8 Places Where Real Buttons Are Better Than Touch Controls

As a kid, sci-fi movies fascinated me with touchscreen displays and virtual UIs floating in midair. Today, I’ll pay extra for a washing machine that isn’t covered in touch controls. Don’t get me wrong: I think touchscreens are great. They’ve evolved dramatically, allowing us to enjoy marvels of technology like the best foldable phones. However, a clicky, old-fashioned button is still the better solution in many situations.

Yet, tech companies put touch controls on anything they can. I get it: a coffee machine with a touchscreen looks modern and premium. It is more likely to sell for a higher price, even if it isn’t better at making coffee than a basic model. Also, capacitive buttons are waterproof and don’t wear out like mechanical ones. Still, the feel, sound, and feedback make traditional buttons and knobs more convenient in several cases. Let’s explore a few of them.

Frustrating and potentially dangerous

Source: Lucas Gouveia/Android Police | Harry Howitt/Shutterstock

If you get into a new car, you’ll likely find a tablet-sized touchscreen in its center console. It’s what the driver uses for navigation or to control things like the radio or the A/C. At the same time, carmakers have been removing the physical dials and knobs for these functions. While you get a cleaner interior, you typically have to look at the touch controls to know what you’re touching. Not looking at the road while driving can be dangerous. Pair that with a laggy interface or a temperamental touchscreen, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Some car companies are coming to their senses. In a recent interview with Autocar, VW design chief Andreas Mindt confirmed that all future VW models will have physical buttons for the most essential controls. “Honestly, it’s a car. It’s not a phone: it’s a car,” Mindt said. The German brand is also doing away with the capacitive buttons on its steering wheels, replacing them with physical ones. Hyundai is another big name bringing back physical controls to its vehicles after relying too heavily on touchscreens in previous models.

Knobs and dials all the way

Source: Fujifilm

Touchscreens are common on digital cameras. There are benefits to that. I can conveniently tap where I want the camera to focus or activate object tracking on my Sony Alpha. However, while I don’t mind having a touchscreen, it is not what I want to use to adjust other camera settings. I love the chunky, tactile dials for ISO, exposure, and shutter speed on high-end professional cameras.

Lower-end digital cameras keep the physical dials to a minimum, likely to reduce production costs. Tweaking camera settings on a touchscreen is slower and less convenient. That is especially true in a professional setting, in instances where the camera is mounted on a stand or upside-down on an overhead tripod.

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6 Kitchen appliances

It’s like butt-dialing, but with washing machines

Most of the appliances in my kitchen have touch-sensitive buttons. None of them work reliably, and it’s not only that they don’t detect my fingers if they’re wet (or at all). For instance, my wife and I often turn on our oven’s timer by leaning against the counter. Think butt-dialing, but for appliances. It’s also easy to turn off the washing machine if I brush my thigh against it when I walk by. The touch button is so sensitive that I glued a plastic cover over it to prevent accidents.

Some would argue that capacitive buttons on kitchen appliances make sense because they’re waterproof, and I agree that’s an advantage. Still, I’m not convinced they’re more reliable when they add complexity and may require additional chips to operate. Case in point, I’ve had my (not at all cheap) washing machine for about two years, and I’ve had to call a technician twice to service its control panel.

5 TVs and PC monitors

Guys, where are the buttons?

Source: Roku

What’s worse than replacing real buttons with poorly designed capacitive ones? Having no buttons at all! That’s a trend in the TV industry. The models that have some kind of controls seem to have them tucked away in a not very visible or accessible spot. We rarely need these buttons nowadays, but it’s good to have them as backup. If you lose or break your TV’s remote, you’ll wish your smart TV had been made smarter.

While I’ve never seen a PC monitor with no buttons, I’ve come across models with frustrating capacitive ones. Unresponsive and difficult-to-feel buttons are not what you want when fine-tuning your monitor’s image quality.

4 The Apple MacBook Pro Touch Bar

Loved by some, despised by others

Source: Apple

Apple introduced the Touch Bar in 2016 with its newest MacBook Pro laptops. It was a thin touchscreen display above the keyboard that changed with the application. For example, it displayed your timeline when editing videos and provided quick access to emojis when typing. The only catch was that the Touch Bar replaced the top row of function keys, F1 to F12.

Although it was an innovative idea with potential, Apple abandoned the Touch Bar with the 2023 MacBook Pro models. While the company never clearly stated why, it was likely due to mixed user feedback. The function keys are commonly a part of professional workflows. They are simple, get the job done, and don’t require much special involvement on the developer’s side to be useful. A Touch Bar provides no tactile feedback and is one more thing that can break.

3 The Amazon Kindle

Physical buttons for turning pages were neat

Fun fact: Kindle page-turners are a thing. You’ll press these little wireless buttons when you want to flip to the next page. Amazon does not sell any Kindle models with such buttons, which is perplexing. Some people want them and would pay for the convenience they provide. Secondly, the physical buttons on the Kindle Oasis, pictured above, worked better than swiping on the laggy touchscreen.

2 The Samsung Galaxy Watch

RIP mechanical bezel

While not exactly a button, the rotating mechanical bezel was one of my favorite features on the first-gen Samsung Galaxy Watch, which I used extensively. It let me control the watch without touching the screen. It was perfect for seeing what I was selecting. It was also nice to have when my fingers were sweaty. Every turn was accompanied by a reassuring click. However, Samsung replaced it with a touch-sensitive bezel in subsequent models. The Galaxy Watch6 Classic from 2023 is Samsung’s newest model with a mechanical bezel, and it’s unclear if future variants will bring the feature back.

Don’t fix what isn’t broken

Remember when HTC phones were popular and desirable? Pretty and powerful, the HTC U12+ had all the flagship qualities you’d expect in 2018. It had one quirk: the power and volume buttons, which we described as absolutely terrible in our review.

They looked like real buttons protruding slightly from the edge of the phone, but they didn’t depress. Instead, they were pressure-sensitive pads that provided haptic feedback when pressed. I’m not sure what HTC was trying to achieve, but the result was a frustrating user experience. The U12+ served as a reminder that what isn’t broken shouldn’t be fixed.

Timeless perfection

The push button is among the inventions that were perfected over the years. It is simple, it gets the job done, and its click reassures you it is serving its purpose. Touchscreens are amazing and more advanced, but they are in no way a silver bullet, and tech companies should stop trying to force them into every gadget. Sometimes less is more, and keeping things simple is the best approach. No wonder enthusiasts pour effort and resources into projects like the Clicks smartphone physical keyboard or DIY their mechanical keyboard in search of the ultimate typing experience.