How can we petition so that the Surface Phone will use hardware navigation keys and not software key

tboy2000

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Software keys are awful. A compromise to save money by not using hardware keys. They take up screen estate (even though you can hide it at times with a swipe). A true flagship phone should not have compromises. They also spoil the look and symmetry of the phone. The bottom bezel would be plain and a waste of space when capacitive navigation buttons could be there. Awful on 950 xl. Perfect on 1520. So... how can we let Microsoft know not to make this awful shortcut on their next flagship phone?
 

bozza72

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Yep im using 640xl while im waiting to get a950xl and I miss the hard keys and no camera button please that should be a must have
 

Justin Pearson

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Sorry not going to happen. What you see as a shortcut, I see as a good design choice. I'd much rather have buttons that can be changed on a whim if needed then hardware buttons that you are stuck with. As for the bottom bezel.....ummm on the 950xl there is practically no room for any buttons. As the mic is right there, and you would literally be pressing right on the edge of the phone.
Screen space? Ok what do you really need screen space for? Games? Videos? Pictures? Web browsing? Ebook reading? Fantastic. The buttons go away for the times when you need the full screen.
Where as, the Hardwar buttons will always be on the edge on the phone. Unchanging and unmoving.
I see no compromise in this respect. I see future proofing.

Cause right now, android is designed to be based around soft keys, ios is not far from being a software button only phone.
If you want hard buttons, Blackberry is where you want to go.
 

tboy2000

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But the buttons will never need to be changed. They will always be back, windows and search. Always. No need to change on a whim.
 

Justin Pearson

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In software design never say never. And they have to change every time you go into landscape mode. It just looks better when the buttons are facing the right way, no mater what position you are holding the phone at the time.
 

Lee Power

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As for fitting camera button, there only fitted on Pure view devices. I'm not fussed either way with on screen OR hardware buttons, I've used both types on Windows phones & both types of design work fine.
 

Live2Deliver

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Second the hardware button design. Ok, granted software button does have its merits when it comes to orientation and combinations, but hardware button just gives me the confidence of actually having dedicated navigation buttons that's consistent wherever in the UI.

And truth to be spoken, if we have to get the software button to appear when we need it (after hiding it) it would involving more work, and we do not need something that'll always be there to take up space on the screen. Not to say there'll be the bottom App bar too.

Furthermore on screen buttons just looks cheap to me.
 

Justin Pearson

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Technically speaking. We GAIN screen space with the on screen buttons.
As I said before, there is practically no room on the bottom bezel of the 950xl for buttons. The screen would be shorten a tad to make room for the buttons. And as we get closer and closer to no bezels at all..... Yeah sorry. Hardware buttons are on the out. I see nothing cheap at all in giving me more screen.
 

Josh Harman

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I see nothing but benefits from the on screen buttons, not compromises.

Smaller bezel, larger screen in an overall smaller phone, one less piece of hardware to fail (like my 4 Lumia 830s, with horrible capacitive buttons) and updateable.
 

Indistinguishable

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If you're in the camp that is either against, or indifferent about, capacitive buttons on the next MS Flagship, then maybe the question posed by the OP in this thread isn't for you.

I would love my next phone to have capacitive buttons. I vastly prefer them to software buttons. If there was a reasonable petition or uservoice for it, I would totally sign it.
 

Rugish Dapeca

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Just an observation, but when I try to use the hardware buttons on my L520 in the dark, I have to guess at their exact location because they don't light up. My L640 with on-screen buttons is super easy to use in low light/dark situations. Now I realize the hardware buttons don't move, and should be easy to find even in the dark, but I still tend to have to try a few times before I get them to work. If they were back-lit, then it wouldn't be an issue anymore.
 

Kram Sacul

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I can remember when all Windows Phones had capacitive buttons, a camera shutter button and came in different colors (not black or white). Even the lowly 520. Now we have to beg MS to give us a flagship device that actually looks high end and not like a budget phone.

687fea91677be9103defb8dc0b97e8b7.gif
 

PepperdotNet

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Gone are the days when I accidentally launch Cortana or back out of something while trying to pick up my phone from a table, etc.

Sure, the button layout will never change. Until it does. Or they finally properly implement landscape and the task bar stays on the logical, not physical bottom of the screen. Or they give us the option to put the start button in the bottom left just like a pc. Or any number of other things now possible that we haven't even thought of yet
 

grahamf

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Sorry not going to happen. What you see as a shortcut, I see as a good design choice. I'd much rather have buttons that can be changed on a whim if needed then hardware buttons that you are stuck with. As for the bottom bezel.....ummm on the 950xl there is practically no room for any buttons. As the mic is right there, and you would literally be pressing right on the edge of the phone.
Screen space? Ok what do you really need screen space for? Games? Videos? Pictures? Web browsing? Ebook reading? Fantastic. The buttons go away for the times when you need the full screen.
Where as, the Hardwar buttons will always be on the edge on the phone. Unchanging and unmoving.
I see no compromise in this respect. I see future proofing.

Cause right now, android is designed to be based around soft keys, ios is not far from being a software button only phone.
If you want hard buttons, Blackberry is where you want to go.
Technically, if you get a Z-series or the leap then you don't even get soft buttons. Yes you have the power, volume, and mute button, but the OS relies on gestures instead of on-screen buttons (and the back button on the android player can be hidden and replaced with an angle swipe)
 

Arunabha Goswami

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I opened this post looking for an answer to the question by OP, instead I got useless debates about the advantages of on-screen buttons over capacitive ones, and vice-versa.
 

grahamf

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I opened this post looking for an answer to the question by OP, instead I got useless debates about the advantages of on-screen buttons over capacitive ones, and vice-versa.
Well the very first sentence was "Software keys are awful" which set the tone of the conversation. That being said, pretty much everyone has moved away from physical navigation keys (with the BB Classic being one of the few exceptions).
 

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