So, I've been playing with a Nokia Lumia 710 lately. It's a surprisingly nice phone. I chose it for a very specific reason, though - it *doesn't* have capacitive buttons along the bottom, and I had a feeling that'd make a big difference to how I perceived the phone and the OS, compared to how I felt when I owned a HTC Trophy, and compared to how I feel about my iPhone.
I've not hit the back, WP or search key by accident once. And its making a huge and positive difference.
Here's what I think is going on. Pressing any of the trio of buttons represent major shifts in what you are doing when using your phone. They're shifting you backwards, to the homescreen or into a completely different mode with search. So when you accidentally brush a capacitive trio button when bashing out an email or sending a tweet (or whatever), and are sent flinging away from what you're doing, its a big deal. Far more so than if you miskey a U instead of a Y.
Moving from a soft tap on glass to a physical press of a hardware button, for me, makes a kind of sense as I am consciously shifting mode. I find this on the iPhone too - the home button requires that shift. Interestingly, most apps on iOS also have the back button at the top of the interface rather than at the bottom, so again, the movement of my fingers to the other end of the screen also has this "mode shifting" sensation to me.
I'm a convert to real buttons as a result of seeing how they work and feel on the 710. I'm wondering how other people feel about capacitive vs real buttons, especially if you've come from another phone or OS that uses a different combination (like the mixed capacitive/real button combinations on a lot of Samsung devices).
Capacitive, real, or both?
I've not hit the back, WP or search key by accident once. And its making a huge and positive difference.
Here's what I think is going on. Pressing any of the trio of buttons represent major shifts in what you are doing when using your phone. They're shifting you backwards, to the homescreen or into a completely different mode with search. So when you accidentally brush a capacitive trio button when bashing out an email or sending a tweet (or whatever), and are sent flinging away from what you're doing, its a big deal. Far more so than if you miskey a U instead of a Y.
Moving from a soft tap on glass to a physical press of a hardware button, for me, makes a kind of sense as I am consciously shifting mode. I find this on the iPhone too - the home button requires that shift. Interestingly, most apps on iOS also have the back button at the top of the interface rather than at the bottom, so again, the movement of my fingers to the other end of the screen also has this "mode shifting" sensation to me.
I'm a convert to real buttons as a result of seeing how they work and feel on the 710. I'm wondering how other people feel about capacitive vs real buttons, especially if you've come from another phone or OS that uses a different combination (like the mixed capacitive/real button combinations on a lot of Samsung devices).
Capacitive, real, or both?