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Bad iPhone Notches Are Happening To Good Android Phones (theverge.com)
The Verge's Vlad Savov argues that Android smartphone manufacturers are copying the iPhone's design (specifically, the iPhone X's notch) with more speed and cynicism than ever before: I've been coming to Mobile World Congress for close to a decade now, and I've never seen the iPhone copied quite so blatantly and cynically as I witnessed during this year's show. MWC 2018 will go down in history as the launch platform for a mass of iPhone X notch copycats, each of them more hastily and sloppily assembled than the next. No effort is being made to emulate the complex Face ID system that resides inside Apple's notch; companies like Noa and Ulefone are in such a hurry to get their iPhone lookalike on the market that they haven't even customized their software to account for the new shape of the screen. More than one of these notched handsets at MWC had the clock occluded by the curved corner of the display. Asus is one of the biggest consumer electronics companies in the world, and yet its copycat notch is probably the most galling of them all. The Zenfone 5 looks and feels like a promising phone, featuring loud speakers, the latest Sony imaging sensor with larger-than-average pixels, and a price somewhere south of $499. I should be celebrating it right now, but instead I'm turning away in disgust as Asus leans into its copying by calling Apple a "Fruit Company" repeatedly. If you're going to copy the iPhone, at least have the decency to avoid trying to mock it.
It would be stating the obvious to say that this trend is not a good one. I'm absolutely of the belief that everyone, Apple included, copies or borrows ideas from everyone else in the mobile industry. This is a great way to see technical improvements disseminated across the market. But the problem with these notched screens on Android phones is that they're purely cosmetic. Apple's notch at the top of the iPhone X allows the company to have a nearly borderless screen everywhere else, plus it accommodates the earpiece and TrueDepth camera for Face ID. Asus et al have a sizeable "chin" at the bottom of their phones, so the cutouts at the top are self-evidently motivated by the desire to just look -- not function, look -- like an iPhone X.
It would be stating the obvious to say that this trend is not a good one. I'm absolutely of the belief that everyone, Apple included, copies or borrows ideas from everyone else in the mobile industry. This is a great way to see technical improvements disseminated across the market. But the problem with these notched screens on Android phones is that they're purely cosmetic. Apple's notch at the top of the iPhone X allows the company to have a nearly borderless screen everywhere else, plus it accommodates the earpiece and TrueDepth camera for Face ID. Asus et al have a sizeable "chin" at the bottom of their phones, so the cutouts at the top are self-evidently motivated by the desire to just look -- not function, look -- like an iPhone X.
The Essential Phone had that useless notch thing even before the iPhone X came out.
Honestly, not incorporating FaceID into an Android phone is a selling point for me. Only the owner can open it. And their brother. And anyone in China. And a cop who holds your phone up to your face. Unless a few other people look at your phone, in which case it won't even try.
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I'm a slashdotter, so I'm somewhat of a luddite stuck in old times, for many many technical things. (Or perhaps I just don't like /unnecessary/ change, in design, especially when the end result is worse)
I have a Samsung Note 5, the size, weight, fantastic, it has a FLAT screen, no stupid goddamn 'can't put on a protector' curve. It has a home button, a REAL button. The fingerprint scanner is on the front, on the home button in a convenient location.
Admittedly, it still works pretty well, but one day, I'd like to replace it. *ALL* I would like is an identical phone that's faster, better camera, more storage and more network features, maybe USB C, more battery life if possible.
I do not want a curved display. /physical/ home, back and multitask button
I do not want fingerprint scanner on the back.
I do not want a smaller phone.
I do not want one particularly larger.
I DO want a
At the current pace of 'innovation' (read: wank factor) by the time my phone needs replacing, I will not be able to purchase a phone that matches my needs. OR the phone I want will be the 'budget edition' phone from the company, with a weak CPU / features that barely exceeds the Note 5 I had.
I'll say one thing, these guys sure are curing my phone upgrade itch. The Note 8, iPhone X can go to hell as far as I'm concerned. The One Plus 5T can join them (although good on them for the price and flat display)
Stop copying Apple!
We need analog output, replaceable batteries, removable storage and easy repairability, not thinner copies of iphones
They're Chinese companies. They don't do creative designs, they just copy whatever trends they see.
(Not saying the people are incapable, but the socioeconomic context is not an incentive for them. I mean, if Apple comes up with something crazy, they have the ad budget to convince people it's actually a cool thing - even if it's completely retarded like that notch. The Chinese companies usually don't have the same persuasive power, so they just follow.)
Circumcision is child abuse.