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

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."

Comments

The notch is stupid

[WindowsStar]

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

Re:The notch is stupid

[iamgnat]

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.

Re:The notch is stupid

[Trogre]

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".

Re:The notch is stupid

[Tough Love]

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.

Re:The notch is stupid

[Powercntrl]

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).

Re:The notch is stupid

[iamgnat]

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

Re:The notch is stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re: The notch is stupid

[nytes]

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

Really Google?

[BlacKSacrificE]

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

Now, now, cut Google some slack

[93 Escort Wagon]

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.

Re:Now, now, cut Google some slack

[SuperKendall]

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.

why render the notch

[GodWasAnAlien]

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.

Re:why render the notch

[Bradmont]

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

Re:why render the notch

[Trogre]

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

Re:why render the notch

[thegarbz]

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.

Double Good

[dohzer]

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

Probably now it's double-sided.

[shess]

This is a classic hack to increase storage capacity.

Screen orientation

[loftarasa]

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?

Re:Par for the course

[BLToday]

... 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.

Intended bug?

[Eloking]

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.

Fuck it, we're doing five notches

[GrumpySteen]

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!

wow

[cascadingstylesheet]

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

Why is screen rotation so frickin hard?

[Radical Moderate]

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!