Unless phone screens go edge to edge i cannot see how onscreen buttons could ever be better? They literally just take up space that could be used for more screen realestate :/
If the bezel is there, then put the buttons on it.
- can change orientation with the phone
- google could decide to do something really cool with them in the future like maybe allow you to add additional buttons, change colours, size/icons and add some additional stuff i.e. could use it to display more info. on a new email or something.......
- the way it changes depending on what you are doing i.e. if you have the keyboard the "return/back" key will change to an arrow pointing down instead i.e. it shows that the keyboard will "minimise"
- one less thing that could break
- the front of the phone looks very sleek/modern/futuristic when the screen is turned of
Essentially more "flexibility" with on screen buttons.
You can currently do most of the above stuff above if you root etc.
But I see your point as well and can why people would prefer capacitive buttons instead.
The thing I don't get though is that all the sites and even google said themselves that having on screen buttons would reduce the bezel, yet it just makes it worse :/
Personally I love the thought of having very little bezel all the way round, however, how practical would this really be when operating the phone with one hand? Currently with my S, I sometimes accidentally touch the screen due to how thin the side bezels are and imagine it would be much worse if the bottom bezel was the same size.
How much do 4s go for these days?
