Meeeeeh.
I hope the 16 has a headphone jack so that “everyone should steal this revolutionary new feature from apple” as well.
Pixel 6a does this… calm yourself young one.
Unpopular opinion, but phones these days don’t really need more buttons, but less. We have a huge touch screen after all, let’s take better advantage of it!
- “Action button” - Android phones have had a long press of power button be the assistant button since Android 12, just set your “assistant” as whatever action you want (e.g. with Tasker).
- Sleep/wake button - can be the power button for now, but also don’t forget double-tap on the home screen/lock screen/status bar.
- Power off/on - virtual button since Android 12, physical button for turning on. In case of emergency, I guess hold down for longer or do something like triple-tap.
- Volume keys - every video app should use onscreen gestures, same could be applied for music. In other contexts, statusbar or side swiping gesture could suffice, plus a notification shade slider like some OEMs already provide.
Yeah, nothing is preventing the same device from having a big touchscreen and a bunch of buttons at the same time.
On the other hand, buttons give tactile feedback that a screen will never, ever, ever give.
My S23 Ultra does this now. It no longer has the bixby button, but the power button can be remapped. I have it now so that double clicking the power button opens my camera app, but long pressing it shuts off my phone.
I’d still like an extra button and/or squeeze function like the early pixels had. The big thing for me on the ultra while you’re in the camera app would be a shutter button like some of Sony Xperia phones have. Being able to double tap the shutter button for the camera could open the power button to open another app or function, also wouldn’t mind seeing a triple tap function added to the button as well.
