Sunday Debate - Are sliders cool or just a hassle?

01 July 2018
We argue about the innovative sliders on the vivo NEX S and Oppo Find X - are they worth it?

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Top bazel is fine to me just like that on galaxy s8 and s9. No need such a gimmick

    RobZ, 02 Jul 2018and take the selfies up from your nose! hahaa!not really, u can turn the device upside down to take photo

      Nrlastest, 02 Jul 2018I think sliders wont be a problem. Any mechanism in the pho... moreThe problem with these sliding phones is they have mechanical parts for the sliding action, and we all know mechanical parts wear down faster compared to those without mechanical parts.

      Considering that you need the Oppo Find X to slide up and down everytime you use the biometric unlock, which is likely dozens if not hundreds of times in one day, it'll probably not last that long, you'll be lucky if the sliding mechanism lasts for a year.

        I think sliders wont be a problem. Any mechanism in the phone can fail so stop judging this sliders. If you like a phone you buy it anyway, but doesnt mean you will use all its features.

          Mixkhata, 01 Jul 2018I concur. While I appreciate having waterproofing on my S7 ... moreWell, you see, the point of waterproofing is not being able to wash the phone under a faucet. The point is not having to care. Same with Gorilla Glass: it's not for using your phone as a hammer, it's for being relatively safe in usual circumstances.
          Safety is basic. Being able to use your phone when it's raining is awesome.
          Not having water protection or GG display is okay for a $50 phone, but for a $1000 phone it's ridiculous.
          I've been using IPx8-rated phones almost as long as since they hit mass market (Xperia Z1 Compact was my first one) and I made a mistake of buying a non-waterproof phone once. Well, it survived for an year until a storm got it, but having to care was surprisingly annoying. Believe me, you might not appreciate it while you have it, but you wouldn't like to lose it. It's basic for a reason.

            • R
            • RobZ
            • B}7
            • 02 Jul 2018

            sliders are gimick ONLY when you manage to cramp everything under the screen and get rid of that ugly notch! till then slider mechanism is the answer! and to be honest we used to have some design innovation in our phones before. i missed those days that we wre waiting for nokia or sonyericson to release new attractive phones with marvelous mechanisms and odd designs! now everything is a slab, (i mean what is the point of changing galaxy note 8 with note 9?!) and guess what we're gunning down the small effort to get some creative thought in it! and to the multi bilion dollar companies with their R&D like apple and samsung! put your money to work and make a fail proof and reliable slider mechanism!

              • R
              • RobZ
              • B}7
              • 02 Jul 2018

              atumiwa, 02 Jul 2018alternative, u can put the selfie camera on the bottom, li... moreand take the selfies up from your nose! hahaa!

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • IV8
                • 02 Jul 2018

                Sliders are cool.. But not in Find X nor Nex S form.. N95 from the yonder are rock solid manual sliding mechanism.. Apply that to the modern form factor-imagine a full screened N95.......

                  alternative, u can put the selfie camera on the bottom, like sharp aquos crystal , the first one that omitted notch

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • IW@
                    • 02 Jul 2018

                    Anonymous, 02 Jul 2018Because it is a convenient feature, how many people through... moreSeriously? LESS THAN 1% (2014).
                    In 2014, an ip68 rating in a smartphone was practically non-existent except for Sony Xperia phones which then had a 2.1% market share.

                    For every US smartphone owner in 2014, approx. 52% have no damage issues, 41% have scratched body/scratched screen issues, 5% have cracked/shattered screens, 3% have cracked phone bodies, and less than 1% have other issues (water damage, etc).

                    It just goes to show that an ip68 rating in a phone is more hype than being actually useful to the majority of smartphone owners. Worse, there are more ip68 phones with water damage than those without because of fraudulent advertising from phone manufacturers that you can take photos in the pool or beach with an ip68 phone.
                    Source: https://www.androidauthority.com/smartphone-owners-are-clumsy-532510/amp/

                      Sure, they're cool for a few days but after a week or two, the novelty will wear off and people will realize it's an inconvenience. Cases will be hard to find for this case and the mechanism for the camera shall wear out eventually. Soon the sliding mechanism won't work and the selfie camera shall stick out like sore thumb or you won't be able to use the selfie camera as it'll be stuck inside.

                        Jamesschwarz987, 01 Jul 2018I would be cool if it's a manual slider, unmotorized. *d... moreThat's my opinion too. I remember my Samsung D820, you slide it up manually, and move the camera front or back manually. It could even face straight up if aligned correctly.
                        https://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_d820-1356.php
                        No motors required.

                          We'd not be having this debate if phones weren't help bent on going bezel-free. Just put a 5 - 7 mm bezel at the top and that's it. Enough space for front facing camera, front facing speaker (with optional stereo), proximity sensor, and of course, all the other gimmicky sensors manufacturers are so fond of these days.

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • vV5
                            • 02 Jul 2018

                            I personally think that the bezel-less trend is so stupid, you know why?
                            In terms of several shortcoming compared to practical usages:
                            1- Reduce the durability
                            2- Reduce the front camera pixels
                            3- Reduce the comfortable of handheld the phone, especially in landscape mode.
                            4- Doesn't have space for dual stereo speakers.
                            5- when your right thumb go and access the apps on the left top corner can accidentally press the bottom screen by your plam.
                            6- Ugly notch is not welcome, blocking the notification bar.
                            7- Reduce the display repair ability.
                            8- Higher selling price and higher repair cost.
                            9- lost the water-resistant (popoup front camera only)
                            10- Taller screen ratio is not great for media displays.

                            Pros of bezel-less:
                            1- making the phone even compact and pocketable.
                            2- has a so call unique notch(deal with it)
                            3- taller viewable screen ratio for fill ups social contains.
                            4- A slightly more space for splitting the windows share on same display.
                            5- show off only.

                              • Y
                              • You utter pansies!
                              • PRW
                              • 02 Jul 2018

                              Granted the Find X solution is over compromised, the design employed on the Nex phones is marvelous. I don't use the selfie camera more than a few times a week, so 0.5s is NBD. And I would look forward to those times watching the mechanism pop up, hopefully accompanied by a small mechanical whine - that's pretty cool.

                              And to those saying it's mechanical so it will fail - utter defeatists. How often do the window wipers or the brakes on your cail fail?

                              And to those saying it relinquishes an IP rating, I scoff at that. Why should it? Headphone jacks, USB ports, sim trays and mechanical buttons all can be waterproofed. This is no different.

                              Sliders were cool, are cool now and will continue to be cool as long as there are new implementations. Finally something to depart from the standard slab design that is very practical but quite boring

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • vV5
                                • 02 Jul 2018

                                Anonymous, 01 Jul 2018Sliders and notch are both a hassle. Just bring back bezels... moreYes. bezelless will harder to held the phone in landscape mode, they can only hold from the side frame and have more risk fall the phone, unless they always put a flip case on, no one feel the flip case has thicker the phone, because they don't care lol!

                                  The camera flex will be the weakest link in this design. Assuming the everything else is taken care of.

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • vV5
                                    • 02 Jul 2018

                                    Whackcar, 01 Jul 2018We all used to use phones without any water/dust resistance... moreBecause smartphone is become more expensive compared to the pass few years, that's why people care about the waterproof feature.

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • jSq
                                      • 02 Jul 2018

                                      Whackcar, 01 Jul 2018We all used to use phones without any water/dust resistance... moreBecause it is a convenient feature, how many people throughout those years do you think lost there phones due to water damage?

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • tPG
                                        • 02 Jul 2018

                                        50% votes probably from mechanical engineers, and the other 50% votes probably from electronics engineers.

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