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.
Unfortunately the buttons are likely still controlled by the central computer rather than having standalone functionality.
When I was a kid if I wanted to turn off the radio I simply hit the “off” button.
Now in my Subaru when I start the car I have to wait for it to wake fully up, while it could be blasting out music very loud (think: if the music when I turned off the vehicle was softer, but now a commercial is the very opposite of soft) until pressing the off button finally thinks through all the ramifications of what it means (in the context of prioritization in relation to other tasks) to actually turn the sound “off”.
I love my car but I definitely prefer the older approach when off = “off”.
So button vs. touchscreen is only part of the underlying set of issues related to computerization and, for some vehicles, the increasing trend towards SAAS.
I don’t know where the author got their information, but they name Minis as one company doing this, and it’s absolutely not the case. I just checked to be sure, and the 2026 minis have the same 5-button, one touchscreen setup as the 2025s. My 2020 mini has 15+ physical buttons and toggles.
I’m fine with the phone as is, but vehicles need tactile control panels.
As for tablets, I just buy a keyboard case that folds open and closed like a laptop. That screen will twist around and lay flat to use as a proper tablet, if need be.
I don’t really want to sacrifice screen space on either mobile device, to buttons.
That article reads like it was AI written.
I actually think it was. The 2026 mini is the same as the 2025 mini in having almost no physical buttons, and a giant touchscreen, yet they call minis out by name. Completely incorrect, but got published.
Good, they should’ve never gone away in the first place.
Fuck yeah: Buttons! Keyboards, expandable storage, and swappable batteries next please. I miss being able to accurately touch type on my phone without looking.
Virtual keyboards have never been great and the mainstream ones are getting enshittified more and more (Heliboard is OK with some minor modification, but it’s open source).
Yeah I’m not really a fan of virtual keyboards that are basically querty on the screen. The compact size of the phone kinda demands a different approach.
I use flickboard which helps me minimize typos. My all time favorite virtual keyboard was the now defunct minuum. I was able to reliably touch type with it. I stopped using because it wasn’t open source (but miss it despite that).
https://www.cnet.com/reviews/minuum-keyboard-review/
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dZh8r-xErGE&pp=0gcJCR4Bo7VqN5tD
Wow, i immediately installed flickboard, thanks!
Alright glad my comment helped!
Virtual keyboards have never been great
I’m actually surprised that nobody ever fundamentally reinvented text input for touchscreens in a way that caught on.
There’s swipe if that counts.
Kind of seems like reinventing the wheel to me, given that I, at least, can maintain like 50wpm on my phone. I have a hard time imagining another design that could let me type faster.
There have been touch-specific keyboard layouts, but not really for English or other languages with Latin characters. You can probably imagine that CJK touch KBs can be pretty creative sometimes though.
I’d like to be able to get touchpads with physical buttons on laptops. Very few manufacturers do them, especially if you want three.
Finally! I was hoping to see some better haptic feedback systems but this is great too
I was in a big city recently and had business by their BYD dealership. I walked in as I had never seen any of the cars in person. Two of the models they had had physical controls (both the low(er?)-end ones). If I had planned on buying, that would have ruled 2/3 of what they had out. One complaint about my current vehicle is that it has touchscreen exclusively for all the HVAC controls (I have music controls on the wheel). I’m used to my older cars from (my an '83, '86, '95, '97, and '03 in order of model year) that I could adjust anything without taking my eyes off the road. I don’t mind ALSO having a tablet for navigation and the like, but want my main controls to all be physical.
The push to re-physicalize interfaces has even led to an unexpected side gig for Dr. Plotnick, the academic authority on buttons. Companies are tapping her to consult on how to improve their physical controls.
Well played.
