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AllanCaeg

Should we now avoid buying Android phones with hardware buttons?

Android Ice Cream Sandwich switched to a buttonless standard with the Galaxy Nexus. Sure, Android scales well for many different devices and ICS has backwards compatibility for phones with hardware buttons, but that's just a patch for the baggage.

Android evolved with virtual buttons in the System Bar (for Honeycomb, ICS, and beyond) for good reasons like:
  • hardware button inconsistency between devices
  • not having to guess whether the physical "Menu" button is useful in a context or not
  • quick access to multitasking tool (holding the home button for this is tedious)
Given that devices with hardware buttons will get backwards compatibility, is it still fine to buy Android phones with hardware buttons? Wouldn't it suck to spend $700 this holiday season on an outdated (or something like that) device?
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dwtc

dwtc

I don't think HW buttons will ever be obsolete, just like HW keyboards aren't obsolete. There are very practical reasons for both, but I personally prefer the HW buttons.

Ice Cream Sandwich provides the flexibility for handset manufacturers to be able to provide either experience. That's what Android has always been about. It's why Google licenses the software out to a large variety of hardware partners, who each build several phones each year, instead of manufacturing the phones themselves and having one phone model each year where "you get what you get and you'll like it", like how Apple does it.

The Nexus phones are a reference to introduce new features and demonstrate what new optional hardware and software changes are possible. They don't dictate how things have to be, or even necessarily how things are going to be. The Nexus S didn't make flat glass screens obsolete, after all.

It may be that 6 months from now, everyone with a Galaxy Nexus will hate the SW buttons and manufacturers will avoid them entirely in the future (not likely, but possible).

It's all about flexibility for the hardware partners, which translates to flexibility for end users.
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frankspin

frankspin

I was under the impression using the on screen soft buttons was optional?

If the phones are going to look like the Galaxy Nexus, just give me back the soft keys. They remove them from the phone but if you look at the whole bezel there is still room to put the keys in. Either remove them and give me the 1/4-1/2" of screen back or just leave them in.
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beau

beau

It's kind of depressing that as Google is trying to unify the look and feel of Android that they make this fairly major change and don't answer this question.
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Armaced

Armaced

I wish they would have a standard answer and hangup hardware button. The rest I can live without.
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NotHotWater

NotHotWater

I totally agree - Google has kind of cannibalized itself here by making many of its own devices obsolete. I mean, is there any much better functionality with software buttons? No, not really, but they've created this kind of divide where I can go out on the street and see an Android with hardware buttons and know it's old. I don't necessarily think this means people should stop buying Android handsets with hardware buttons, just that Google has created an interesting dichotomy between it's pre and post ICS phones.
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alamoe

alamoe

Hardware buttons will never be "obsolete" in Android. If you look at the videos of ICS on a Nexus S the menu button still works. It's just a matter of mapping the keys. When the OS loads on your device it should check what hardware components are available for it to use, the same way it knows whether or not you have a front facing camera.
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btate0121

btate0121

I think all new devices will eventually all be buttonless because it's built into the OS.. however I think legacy "button" support will be an out of box ICS feature.. If you look at the software button in ICS... they're all the same buttons.. i'm guess they'll probably just hide the buttons on devices that have the capacitive/hardware buttons physically on the phones.... as a bonus.. we'lll keep the search button (Thank you Google!)
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Todrick

Todrick

Do you mean avoid all phones currently on the market?

My answer to that would be, No.

I do think future google phone will be sans buttons... but currently the only way to avoid buttons would be not to buy a phone
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rosjo

rosjo

It really shouldn't be a problem
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kadajawi

kadajawi

I also don't think it's a problem, but actually I miss hardware buttons. As in physical ones. The more the better. Remember the G1 and Magic/Sapphire? 6 buttons + cursor. Awesome. (To make a phone call you press one button and you're there.) When done right they are so much better than their touch alternative, you can easily use them without looking.
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