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Google Pixel 3 XL Bug Adds Second Notch To Side of the Screen (androidpolice.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the your-worst-nightmare dept.

Those of you who detest display notches will find this bug especially unpleasant. A small number of Pixel 3 XL users are reportedly experiencing a bug where an additional notch appears on the right side of the display. Android Police reports: Turns out that it's a real-life bug experienced by several users, including Jessie Burroughs, Kyle Gutschow, and UrAvgConsumer. We're not sure what's causing it, but it could be something to do with the screen rotation setting getting a bit confused about its orientation. In all three of the examples we've seen, the users reported that the issue went away after a restart or fiddling with the developer settings, so at least it's not a permanent problem. Anyone who bought a Pixel 3 XL probably decided that the notch didn't bother them that much, but we're not sure how they'd feel about another one showing up unannounced. Google is aware of this bug and says a fix is "coming soon."

44 comments

  1. The notch is stupid by WindowsStar · · Score: 1

    The notch is stupid. Everyone wants screen space and now everyone wants part of it missing. WTF people.

    1. Re:The notch is stupid by iamgnat · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The notch is stupid. Everyone wants screen space and now everyone wants part of it missing. WTF people.

      No, people want to make use of the otherwise dead space on either side of where the camera and speaker usually is. I'm not really a fan of the notch as it visually looks terrible, but I get idea of freeing up the extra pixels for the application.

    2. Re:The notch is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. The notch is the dumbest smartphone idea yet. I'd rather just have a strip where the camera goes or better yet, no front camera at all. I have never even used the front camera on any of my phones.

    3. Re:The notch is stupid by Trogre · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm struggling to tell if you're being sarcastic. These devices have *more* screen space than devices without this feature.

      Perhaps they didn't use the best marketing term, by turning the focus to what is missing, rather what has been added.

      I would have called it "spill".

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    4. Re:The notch is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Something like this is probably the reason why we ended up with the "blind spot" physical defect in the human eye.
      God wanted to add a cool new feature, so he added a notch for the optic nerve. Then the feature got canceled, and we're left with a blind spot.

      Google, please learn from pre-history. Don't repeat this mistake.

    5. Re: The notch is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck you old man.... no front facing camera? What use would a phone be? To take calls? LOL go back to your Nokia!

    6. Re:The notch is stupid by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Or a round cutout for the camera, that would still be ugly but not as ugly as the notch. Don't know if anything stands in the way of that, technically.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    7. Re:The notch is stupid by Powercntrl · · Score: 2

      The notch is stupid.

      The stupidity of the notch is having the default behavior be allowing apps/photos/video playback to spill over into the obscured portion of the display. It would've been absolutely fine if kept as a reserved area for status indicators and system notifications.

      Granted, there is a developer option to hide the notch, but it completely negates the purpose of the extra display area.

      Apple's implementation is even worse. There is no option to hide the notch system-wide, and it pretty much ruins the experience of looking at photos (videos, however, can be watched in a notchless mode).

      --

      ---
      DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
    8. Re:The notch is stupid by iamgnat · · Score: 1

      The stupidity of the notch is having the default behavior be allowing apps/photos/video playback to spill over into the obscured portion of the display. It would've been absolutely fine if kept as a reserved area for status indicators and system notifications.

      What phone does that? Not my 3xl, at least not on any of the apps I use. Google Play kinda does that, but it quickly goes away when you start scrolling. It does the same thing on a non-notched phone though which has always irritated me as I can't read the status bar until I scroll.

      Granted, there is a developer option to hide the notch,

      Thanks for that! I need to play with it and see if it disables touch in that are too. I'm finding I hate this "edge to edge" display idea as the touch also stretches to the edges and I'm finding my hand holding the phone is making enough contact to register as a touch and annoying me

    9. Re:The notch is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't see why they couldn't. The Essential PH-1 has a nub for the camera. It would just be a matter of making a screen that envelops the whole camera.

      Or they can make a camera that works from behind the screen. The screen could function as normal but when you pull up the camera app, the area in front of the camera turns transparent.

      I honestly think that device makers are spending way too much time and effort trying to hide the camera. There is nothing wrong with having the camera on a bezel.

    10. Re:The notch is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm struggling to tell if you're being sarcastic. These devices have *more* screen space than devices without this feature

      No they don't. When I run something fullscreen, I don't want a piece cut out of it, I want the full resolution.

      Let's compare like devices:

      Pixel 3 XL is listed as having a display resolution of 2960x1440, but when you subtract the area taken by the notch, it's less than that,

      Galaxy S9+ actually has a display resolution of 2960x1440 where every single pixel can be used.

    11. Re:The notch is stupid by Waccoon · · Score: 0

      More pixels doesn't mean more information value. The proportion of information removed by the notch is much greater than the dead, empty pixels added around it.

      Seriously... it's remarkable how many UI people don't fucking understand basic design anymore.

    12. Re: The notch is stupid by nytes · · Score: 1

      They could put it in the center of the screen for better selfies!

      --
      -- I have monkeys in my pants.
  2. Par for the course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... Coming from the so-called talent pool at the Goog. Overpaid engineers working in silos so narrow they cannot stretch their wings. Work there a few years and you forget how to fly.

    #DontHireGooglers

    1. Re:Par for the course by BLToday · · Score: 1

      ... Coming from the so-called talent pool at the Goog. Overpaid engineers working in silos so narrow they cannot stretch their wings. Work there a few years and you forget how to fly.

      #DontHireGooglers

      You have to learn how to fly without wings. But coming down is the hardest thing.

    2. Re:Par for the course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      “It's not the fall that kills you; it's the sudden stop at the end.” -- Douglas Adams

  3. Really Google? by BlacKSacrificE · · Score: 4, Funny

    I know you're all about innovating and being on the leading edge, but you really need to take it down a notch.

    --
    [Sorry, this signature is unavailable in your country/region]
    1. Re:Really Google? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah, not because Apple does it that it's a good idea.... notches, really???

  4. piss poor product testing by YouGotTobeKidding · · Score: 0

    Man Google really needs to take it down a notch or two. :P
    Seriously though this just shows how the PXL3 was not properly alpha-tested let alone beta. Shite like this should not make it to market on a flag-fucking-ship device.
    Jesus google have some pride in your work... for once.

  5. Now, now, cut Google some slack by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Every company’s software has bugs. I’m sure Google will release a patch within days.

    As soon as the patch is released, Pixel 3 XL owners will be able to enjoy notches on all four sides of their displays - rather than just the two.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Now, now, cut Google some slack by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Funny

      If they really want to get fancy, they could have the notch take up the entire side of each edge!

      Only a true master of mobile could introduce the Virtual Bezel.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  6. why render the notch by GodWasAnAlien · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I cannot think of a reason to actually render the notch, even for the top.

    It should just be an area that has no screen pixels and no touch.

    Perhaps for development, they may want a "soft notch", so software designers may understand what it may look like, even on a non-notch device.

    But for production, such notch should never be rendered, even at the top.

    1. Re:why render the notch by Bradmont · · Score: 1

      The only use case I can think of for rendering it is for screenshots.

    2. Re:why render the notch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can also see the "corner" of the screen being rendered a bit further down.
      Is the screen actually just rectangular and the rounded screen corners fake?

    3. Re:why render the notch by Trogre · · Score: 1

      Well it's presumably still a rectangular framebuffer, with some "pixels", virtual or otherwise, that just never get updated.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    4. Re:why render the notch by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      I cannot think of a reason to actually render the notch, even for the top.

      Who is rendering a notch? I thought this was specifically about *not* rendering the notch.

    5. Re:why render the notch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yup, this. It's just an in-memory placeholder that acts as a spacer to make sure the stuff on the left and right of it don't spill over into the dead space where there are no corresponding pixels.
      Like parent said, the in-memory buffer is always rectangular, and also the screen drivers assume XY addressable pixels.
      Added bonus is that it will also look correct on an emulated screen.

    6. Re:why render the notch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you implying that the second notch is a physical feature on a phone (not rendered), or did you just not read the article?

  7. Double Good by dohzer · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's why Google are twice as good as Apple.

    1. Re:Double Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Preview of Apple's next iPhone announcement: Fuck everything. We're doing 5 notches.

    2. Re:Double Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I plan to introduce a phone with four notches! One in each corner for maximum notches!

  8. THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES KEN DOLL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES NAZI FAGGOT KEN DOLL

    Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.

    Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.

  9. never buy phone with notch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    so many phones out there without any notch on screen.

  10. Probably now it's double-sided. by shess · · Score: 1

    This is a classic hack to increase storage capacity.

  11. Screen orientation by loftarasa · · Score: 1

    I find it baffling that Android and iOS still have bugs related to the device's orientation. How hard can it be to just nail something that has 1 out of 4 possible values?

  12. Fuck everything, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We're doing two notches!

  13. Intended bug? by Eloking · · Score: 1

    When a funny, trivial bug like this happens and attract a lot of attention, I can't help but wonder if the bug was simply "ignored" before release.

    --
    Elok
  14. Fuck it, we're doing five notches by GrumpySteen · · Score: 1, Funny

    Would someone tell me how this happened? We were the fucking vanguard of smart phones in this country. The iPhone X was the phone to own. Now we're standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling single notch phones. Suddenly we're the chumps. Well, fuck it. We're going to five notches.

    Sure, we could go to three next, like the competition. That seems like the logical thing to do. .After all, one worked out pretty well and the competition went to two. Three is the next number after two. So let's play it safe. Why innovate when we can follow? Oh, I know why: Because we're a business, that's why!

  15. Phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can we just get phones with a nice screen and long battery life? I don't care about thin. The required protective case makes that irrelevant. I don't need curved screens. I don't see edgeless screens. I don't need giant screens. I just want a screen I can reach everything with my thumbs and enough RAM and cpu power to keep things snappy. I can get a tablet if I need a bigger screen. I can get a laptop if I need more portable power. I can use my desktop for actual computing. Also, give me a headphone jack and a standard charging/data port so I can charge anywhere using any charger. Fuck proprietary garbage. Fuck brand names. Just give me a phone that fits in my pocket and can run apps without a bunch of extra pointless shit that basic assholes think they need to be cool and with it.

  16. Air headed hipsters working in media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There can be only one explanation for the incredible screw ups with crapOS high sierra root bug last year, Winblows 10 1809 file deletion bug & now this crapdroid dual notch bug....the lame sub standard hipster douchebags working at these companies.

    I remember Linux being a really great OS & then along came crapdroid....thanks scroogle....thanks.

  17. Get off my goddamn screen, notch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Keep to making games and selling them for beelions!

  18. wow by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    "When one notch just isn't enough ... there's Google."

  19. Why is screen rotation so frickin hard? by Radical+Moderate · · Score: 1

    Half the time my damn screen won't rotate, the other half it has a hair trigger, I'll barely move it and BAM it rotates. Crazy idea: incorporate a 1-second delay in the rotation, and create a neutral zone where no rotation happens. If I'm holding the phone at a 40 degree angle and it wobbles to 50 degrees I don't want it to rotate!

    --
    Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
  20. Things you can't see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's crazy to think that it's the bugs you can see that are an issue when it's the one's you can't that really should have you worried.