How Samsung beat Apple in design
Design is (or was) Apple’s strength as long as we can remember. In the meanwhile, everyone attacked Samsung for being just a copycat but with the Galaxy S8 something unexpected happened: they outappled Apple.
To understand our point we have to go back to Dieter Rams. He’s not only a legendary designer but Apple and John Ive were inspired by his work several times.
One of Rams’ main design rule is that “Good design is honest”. There are many things behind this one sentence but as many believe an important part is this: “metal should feel like metal and wood should feel like wood. Chrome is a fine finish for a metal bumper; plastic utensils with a chrome finish are a lie”.
And this, the home button is where Samsung beat Apple, at least a little bit. The iPhone 7 removed the home button and replaced it with a touch and pressure sensitive something with some vibration. Sure, achieving water resistance may have been easier this way and they had some extra place to fill after dumping the jack.
But this new button is just a meh. You wait for a real, iPhone-ish home buttony click when you press it but there’s just this buzz. Yes, it’s almost like the old one, sure we can get used to it, but it’s still not a button.
Samsung on the other hand dumped the home button altogether. They have a huge screen there with a little icon. You still have to press it. It still just vibrates like the iPhone and it’s obviously not a button. But it doesn’t even want to act like one.
Simply put, it’s more honest. Just like Apple’s 3D touch. It’s a pressure sensitive screen with feedback if you press it harder. 3D touch is good, honest design. Samsung’s home icon is honest design. The new iPhone home button is a fake button.
Sure, new iPhone’s will probably have a bigger screen and the home button may be gone forever. If Apple’s lucky they’ll be able to introduce an in-screen fingerprint reader which Samsung missed. But until then, Samsung beat Apple at its own game.
Image sources: Apple, Samsung & Abisag Tüllmann
