I use the traditional navigation bar, I could not get used to the gestures.

Buttons. Reliable, fast and easy.

Gestures. At the beginning I wasn't convinced, but once I got used to them it's hard to go neck to buttons.

Gestures are just so much better. Whenever I have to use my mom's phone, I feel that the buttons make the system feel clunky.

Gesture navigation. Much faster and fluid once you get used to.

i actually just made the switch to gestures after who knows how many years of navigation buttons. actually only took an hour or so to stop going for the buttons where they used to be, a few tasks i really auto-pilot on i still make the mistake now and again. but i've actually really come to prefer the gestures. i like being able to go back by swiping anywhere and it's kind of fun to just toss an app off my screen to go home. also great that the gestures are always ready to work when the bar may have been hidden in certain circumstances.

My mom has a Samsung and I have a Pixel but we both switched our phones from gestures to navigation buttons. There were too many instances of accidentally activating the navigation gestures when attempting to do other things with the phone.

For phones: swipes all around, with One Hand Operation + (https://apps.samsung.com/...) providing other swipe zones on both sides of the screen as well as setting a swipe+hold layer for more customizability. There are settings to tune your experience with swipe detection and other actions, and after a day or two I've already found the functionality they provide to be invaluable. I made my swipes more intentional so no accidental gesture registrations.

Tablets are another thing - swiping on such huge screens are actually less productive. I have the default buttons and the taskbar enabled for easier multitasking on them.

Buttons

I use the navigation gestures too! Since I've changed my phone from S20 to S23 and switched from navigation pull up bars.

Really love the overall smoothness and animations. But I've changed the animation scale to 0.5 in the developper settings to a smoother experience.

Gesturea with one hand operation + of samsung

I use the gestures, mainly because I have short fingers / thumbs, so it's a better experience than reaching down and across the bottom of the phone.