Slashdot Asks: Should Android OEMs Adopt the iPhone's Notch?

Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that Google was currently working on a "dramatic redesign" of its Android OS -- one that embraces the "notch" made popular by the iPhone X. A couple weeks after that report was published, Mobile World Congress was happening, and the biggest trend among Android OEMs was the introduction of a notch in their smartphones. The Verge's Vlad Savov argues that Android smartphone manufacturers are straight up copying the iPhone's design with "more speed and cynicism" than ever before.

Should Android original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) adopt the iPhone's display notch? A display notch can offer a greater screen-to-body ratio, for example, but lower overall aesthetic value. It can also create a headache for developers who need to update their apps to account for the notch that eats into the actual display area. What are your thoughts on display notches? Should Android OEMs adopt the iPhone X's display notch in their devices?

If you're not a fan of notches for aesthetic reasons, you may like the solution that OnePlus has come up with. The company will soon be launching their notch-equipped OnePlus 6 smartphone, but will allow OnePlus 6 owners to "hide" the device's notch via software. Users will have the option to black out the background of the notifications and status bar if they so desire.

Comments

Popular?

[jdharm]

...the "notch" made popular by the iPhone X.

Really? "Popular" seems a bit of a stretch.

Re: Popular?

[peragrin]

In reality the notch is a temporary design shift made by limits of current tech. In the not to distant future. Cameras that see through the displays will increase in resolution the infrared backlight will be from the whole screen etc.

The tech exists now. It just isn't refined enough for a phone.

Notches seem pointless and miss the point

[sjbe]

A display notch can offer a greater screen-to-body ratio, for example, but lower overall aesthetic value.

Aesthetics are a matter of personal taste. I can see people liking or hating the notch and you can't say they are wrong either way. There is no objective way to judge aesthetics. Conceivably the notch has some potential functional value though it seems a lot of trouble for some pretty minimal gains even under the best of circumstances. I have an iPhone X (spare the snark - it works for me) and I'm utterly indifferent to the notch. It doesn't bother me but I don't find it particularly useful either. Frankly it seems mostly like a mis-feature and a waste of money.

All this sturm and drang about notches really seems to be missing the point. It's an answer to a problem nobody has. What I want them to do is make a phone with a better battery life. They could double the thickness of all but the biggest phones and I would not care. A thicker phone would also enable them to put a better camera into the phone which has value to me. I'd also like someone to really get seamless cloud integration and device and document sharing right because that is still a hot mess whether you are talking about Android, iOS or any other system. You'd think Apple could figure it out since they control their platform the tightest but they always seem to only partially solve the problems.

What the fuck is a "notch"?

[DogDude]

What the fuck is a "notch" on an iPhone?

Here's a better question

[squiggleslash]

Why has Apple gone off the rails, and why haven't Android phone makers noticed and stopped copying them?

I was never impressed by the iPhone, but can understand why people were and certainly appreciate many technologies the iPhone popularized. However, the last few years have been completely absurd. The iPhone has lost its headphone jack, there's no good reason for the notch, and it still doesn't follow accepted industry standards even though now there's no reason for it not to - USB C in particular.

What has happened to Apple? Steve Jobs' departure should have been an opportunity to throw out the less optimal things Apple was doing solely because Jobs was insisting on it: instead, they seem to have thrown out Jobs' obsessions with elegance and simplicity and adopted his very worst quirks.