alt Hacker NewsSince even after 2 hours nobody is discussing the actual font, let me tell you what comes to my mind when I read anything about Google and design:
They got phone design right.
I just can't get my head around it that even Apple, which is supposed to be THE design company, is making phones that can't lay on a table without wobbling like a barstool on a crooked floor. It just feels so broken to me. So detrimental to my sense of aesthetics.
Google phones tackled it with an elegant solution. Thanks for that. I wouldn't know what phone to use if Pixels didn't exist.
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Apple probably has swathes of real-world usability data showing that virtually no-one uses their phone for prolonged periods of time while it's laying down on a hard flat surface.
You may be right about the aesthetics (and Lord Jobs may well have agreed with you) but they may have made the tradeoff consciously.
Original iPhone got design right.
I don't think there's a single modern smartphone that I like. My latest favourite smartphone was iPhone 4S. No camera bump. Perfect size, fits well in my hand, operable with one thumb. Perfect display size, enough to present all information I need. Perfectly usable without ugly case.
What bugs me most is that Apple DID do this (I still hold that iPhone SE 1 is the goat) and then decided to drop it because it wasn't as profitable.
I'd rather have a wobbly phone (how often do you push on your screen when it is flat on the table?) and a proper OS than a proper phone and a wobbly OS.
Gesture navigation on Android was introduced half a decade ago and it is still broken. In most apps my edge swipe to pull out a drawer or a swipe on the right side to 'forward' are still detected as back button swipes. Editing details at the edge of a photo often gets detected as a back button swipe. Ridiculous.
Some of these companies are now designing the phone on the assumption you're going to case it. No other reason to make a Pixel camera bump w/ scratch-vulnerable screen stick out so far.
I've just got a new Samsung and it's wobbling too. I hate this. Why can't they at least put the cameras in the middle? Or maybe horizontally centred? Or they could just put another bumper on the other side to make it symmetrical. I'm looking for a cover to balance this out, but no luck so far.
I've come to realize that barely anyone I know uses swipe typing anymore, and that this is why using it laying flat is viable in the first place
Too bad Pixel support for factory-broken screens sucks so my "well designed" Pixel has green vertical line in the middle of the screen. So detrimental to my sense of aesthetics.
> I just can't get my head around it that even Apple, which is supposed to be THE design company, is making phones that can't lay on a table without wobbling like a barstool on a crooked floor. It just feels so broken to me. So detrimental to my sense of aesthetics.
Of all the controversial design choices, I think Apple got this one right.
I do not care if my phone wobbles when flat on the desk. I don’t use my phone like that. It’s in my hand if I’m using it.
I use my phone camera sparingly, but when I pull it out I want it to work very well. And it does. If it takes a little bump out to fit better optics then I don’t care in the slightest.
> Google phones tackled it with an elegant solution. Thanks for that. I wouldn't know what phone to use if Pixels didn't exist.
Making your entire phone choice revolve around the shape of the camera island is the oddest top priority I’ve heard yet, but I’m glad you found one that works for you.
The irony is that you're still not discussing the font