by "Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
Published 09/27/2017 at 12:06
by "Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
Published 09/27/2017 at 12:06
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STARS: 4
As I’ve continued to use my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge after writing my super-OCD review of it , I had an epiphany yesterday. Putting the back key on the right side of the phone makes it easier to use with one hand. I’m right-handed, and I use the back button a lot more than the recent apps button. WHOA.
In my entire history of Android phones, I’ve only had one other phone that had capacitive buttons below the screen. It was my first Android phone, the original Motorola Droid Razr, which came out back before Android 4.0 Jelly Bean introduced the on-screen back/home/recent apps buttons we’re all so familiar with now. Before Jelly Bean, every Android phone had physical buttons below the screen.
On the Droid Razr, the capacitive buttons were, from left to right, menu, home, back, and search.
But this button layout wasn’t consistent among early Android phones. The one thing that was consistent is that basically all of them had the back button closer to the right side of the phone. One of the main exceptions was the original Motorola Droid, which had the back button all the way on the left of the phone.
You know what other early Android phones have back buttons on the left of the phone? The first two Google Nexus devices, the HTC Nexus One and Samsung Nexus S.
The inconsistency continues here, because while the back and menu buttons are both on the left of the phone, the home and search buttons are flipped from the Nexus One to the Nexus S.
What’s with Google’s obsession with putting the back button on the left side of phones? Most people are right-handed, and the most commonly used button on a phone is the back button. Shouldn’t it be on the right side of the phone?
Am I, as a member of the right-handed majority, exercising my right-handed privilege by siding with Samsung over Google? Maybe, but I don’t care.
IT ALL MAKES SENSE TO ME, MY EYES ARE NOW OPEN.
"random001" (random001)
09/27/2017 at 12:12, STARS: 0
Huh.
I never had any problem with it, but I have stupidly large hands that are quite unwieldy for anything but cell phone use.
"AntiSpeed" (AntiSpeed)
09/27/2017 at 12:14, STARS: 1
Ugh, as if you right-handed people don’t already have everything .
"AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC" (addictedtom3s)
09/27/2017 at 12:15, STARS: 1
I had this same realization after using my Nexus 6 for a month. I absolutely hated how the Samsung’s back was reversed. It made no sense to me. Then I realized one day while struggling to hit the back button on my large Nexus 6 and it all made sense. This is a prime example of foresight in design. I never would have even realized a larger phone would be easier to operate with the back button on the right but someone at Samsung certainly did.
"CalzoneGolem" (calzonegolem)
09/27/2017 at 12:20, STARS: 0
#southpaws
"MonkeePuzzle" (monkeypuzzle)
09/27/2017 at 12:28, STARS: 0
I just use an app to remap them to what I want
All In One Gestures
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
09/27/2017 at 12:33, STARS: 0
I have a Kyocera Hydro XTRM (droid, Jelly Bean), and it has the back button on the left. However, it’s a small phone, which puts the back button at a convenient partial thumb-extension from the right.
"If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent" (essextee)
09/27/2017 at 12:40, STARS: 0
Google people are creative, creative types are often left handed, ergo phones designed by Googlites are for lefties.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
09/27/2017 at 12:46, STARS: 0
The description of that app on the Google Play store says it hides the on-screen buttons and replaces it with gestures, is that what you do with it?
"MonkeePuzzle" (monkeypuzzle)
09/27/2017 at 12:50, STARS: 0
you CAN hide the buttons, I dont.
you can use broad swipes across teh screen to do actions, which are ok.
I just use it to reprogram the short and long hold on my 1 physical button and my two touch buttons.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
09/27/2017 at 12:54, STARS: 0
So are you saying you use it to make your back and recent apps buttons do each other’s jobs?
"MonkeePuzzle" (monkeypuzzle)
09/27/2017 at 13:02, STARS: 0
you can.
my recent apps button does nothing for short touch, long touch is a screen shot
home button is now recent apps for long touch, and home for short toch
back button is back for short touch, and setting for long touch
"Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop" (officer-jim-lahey)
09/27/2017 at 14:01, STARS: 0
Noooooooooooooooooooooooo
Don’t encourage them
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
09/27/2017 at 14:06, STARS: 0
On the S8, S8+ and Note 8, you can flip the on-screen homeand recent apps buttons if desired.
I dare say if I had one of those phones I might just keep the back button on the right.
"Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop" (officer-jim-lahey)
09/27/2017 at 14:14, STARS: 0
Progress!
I have a Motorola and my wife has a Samsung. Many back-button-related mistakes are made.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
09/27/2017 at 14:24, STARS: 1
Yes, switching between devices leads to inconsistency. Muscle memory builds up with expecting a button to be in one place and then it’s not and you mess up.
I have a Lenovo tablet with the standard on-screen buttons, but so far it hasn’t tripped me up with bouncing between it and my phone because the tablet is always a 2-handed device, and the on-screen buttons are different from physical buttons so it’s like a different memory queue.
My wife has a Motorola phone with the standard on-screen buttons and an Asus tablet with physical buttons in the standard layout. Last night I was helping her with something on her tablet and I felt myself getting a little tripped up on the buttons already because the physical buttons were so similar to my phone but the opposite position. And I’ve only had my Samsung phone for a week.
I have the same problem on the computer because I have a Mac laptop at home and my work computer is Windows. I was a longtime Windows-only user before switching to Mac and I still find myself hitting the wrong keys to do shortcuts on my Mac, because my work Windows machine reinforces my decades worth of muscle memory.
"KevlarRx7" (kevlarsupra)
09/27/2017 at 15:15, STARS: 0
Because intelligent people use android, and intelligent people are left handed.
"Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop" (officer-jim-lahey)
09/27/2017 at 16:31, STARS: 0
Yup, agreed on all points. It definitely makes sense to have “back” be on the right for one-handed operation by a right-handed user, but I get tripped up by muscle memory and the fact that the on-screen buttons are sometimes hidden until tapped.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
09/27/2017 at 16:43, STARS: 0
My phone lights up the buttons when I tap or scroll, or tap on one of the buttons. It seems to turn them off while typing.
I actually don’t mind the capacitive buttons because it frees up a little more vertical space on the screen itself. My last phone was a Moto X Pure with a 5.7" screen. I tried an LG V20 which had the same screen size and that stupid extra screen, and hated it, because it was noticeably bigger than my X Pure. (Incidentally, I tried a Nexus 6 before buying that phone and also found it a little too big.)
The S7E is a 5.5" screen, but it’s not much different overall screen space with no on-screen buttons. But the phone is noticeably smaller than that X Pure, and many other phones with 5.5" screens. So that’s kinda nice.
I ranted about a lot of the little software niggles in my review but the phone is definitely growing on me.
"Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop" (officer-jim-lahey)
09/27/2017 at 17:19, STARS: 0
I like 5.5", I think it’s the sweet spot for me. I just switched from a Droid Turbo (5.2") to a Z2 Force (5.5").
I’m so used to Motorola’s light touch re. software that I always have trouble using Samsungs. But I’m sure that once you get used to the Samsung spin on Android, it’s pretty great too.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
09/27/2017 at 17:28, STARS: 0
The problem with Samsung is they just put so much extra crap on there that you have to spend some time to get it more to your liking.
I use Nova Launcher and Gboard on all my devices so that gets rid of a lot of the Samsung goofiness. I found a more stock-ish looking theme for Samsung’s theme dealie that reskins the UI to look more stock. I switched the display mode from Samsung’s default ridiculously over-saturated colors to something a bit more natural looking.
I thought about the Z2 Force but while the Verizon/US Cellular version has the LTE bands to work on other networks too, it’s SIM locked, and I’m not a Verizon customer (I’m on Total Wireless) so I have no idea how I would unlock the thing.
Also the ShatterShield screen, I played with one at Best Buy and it was already starting to show a bunch of scratches.
And...it costs a lot more than the $475 I paid for my S7 Edge.