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The tyranny of touch screens may be coming to an end.

Companies have spent nearly two decades cramming ever more functions onto tappable, swipeable displays. Now buttons, knobs, sliders and other physical controls are making a comeback in vehicles, appliances and personal electronics.

In cars, the widely emulated ultra-minimalism of Tesla’s touch-screen-centric control panels is giving way to actual buttons, knobs and toggles in new models from Kia, BMW’s Mini, and Volkswagen, among others. This trend is delighting reviewers and making the display-focused interiors of Tesla and its imitators feel passé.

Similar re-buttonization is occurring in everything from e-readers to induction stoves.

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[-] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 64 points 1 day ago

Thank fuck. So glad I managed to dodge the cars with all touch screen controls. I got one as a loaner after my Civic was totaled in an accident (Thank u for buying me a new car, uninsured, out-of-state white supremacist with a truck too big for any reasonable use!) and it used the touch screen to control the climate control! I had to look away from the road to change the heating!

Just stupid.

Give me simple buttons and knobs I can feel and fix. Capacitives, touch screens, all that nonsense should stick to phones.

I'm okay with the phone being a touch screen. The rest can go back to normal.

[-] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 26 points 1 day ago

I want buttons on my phone too.

[-] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 1 day ago

I got 3 (Volume rocker and power) and it feels like plenty.

It's been so long since I had more than 3 and I'm curious. I had an iPhone for work, that had a 4th, the home button on the bottom center of the touch screen and I hated that. What do you want from physical buttons on the phone?

[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 2 points 16 hours ago

Mine has the 2 for volume and 1 for power, as well as a toggle switch to change from silent, vibrate, and sound for the ringer which I quite like.

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this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2025
83 points (92.8% liked)

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