this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2025
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I want buttons on my phone too.
Counter proposal: dynamic tactile buttons.
The tech already existed in 2013, just develop it further.
https://www.robaid.com/gadgets/tactus-technology-haptic-feedback-on-dynamic-user-interface.htm
I am still pissed off about losing Force Touch on the iPhone. Haptic Touch is so much worse and slow. I loved using various pressures with good feedback for things that made sense. It was so much faster and more deliberate than the stupid replacement.
It felt like a great step in this direction, but instead of improving, they just shitcanned it for something much worse.
I want my iPhone button back. It was better. Swiping fucking sucks and it doesn’t work half the time.
I got 3 (Volume rocker and power) and it feels like plenty.
It's been so long since I had more than 3 and I'm curious. I had an iPhone for work, that had a 4th, the home button on the bottom center of the touch screen and I hated that. What do you want from physical buttons on the phone?
I would like dedicated back/home/recent keys, like on early Android phones. The back button also functioned as a "disconnect" button for phone calls, which was nice. I still miss it.
I want the power button on my phone to protrude like an actual button so I can actually press it. The thing's like 4mm wide and I'm supposed to somehow push this thing through the gap in the side of my case with my thumb that's ~~5x~~ ~10x (just checked) the width of the button.
As for other buttons, I wouldn't mind physical buttons for the Android controls at the bottom, but not really a huge deal to me tbh.
Mine has the 2 for volume and 1 for power, as well as a toggle switch to change from silent, vibrate, and sound for the ringer which I quite like.
Feeling nostalgic for the blackberry?
Blackberry insisted on a 3-row thumboard on the face of the device. I want a 5-row slider, like Samsung's Relay.
I'm nostalgic for it, but at the same time, I'd be nostalgic for 3.5 seconds if I used one again. People tend to forget how frustrating those devices could be too. I had several iterations of the blackberry, and everyone of them came with a lot of quirks that modern phones just don't have. Sure, I sort of miss the tactile feel of buttons, but it was also a lot of work punching out long emails on them, and pocket lint did a real number on those things too.
Yeah I don't care for tactile keyboards because swiping is so much faster.
My last phone before my first smart phone was basically a sidekick (it wasn't actually a sidekick, but I don't remember the actual name of it and the sidekick has a similar enough formfactor).
That thing's texting keyboard was fucking rad. I could type so fucking fast on that. I really want a smart phone with that keyboard.
Maybe the answer is the same as the cases for the iPad mini. A little Bluetooth keyboard case that snaps closed over the screen, with capacity to flip the phone unit around, in case to lay screen up on top of it while closed.