If there is one reason to love soft keys is that they don’t “break” unlike physical buttons which can be irritating, especially if that physical button is an important one like the home button for your smartphone. Granted OEMs probably test it and ensure it will last you for the next couple of years, but sometimes some mistakes slip through the crack.
This was recently evidenced in the newly launch OnePlus 2. It seems that there have been several users on the OnePlus forums who have been complaining that the handset’s home button is rather unresponsive. Oddly enough it seems that this might have something to do with a grounding issue in the phone, which you can see for yourself in the video above.
According to Android Police, grounding is probably the culprit as the handset has a magnesium alloy frame around the edge, so it was discovered that while touching the phone’s frame and while trying to press the capacitive home button has resulted in the button being unresponsive. Laying the phone flat against the table apparently solves the problem, and so does holding it in one hand.
It does not appear to be a widespread issue as there are several OnePlus 2 owners who claim that their device works just fine. It is unclear if this is more of a hardware issue or if it might be a sensitivity issue that OnePlus could address in an upcoming, but it’s worth taking note of if you’re planning to get the phone.
