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Lenovo Teases a True All-Screen Smartphone With No Notch (cnet.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNET: Notches, it seems, are the new black. Originally seen -- and often criticized -- on the Essential PH-1 and iPhone X in 2017, the trend of adding notches to Android phones has only accelerated this year as phone makers look to maximize the screen size. But the Lenovo Z5 is going the other way: It's truly all-screen, and notch-free. At least, that's according to a sketch shared last Friday by Lenovo VP Chang Cheng on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform in China. Cheng's teaser post says (according to Google Translate) that the Lenovo Z5 is the company's new flagship phone. Besides that, the post leaves it pretty vague.
All-screen phones look cool, but they challenge the manufacturer to find a place to put front cameras, sensors and other hardware. That's why we see bezels on some phones and notches on others. It's not clear what Lenovo plans to do with the front camera on the Lenovo Z5. Cheng's post claims that "four technological breakthroughs" and "18 patented technologies" were made for the phone, but doesn't go into details. One of the first smartphones to launch with an edge-to-edge display was the Xiaomi Mi Mix. It launched with next to no bezel or notch, leaving many to wonder where the earpiece would be. What Xiaomi managed to do was use what it calls "cantilever piezoelectric ceramic acoustic technology." Basically, it's a component that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy to transfer to the phone's internal metal frame, which then vibrates to create sound. It's possible the Z5 relies on a similar technology, or bone conduction technology found in many headphones and some smartphones.
Aside from the front-facing camera and ambient light sensors, the other components that are typically found on the front of smartphones are relatively easy to drag-and-drop to different locations. For example, the speakers in the Z5 are likely bottom facing and the navigation controls are almost certainly software based. The question is whether or not it's worth having a true all-screen smartphone if it means there's no front-facing camera, ambient light sensors, or stereo speakers.
All-screen phones look cool, but they challenge the manufacturer to find a place to put front cameras, sensors and other hardware. That's why we see bezels on some phones and notches on others. It's not clear what Lenovo plans to do with the front camera on the Lenovo Z5. Cheng's post claims that "four technological breakthroughs" and "18 patented technologies" were made for the phone, but doesn't go into details. One of the first smartphones to launch with an edge-to-edge display was the Xiaomi Mi Mix. It launched with next to no bezel or notch, leaving many to wonder where the earpiece would be. What Xiaomi managed to do was use what it calls "cantilever piezoelectric ceramic acoustic technology." Basically, it's a component that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy to transfer to the phone's internal metal frame, which then vibrates to create sound. It's possible the Z5 relies on a similar technology, or bone conduction technology found in many headphones and some smartphones.
Aside from the front-facing camera and ambient light sensors, the other components that are typically found on the front of smartphones are relatively easy to drag-and-drop to different locations. For example, the speakers in the Z5 are likely bottom facing and the navigation controls are almost certainly software based. The question is whether or not it's worth having a true all-screen smartphone if it means there's no front-facing camera, ambient light sensors, or stereo speakers.
Exactly. Give me a nice "third world" phone (Samsung J1 or J3, Moto G4 Play or G5) with removable battery, SD card. May be homely, but at least I'm not forced to buy a new phone every year by the planned-obsolescent unfixable design.
It's all bullshit. Just say no. For illogical reasons, the "flagship" phones seem headed in the direction of form over function. I don't want a phone which makes it hard to not "fat finger" an unintentional/undisired change due to touching a screen edge, nor do I want a phone which doesn't have a speaker on the front which allows me to hear clearly.
Face it, they're all rounded rectangles with a display. Differentiate with utilitarian function, nor form, because any real difference from the norm is just late 1950's tail fins on cars. And the automakers figured out the fucked up much faster than cellphone makers will. I don't want thin, either. Give me a larger, replaceable battery, not some phone that's hard to not drop. There was actually an article today about Apple's rumored next phone being "revolutionary" [sic] for some shit related to having a higher screen/area ratio, or some other meaningless crap.
P. T. Barnum was right, although he underestimated the scale.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Maybe the idea is that you flip the phone over and talk on its backside. It's quite possible that's where they relocated the mic and speaker.
The market doesn't really want thin. They add cases and (un)happily lug powerbanks around.
No, the non-replaceable batteries might have started out as way to make the phone thin, but now it's a way to make sure that you change your device every two years when the battery dies (and/or the OS slows down to "help.")
They clearly extended the same idea to their laptops where the new macbook batteries can't be replaced at home.