Rotary knobs or buttons - which do you prefer?

Wicksta

Wicksta

Wicksta

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I have been having an interesting discussion with a friend who thinks controlling things in the car by push button is more 'modern' and 'better' than via a rotary knob for digital equipment such as car audio or climate control (note the digital part). What is the general consensus here?

As an example, here is a device with a digital push button control:

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And a digital rotary control (on the radio, not the heating underneath which I agree is dated):

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To me it's a no brainer, rotary controls are far quicker for car use and more modern, hence me having to go back to the 1990s to find a suitable head unit with them.
 
I much prefer a rotary volume control, definitely. Although for climate control I strangely prefer buttons!
 
Perhaps you are mistaken and what your friend actually means is that a more modern and better approach is to have an LCD display for things like fan speed and climate temperature - like for example in modern cars like the F10 BMW 5 Series and E90 3 Series, rather than only having a rotary control with printed numbers on them such as in the E85 Z4 and the E60 5 Series?

There is nothing wrong with rotary controls - provided they have an accompanying LCD.

Perhaps you should clarify this with your friend, as I would imagine this to be his opinion?
 
[TW]Fox;16761538 said:
Perhaps you are mistaken and what your friend actually means is that a more modern and better approach is to have an LCD display for things like fan speed and climate temperature - like for example in modern cars like the F10 BMW 5 Series and E90 3 Series, rather than only having a rotary control with printed numbers on them such as in the E85 Z4 and the E60 5 Series?

There is nothing wrong with rotary controls - provided they have an accompanying LCD.

Perhaps you should clarify this with your friend, as I would imagine this to be his opinion?
Click to expand...

You mean an accompanying LCD like this? :D

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Why does it have to look like an 80's pocket calculator to look more 'modern' and 'better'.

For those wondering, these are the systems me and my friend are comparing: ;)

Ghey:

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Modern, Good, has big LCD if you want to use it and doesn't need a horrible little orange one:

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I do not beleive the F10 or the E90 have displays which look like a pocket calculator.

I think this is why your friend prefers the systems in both of these cars to the terrible low rent system present in your E60.
 
[TW]Fox;16761646 said:
I do not beleive the F10 or the E90 have displays which look like a pocket calculator.

I think this is why your friend prefers the systems in both of these cars to the terrible low rent system present in your E60.
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I think you are concentrating too much on the display anyway, the actual control is far easier with a knob which is my argument. Looks are subjective and tangerine LCDs aren't really my bag, F10 or not. ;)
 
Wicksta said:
To me it's a no brainer, rotary controls are far quicker for car use and more modern, hence me having to go back to the 1990s to find a suitable head unit with them.
Click to expand...

rotary controls are a double edged sword on head units. my HU has two rotary knobs and a total of 4 buttons..well, not really 4 of you count that both knobs click and one can be pushed in 4 directions... it makes some things very easy and others frustratingly more difficult then they should be imo.

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Dogbreath said:
Yep, it's a far more natural feeling way of adjusting a non-binary parameter IMO. I really dislike buttons for volume controls in particular.
Click to expand...

Most of the time I agree, but a button is easier to get right, an example is the VW Polo, the rotary volume control is small, and so if you try and adjust it on the go any bumps cause the volume to jump up and down, making it very hard to select the volume you want

Fox: Ah I get it, so the dials are dual climate controls, and the buttons are not related to the dials they are mounted on? Rest seems like a useful feature for winter
 
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