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The Year OnePlus Started Ignoring Fans (venturebeat.com)
OnePlus has made a name for itself selling devices that punch above the price class. The Chinese smartphone maker has also built a loyal fanbase by proactively reaching out to its users and incorporating the changes and suggestions they make in its product lineup. But as the company grows bigger and embarks on a new journey -- entering the United States -- it is increasingly turning a blind eye to its community. From a story: To get the whole picture, we have to look at all of 2018. OnePlus releases two phones per year, and it makes sure to hype these before each debut. This year was the same in this regard, except for the obvious fan backlash. I'm of course talking about notches and headphone jacks. In March, OnePlus cofounder Carl Pei tweeted that users should "learn to love the notch." The outcry was so great that Pei deleted the tweet. The OnePlus 6 of course launched in May with a notch. Earlier in March, Pei also tweeted his usual annual poll about headphone jacks. The OnePlus 6T, which started shipping in the U.S. on November 1 and will hit the rest of the world on November 6, has a smaller "teardrop" notch. But as you likely already know, it doesn't have a headphone jack. [...] It's a bizarre set of decisions given OnePlus has always prided itself on giving its fans exactly what they want. This year, OnePlus seems to be happily pushing its fans to Samsung, which at least for now still offers headphone jacks in all its phones and has completely ignored the ugly notch trend.
The entire notch exists because Apple is introducing Face ID with the iPhone X, a replacement for Touch ID that uses infrared cameras to scan your face and log you into your phone. Apple’s camera array is significantly larger than the single sensor on the Essential Phone, making the cut-out a lot bigger as a result. Apple definitely could have avoided this, either by creating a device with a slightly larger top bezel to accommodate the camera array, or by using a black background across the status bar to hide it.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/14/16306298/apple-iphone-x-screen-notch
What's the fucking advantage of having a fucking notch in the fucking display?
Is this a trick question? I think most people prefer to have a front facing camera, and plenty (most?) would also prefer a front facing speaker. Until tech advances sufficiently that we can affordably embed these things behind a functional display, you need to reserve the top of the phone for these items. Given that most people also prefer to have a status bar there, what makes the most sense: having the status icon pushed up into the dead space around the camera/speaker, or having them take up the actual usable space below that?
I'll admit, I too originally hated the notch, but that's because Apple made a terrible decision when they launched it, showing the notch cutting into the side of video playback, which is just stupid. I don't know if Apple ever fixed that stupidity, but on Android every app I've used properly stays out of the notch area and never displays content obscured by it, with one exception (Google's Photos app puts the photos under the notch when you zoom in...please fix that Google).