screen going back to the days of windows mobile pocket pcs

 

[LoneWolfArcher]

my buddy works on the design team for Samsung and if I recall correctly he mentioned among the advantages are, in no specific order:

1. Ease of gripping the phone by the bottom in landscape mode without accidentally triggering what would otherwise be a capacitor button.

2.The doubling of the fingerprint scanner as a power button.

3. The ability to provide a reliable swipe up gesture that recently effectively implemented for Samsung pay, again without risking an inadvertent button press.

4. The ability to embed the fingerprint sensor where it would take one hand to power on and unlock the device while it is laying flat on its back.

5. A reliable tactile method to provide instant access to features such as the camera from when the phone is powered off and also one handed mode with 3 clicks when the phone is on.

I tend to agree. I personally appreciate and find myself very often using the instant access to the camera, and the swipe up for Samsung pay all the time. I also have a hard time holding any other phone sideways in landscape mode for gaming, taking pictures, and watching videos without this "safe touch zone" provided by the home button and the space around it where I could mindlessly grip it.

Capacitive buttons are fiddly, that's why the Samsung Galaxy Active series does away with them completely as to prevent any accidental button presses entirely.

I'd say 80% of the time I'm either using the back button or switching between recent apps anyhow and rarely return to the home screen once I've been using my device for a little while.

The nexus series deals with the landscape gripping issue by relegating the navigation keys to the bottom of the display itself. I personally hate to waste precious screen space. in fact the button layout of the galaxy works so well for me I would say it is probably the chief reason I intuitively chose galaxy devices to begin with before I even considered anything else.

I doubt they'll ever change it and I'm happy that way. They're spending extra money to provide us with a better, more thoughtful user experience. Going with a full stripe of capacitive "buttons" actually would save them a lot of money.

what downsides are there to it? the only one I see is the desperate attempt Apple fan boys make to assert that it is merely a cosmetic imitation but I can find devices from Samsung and other manufacturer with the primary button dead center under the screen going back to the days of windows mobile pocket pcs

As stated, it is more a personal preference thing. I haven't missed a mechanical home button since my first smartphone. Also I always turn of tactile feedback on the soft keys, just don't like or need it. I can tell by the behavior of the phone if I pressed it or not. Also, there are other gestures you can use for quick access (the double phone flip for Motorola devices that bring up the camera).

We will never get everyone to agree, but to me the mechanical button is antiquated. And it seems that water resistance would be increased without it.

 

[cr6]

They've had the physical home button forever. I know for sure that the S3 has one. I'm pretty certain the S2 has one as well, which would lead me to believe that the S1 did as well. AFAIK, the Note series has had one all along as well.

The original Galaxy was the only Galaxy S device without a physical home button. They originally implemented it across the board on the S2, which I hated the design at first. Once I had my S3 however I actually learned to love it, and now I actually prefer it. It's much more convenient having two methods of activating the display as opposed to the single power button on the side of most devices.

S5 tap'n

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Yeah, while I prefer the fingerprint scanner to be on the back like on my Nexus 6P, I've already gotten used to using the home button to turn the screen on on the Note 4 that I'm using as a spare while the 6P gets a new screen. Pretty sure it'll take some getting used to when the 6P comes back.

 

[pc747]

Having had the note 5 and now the Nexus 6p. I would say that the home button can be convenient especially when being able to use it as a fingerprint unlock and being able to launch the camera from it. But as far as accuracy the Nexus 6p fingerprint scanner is noticeably better.

At the end of the day it comes down to preference as you can easily make a case for both. For me the home button is not what made/broke my decision, it was how I felt about software that caused me to flip. The fact that here we are in may with me running n preview 2 for almost a few weeks now and yet the att note 5 still has not released marshmallow (whether it be because "all the issues" att are having during testing it what) I just grew tired of watching Samsung's software get worse while the software on my older Nexus phones were making my phone perform better. ... I know that was ot, my bad.

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[mountainbikermark]

I didn't care for the ergonomics of the physical home button on the Note2 I've got because the bezel above and below it was huge, like an Apple device. The Note4 (and S series ones since then) shrunk the bezel considerably above it and some below as well making the phone less tall overall. I remember when trying to decide between an S series or Note the first time the S looked goofy to me being so tall, disproportionately so. The newer ones seem to have addressed and solved that ratio being so goofy iPhone wannabe look.
I remember switching back from the G2 home button on the back to the Note4 was not to my liking for a few weeks but I got used to it again and don't mind it anymore.

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[FoxKat]

Some perhaps interesting perspective from a Moto fan boy. I have an S7 which I bought just to play with. I still have my Droid Turbo 2 and have been hopping back and fourth (Swype spelling error)...even during the same sitting. I'm using both my router's WiFi and wireless tether off the T2 as the Internet connection on the S7.

Some observations...

First, I both like and don't the hardware button and accompanying capacitance buttons and their placements but not necessarily for the same reasons. I like the ability to both wake and unlock it with just my thumb, so that agrees with some things said here. I also like the tactile feel and satisfying click of the button, an assurance of the system getting the command. That said, I don't like the placement as it then dictates that the capacitive back and running apps buttons are immediately to the right and left. Since they are low on the phone, there is little area that I can hold the phone by on the bottom without accidentally hitting those capacitive buttons, something I find myself doing often, both with my fingers and even with just the folds of my palm as I cup the phone.

In contrast, the Turbo 2 with its speaker and microphone on the bottom front facing, essentially prevents that area from housing either a hardware or capacitive button arrangement. This then leaves that area as a place that can be held onto without risk of triggering an undesirable response.

This is I'm sure, based on the intent to keep the phone small while still having a relatively decent sized screen. This is further evidenced by the very narrow side bezels as well. And for me, just like the capacitive buttons I find myself accidentally making selections on the screen sides with my palm.

Again in contrast I've never had a similar issue with the T2. The bezel is significantly wider on the sides of the T2 which gives me plenty of touch-sensitive-free area to hold the phone by.

There are other things I like about the S7 but there are also things I am completely in the T2 camp on. For instance, I like the screen capture process on the S7, including being able to capture the full length of a web page, almost no matter how long it is. I've used this to capture a Tumblr blog that is a few dozen posts long in one jpg. There are apps that can simulate this on the T2 but not as seamlessly.

The S7 Swype keyboard is FAR less accurate than on my T2, where just above there when I swyped "keyboard", it was interpreted as "leukaemia" (and yes, misspelled like that). There are LOTS of mistakes with Swype which cause me to stop and correct, as well as proofread fat (correction, far) more than I ever have to do with the T2. This could be due to the button sizes and the devoted numerical row (something else I do like). It could also be due to how incredibly slippery the screen is, IMHO far too slippery and causing my finger to slide past target letters on the screen. I can't finish one sentence without at least one word being completely destroyed.

I don't like the capacitive buttons being so brightly lit that when in total darkness I'm blinded by them due to my eyes having grown accustomed to the auto dimmed screen. I've opted to turning the buttons off with a third party app (Galaxy Button Lights - Android Apps on Google Play), and then having capacitive buttons added to the main screen, semi-transparent but accessible at all times (Back Button (No root) - Android Apps on Google Play).

It also adds a convenient status bar drop down access button. The buttons are customizable and repositionable.

There are other issues but I'll stop there and let others comment.

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[cr6]

I've always kept the capacitive buttons turned off. Having the physical home button makes it easy to know exactly where the two capacitive buttons are located without needing them to be lit up everytime I touch them.

S5 tap'n