When the Galaxy S8's Always-on Display (AOD) is turned on the lock screen to show things like the time or calendar, they move around the screen to prevent burn-in. Because the phone's home button can't be bouncing all over the screen and needs to stay basically in the same location (bottom center), Samsung really had no choice but to have the home button shift by a few pixels every so often.
Samsung's "workaround" raises an interesting question: What will Apple do for the iPhone 8? The next iPhone's rumored to switch from LCD to OLED for the first time, and the iconic home button below the screen will reportedly be replaced with a virtual one just like the Galaxy S8. Will Apple have to resort to the same "moving home button" as Samsung, or will it have a better solution up its sleeve? We'll find out soon enough.
The Galaxy S8’s home button moves, and there’s a good reason for it
On the flip side, Samsung had to remove its physical home button from the Galaxy S8 and S8+ in order to achieve such an impressive screen-to-body ratio, and the company tried its best to copy Apple with its new virtual home button. It failed.
One major feature of the Samsung Galaxy S line that we have seen in place since 2010 is the physical home button. On the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, that button has been removed and this trend may continue with the next Apple iPhone.
The Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event in New York City last week was very exciting and I enjoyed the opportunity to try out the new Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus (Check out ZDNet's Jason Cipriani's detailed first impressions). As a guy who appreciates the efficiency and security provided by the physical home button, this was one area I focused on while interacting with the demo devices on the display stands.
ZDNet's Ross Rubin made the point that the Galaxy S8 escapes the sea of sameness. I often hear people mentioning that all phones are "black slabs" that are hard to differentiate. Samsung worked hard to set the S8 and S8 Plus apart with its Infinity Display, which resulted in the loss of the home button.
The latest Samsung smartphones have amazing cameras and the ability to simply double press the physical home button to launch the camera and start shooting was important to me. While the home button is gone, simply perform the same action with the power button, centered on the right side, to launch the camera.
Pressing and holding the physical home button also launched Google Now while the display was on. Google Assistant is now available for all newer Android devices and you can launch it simply by stating OK Google.
The near instantaneous response and convenience of having the physical home button meant that many of us enabled security settings on our Samsung Galaxy phones. To be honest, I rarely locked my phone with a PIN or password before the latest fingerprint scanners so even if fingerprint security isn't foolproof, having some security is better than none.
As you can see, efficiency and security concerns have been addressed by Samsung and are not areas to be concerned about when you see the physical home button missing on the Galaxy S8. There are some benefits to removing this button, including:
Samsung was able to integrate advanced technology, similar to Apple's Force Touch, to provide a pressure sensitive area where a home button is expected. Some apps may not even show any buttons along the bottom row, but pressing in on this area will continue to act as a home action and bring you back to the launch screen.
Apple switched to a capacitive home button on the iPhone 7 and it took me about a week or so to get used to this approach. I'm sure it will take me some time to adapt to the new method on the Galaxy S8 Plus, but we have seen other Android manufacturers remove a physical home button and most have adapted to the change.
Samsung made the major design change for its Galaxy S8 lineup by removing the physical home button. The change was done to accommodate the bezel-less front design of the flagship. But, many S8 owners are noticing movement in the pressure sensitive virtual home button.
The movement of the virtual button is not unusually noticeable, but if you mainly track it by sticking a tag on it, then you will see the shift backward and forward. It does not make major shifts, but there is a slight displacement. A Dutch website GalaxyClub has posted three pictures that clearly depict the change in the place of the virtual button.
Samsung's Netherlands official Twitter account has explained the reason behind this activity. The home button moves to avoid screen burn-in, which happens when an image is left on-screen for a long time. This issue was earlier seen on CRT monitors, wherein the permanent image on the screen used to create a "ghost" impression on the display. At that time, companies introduced screensavers to change the pixels on display and prevent putting a permanent image on the screen for too long.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are the first handsets from the Korean smartphone maker to make use of on-screen navigation buttons. The company had to ditch the physical home button on its latest flagship devices this time around due to the lack of space at the front as it wanted to achieve a bezel-less look.
The switch to an on-screen navigation bar can be a bit jarring for long time users of previous Galaxy S handsets but its something that you will get used to after the first week of using the phone. However, there is more to the on-screen home button of the Galaxy S8 than what is just visible at first glance. To make the transition from a physical to on-screen home button easier, the home button on the Galaxy S8 packs in quite a few tricks up its sleeve, including a Force Touch-like functionality. I have been very impressed with the home button implementation on the Galaxy S8 and I really hope that other Android OEMs also end up taking cues from it for their future devices.
This one seems believable, for several reasons. Samsung is one of the few remaining Android phone makers that clings to a physical home button. Even Apple is said to move to an on-screen key on the next iPhone, according to sources quoted by the New York Times, and Samsung is known for its desire to pre-emptively one-up Apple.
It looks like Samsung was thinking about slapping a little nub of a home button on the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. This is according to a patent published by the European Trade Mark and Design Network, uncovered by Android Headlines. Despite having a nearly bezel-less display on their latest flagships, the South Korean manufacturer apparently considered modeling the design after last year's Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.
The button is a lot smaller than the S7 variants. Android Headlines even speculates that it's possible the button was actually a fingerprint scanner, as it doesn't pop through on either side of the design. Though, what is noticeable is the fact that this design features the infamous Bixby button, indicating that the physical home button may have been a serious prototype considered for the S8 lineup.
The patent was registered on April 7, 2017 and published on April 28, indicating that Samsung may have been experimenting with the idea of the home button up until the last minute of the Galaxy S8's release. It's possible that the tech company never planned on using the home button, and perhaps just wanted to secure it as an option before someone else beat them to it.
For those of you used to using your thumb to wake your phone, having a physical home button on the Galaxy S8s might sound like a nice idea. But can you imagine trying to press that tiny little awkwardly-placed thing every time you needed to enter your phone? It would probably increase the chances of dropping your phone if your finger ever slipped, and it surely wouldn't work great with a case, either.
Not only that, but why ruin Samsung's sleek design? The smartphone looks bezel-less and infinite for a reason. There's no need to ruin it by putting a little sliver of a home button to distract you from how great it looks.
While it almost goes without saying that launching a new flagship phone without the latest version of Android would be a big mistake, we were glad to see Nougat running smoothly on the Galaxy S8 back in the spring. The biggest feature in 7.0 is of course the Google Assistant, which works seamlessly alongside Bixby to let you search for almost anything just by using your voice. It's also worth noting that you don't have to press a separate button to see all of your apps; just swipe down on the home screen. Fortunately, S8 users won't have to wait very long for the next version of Android; at the time of writing, the S8's update to 8.0 Oreo is currently undergoing its fifth beta.
With the Galaxy S8 moving to an almost completely bezel-free design, there's no room in front for a physical home button. Thankfully, Samsung has implemented a virtual touch button that serves the same purpose, complete with haptic feedback. Too bad the fingerprint sensor is now on the back next to the camera.
Tripple click the home button. If this does not fix it, go into setting by swiping from the top of the screen down, tap on the gear icon, scroll down to "Accessibility" then look for "Direct access" in this menu it should say how you can enable these assistant features. My particular setting was toggled on, with "Universal switch" as the enabbler/disabler.
I turned it off as usual, I left it charging all night. I woke up, turned it back on and these BLUE BOXES keep on appearing on the lock screen, and the screen DOESN'T WORK at all, so I can't go to settings. Only the home and volume buttons work.
On the Galaxy S7 Edge, the widgets on the Always-On screen used to move around to prevent the AMOLED pixel from over-burning the spot, preventing any permanent patches. On the S8 and S8+, the same trick is used to display the home button continuously. Now, it would be weird to see your home button moving up and down on the screen, like the widgets. But, the Galaxy S8 has got a lot of pixels on its AMOLED screen. The home button changes its position very slightly around the centre spot. It moves at few pixels a time, thus preventing the burn-in while giving an impression of a static home button. 2ff7e9595c
Comments