Sunday, February 2, 2014

Leak claims to show HTC M8′s on-screen buttons

Since we learned that the HTC M8 could be the first device from HTC to sport on-screen buttons, we’ve all been a little curious to know what the setup would look like. According to HTC Source, this leaked image could be the HTC M8′s on-screen button implementation. There’s nothing dramatically different from Google’s implementation on stock Android with the Nexus 5 or what Motorola or LG have shown off on their latest devices. Honestly, just the fact that HTC will be returning to a standard three button layout (most of HTC’s 2013 models only featured the home and back button) is a huge victory in our books.

The only real difference in design between what HTC has implemented in the past can be seen in the back button. HTC Source put together a comparison graphic which shows the evolution of HTC’s button layout over the past few years.

Quite a few people still prefer hardware or capacitive buttons on their Android devices, but we actually think on-screen buttons do offer an advantage when used on devices larger displays. What’s your take on the HTC M8 on-screen button rumors and leaked image? Would this be a good move for HTC or should they stick with the same capacitive button layout they introduced on with the HTC One?