Over in Spain, Mobile World Congress 2018 ended last week. We saw the Galaxy S9 among other smartphones get unveiled to the world. We did see a few of the Android phone makers get iPhone X envy by adding a notch to their upcoming devices. We’re not talking about the one on the Essential Phone. It is a small one for the selfie camera and shows off the thin ass bezels for that display.
We’re talking about other devices from companies like ASUS, Huawei, & LG. And MWC 2018 was the place to show the world that this trend is coming to Android. Whether we want it or not, Android phone makers are trying to match the notch a universal thing. I for one hate it as it poor choice for ‘inspiration’.
The notch on Android looks ridiculous to Android & iPhone users.
More specifically, the ASUS ZenFone 5, Huawei P20 (not yet announced), and the upcoming LG G7. ASUS prided themselves by making their notch 26% smaller than the one on the iPhone X. Not sure why you would pride yourself in blatantly copying another phone. At least make it subtle in some ways. Huawei’s upcoming P20 also has a smaller notch as well to house its secure face recognition, payments, & possibly Huawei’s take on Animojis. Hopefully, they can actually nail their cameras or else this notch is more useless. And lastly, we got the LG G7. While I’m still against the idea, I’ll give LG credit for adding the ability to hide the notch & possibly use it similar to the 2nd display on the V20 via software.
Apple’s reason for the notch is to house the front-facing cameras, Face ID sensors, & such. Perhaps it was to not completely rip off Samsung’s award-winning design from last year as well. Not sure why some of the companies wanted to replicate the notch into their design language purposely. The iPhone X is a popular phone but didn’t sell as many as Apple would have liked. One can assume it was the pricing and not a huge spec bump from the iPhone 8 Plus. So their take is a combo of form & function for their design team. So for other companies to copy that for no reason other than to attempt to mirror the look is pretty lazy or seeking attention. Especially when none of these companies can compete sales-wise.
Companies should look to Samsung for design ‘inspiration’.
There are more companies who may be following suit later this year. The OnePlus 6 possibly, a company called Noa & Ulefone, & more. We already heard that Google is prepping for this by adding notch support for Android P so as much as I and others despise it, this will be a thing. For those who fail, hopefully, they opt for a more unique design approach. Only time will tell if any of these will actually stick.
Believe it or not, Samsung was in a similar situation w/ their first 2 or 3 Galaxy S devices until they found their own lane. The design w/ the Galaxy S8 & now the S9 is one to be emulated. Not to come up w/ your own copy of their near-bezel Infinity Display look but to kind of find your own lane visually so you can stand out amongst the crowd & gain some traction.
