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Samsung Will Put Notches On Its Future Phones (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the like-it-or-not-it's-happening dept.

Samsung is one of the biggest smartphone makers to hold off on releasing smartphones with display notches. But at the company's developer conference today, Samsung confirmed that it's soon going to join in on the trend. "A slide during the keynote showed several notch designs that are almost certainly coming to Samsung-branded devices in 2019 and beyond," reports The Verge. From the report: Hassan Anjum, a director of product marketing at Samsung, took the stage to highlight Samsung's previous breakthroughs in reducing bezels and maximizing display size year after year. "We're going to keep going. The bezels are going to shrink even further," Anjum said. "We're going to push the limits with our new lineup: the Infinity U, V, and O displays. These are new concepts that are just around the corner, and I can't wait to tell you more about them."

Infinity U: This basically looks identical to the Essential Phone's notch design. It's a small half oval that cuts down into the top middle of the display.
Infinity V: Similar to Infinity U, but with four edges instead of a curved half-oval.
Infinity O: This is a full circular cutout of the display and not so much a "notch" the top edge of the screen. Still, it seems like an eyesore and it's hard to imagine reaction to this being very positive. What's gained by that little area of display above it? Asus seems to be exploring a similar idea for its ZenFone 6, and feedback has been overwhelmingly bad.
New Infinity: This looks to be a completely notchless display. Anjum didn't discuss this one onstage, and the technology isn't quite there to allow for this design just yet. That said, Samsung could be exploring the idea of a slider phone that would house the selfie camera and other components somewhere outside their usual location.

79 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. I just saved $1000 by bit+trollent · · Score: 1

    Between Samsung's incoming notches, and Google's inability to make a decent Pixel phone it looks like I won't be upgrading my cellphone for the next 2 years at least...

    1. Re:I just saved $1000 by RickyShade · · Score: 2

      All of you need an LG V30.

    2. Re:I just saved $1000 by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      I just got a OnePlus 6t with a teardrop notch and it's nice.

      The notch goes away for full screen apps, and I only loose a notification or two, well worth it.

      I wish the phone was two inches shorter and a qaurter in narrower, but nobody else seems to, also, a real fingerprint reader with gestures would be better than zero bezel bottom (I had a cheap phone ages ago that had this, and I miss it).

      But in every way the teardrop notch is better than a bezel (I suppose someone that wanted better speakers could disagree).

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    3. Re:I just saved $1000 by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      I'm NEVER going to buy a notched screen. And if they're contemplating bringing back sliders instead, how about a thumb keyboard as well as the camera?

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    4. Re:I just saved $1000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Or you could get a Xiaomi Mi Mix 2/2S with almost no bezel on top and the camera on the small bottom bezel, or the new Mi Mix 3 with almost no bezel anywhere and a nice slide out camera. And now that they made this nice sliding mechanism, could they please make a full qwerty slider like my old Nokia N900 ? Even though it would not be running linux like that Nokia, I'd still have use for a full keyboard.

    5. Re: I just saved $1000 by tysonedwards · · Score: 1

      As long as there are software updates, I too am happy using a previous model. It doesnâ(TM)t matter that the new models are as fast as an Xbox One when there are no apps that tap that power.

      --
      Thirty four characters live here.
    6. Re:I just saved $1000 by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      Sure, except they don't solve my only real complaint (size).

      I guess turning the phone upside-down for a selfie isn't bad, but slide out mechanism sounds annoying.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    7. Re:I just saved $1000 by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      All of you need an LG V30.

      I was going to get one of them but it's a bit pricey so I got the Q6 instead. Good enough for me and similar visually (at least from the front). Will probably upgrade it when this contract runs out.

      --
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    8. Re:I just saved $1000 by Frederic54 · · Score: 1

      Also, do not update to Pie!!! You will have a search bar at the bottom that you cannot disable or move, it's an horrible design forced on you by google, like their horseshit AMP

      --
      "Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
    9. Re:I just saved $1000 by pak9rabid · · Score: 1

      Just "upgraded" to a used iPhone SE for a fraction of the cost. One of the better decisions I've made as of late.

    10. Re:I just saved $1000 by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

      The ROG phone looks promising.

      Headphone jack, nice screen, a case you can hold and looks cheap while being expensive for added street cred.

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  2. I want Bezels by rsilvergun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have a nearly bezeless phone and it's a major pain. I'm constantly clicking things with the palm of my hand, especially youtube video links.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:I want Bezels by Vermifax · · Score: 2

      As it is now on my note9 I have to be careful not to touch the curved edge. Its super annoying.

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      Vermifax

      Logout
    2. Re:I want Bezels by KClaisse · · Score: 1

      This so much. My Galaxy S8 is nowwhere near as bezelless as the recent releases but with a phone case on I have the hardest time swiping the top menu down. Even worse is if I want to move something to a different home screen. Its nearly impossible to get your finder all the way to the edge with the case on.

    3. Re:I want Bezels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Don't most people put protectors on their phone? That's the de-facto bezel. Get a bigger protector if you need a wider "bezel".

      Wait .. let me get this straight .. idiot designers make a phone with no bezel and a notch .. in order to protect their expensive phone users are going to put it in a case which blocks part of the screen ... and you're going to call that a wider bezel?

      I swear, smart phones make people fucking retarded idiots.

      Whatever ... I say we just start randomly punching people in the head who are taking selfies ... capture that on your Snapchat motherfucker, and don't stop in the middle of a goddamned fucking doorway like an idiot.

      Selfie taking idiots and the walking zombies who can't be arsed to look where they are going no longer get any consideration from me. I'm not getting out of your way because you are too stupid and ignorant to look where you are going ... if you end up on your ass, that's not my fucking problem.

    4. Re:I want Bezels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Don't most people put protectors on their phone? That's the de-facto bezel. Get a bigger protector if you need a wider "bezel".

      So the answer is to retard the "bezel-less" feature the vendor is forcing upon consumers in order for the damn thing to work practically? How about we just not buy the fucking thing and send the vendor a clear message regarding their stupid design instead?

      Nevermind. I almost forgot we're here discussing how many flavors of notches are coming out. Common sense has long departed the masses who salivate over this crap, and don't mind spending another $50 in order to add a "bezel".

    5. Re: I want Bezels by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 1

      So they fixed the hardware bug of no bezel to hold the phone with another dollop of software. How nice. Gotta use up those processor cycles for something.

    6. Re:I want Bezels by coastwalker · · Score: 1, Troll

      I approve this message. Smartphone development has basically hit a technological endpoint for the moment that is not unlike that which consumer audio equipment reached in the 80s - the feature war. Expect 32 band graphic equalisers and mysterious magic bits of black tape to come next. Basically buy the cheapest phone that does the job and you are done, replace it when you accidentally drop it in the john or it falls out of your pocket. All smartphone manufacturers are doing is changing something on the phone - removing the headphone socket etc - for the next generation of product. In the same way that the workers output went up when the light was decreased as it did when increased, people will buy the new phone because it is differerent and not because it is better. Why not buy an electric scooter with the money you save instead of a new mobile phone - at least it will improve your health by giving you some excercise.

      --
      Facts are history now plebs have politics for religion on social media.
    7. Re:I want Bezels by mobby_6kl · · Score: 1

      Do you have particularly fat hands or something? I have a Note9 too and this hasn't been an issue at all. It's just a bit slippery.

      I don't particularly like the notches aesthetically but there isn't really any harm from them either as the OLED can simply be disabled in that top row. I am a bit confused though over how they're intending to fit everything into those tiny cutouts. Right now the top bezel on the Note9 has the speaker, the selfie camera, notification led, iris scanner led and proximity sensor. The iphone notch is large enough to still fit all that, but the ones shown would only fit a single camera. The Essential phone did that but they probably just didn't have all these features.

    8. Re:I want Bezels by Potor · · Score: 1

      Basically buy the cheapest phone that does the job and you are done, replace it when you accidentally drop it in the john or it falls out of your pocket.

      That is precisely how and when I buy a new phone.

    9. Re:I want Bezels by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      put it in a case which blocks part of the screen

      I'm looking at a Galaxy S9 right now that has a decent case/protector on it that does not block the screen.

      Granted, if it had a bezel, the case may protect certain parts better under certain angles of accidents, but that's probably a small percent of "hits".

      (The S9 has no left- and right-side bezels, only top and bottom. Although, that may depend on how you define "bezel", being the edges are curved.)

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    10. Re:I want Bezels by dfghjk · · Score: 2

      "...let me get this straight .. users are going to put it in a case which blocks part of the screen..."

      Perhaps you should try harder to "get this straight", no company produces cases that block part of the screen. Who's the idiot here?

      The rest of your post is what one would expect from a boy a few years short of puberty.

    11. Re:I want Bezels by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      As it is now on my note9 I have to be careful not to touch the curved edge. Its super annoying.

      Don't be so careful. It sounds like you're not giving palm detection the opportunity to work. I have one of the earlier Edge devices and happily hold the curved section while using the device. It can tell the difference between you holding it and your actual keypresses.

    12. Re:I want Bezels by aitikin · · Score: 1

      Don't most people put protectors on their phone? That's the de-facto bezel. Get a bigger protector if you need a wider "bezel".

      Wait .. let me get this straight .. idiot designers make a phone with no bezel and a notch .. in order to protect their expensive phone users are going to put it in a case which blocks part of the screen ... and you're going to call that a wider bezel?

      No, smart companies tell their designers that they absolutely need to have a reason for customers to buy a case and further develop the thriving accessory industry that developed as a result of idiot consumers buying iPods and immediately putting them into cases because the iPod was so beautiful...Seriously, think back to the Blackberry days. I don't remember people having fancy cases for their Blackberry. I'm sure some did, but they weren't anywhere near as prevalent as cases for smart phones are today.

      --
      "Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
  3. This is stupid ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So because we want to eliminate the bezel (why, I have to hold the damned thing), and because we want it thinner (again, why, I'm only going to put it into an Otterbox case anyway), we're going to move the camera behind the screen (you know, the useful bits) and carve a little notch out of the display.

    Tell you what, give me a bezel so my fat hands can hold it, make it thicker so I don't need to worry about breaking it and so it has better battery life, take that stupid notch out, and stop sacrificing screen space so you can make it a fraction of a mm thinner.

    We get way too much fucking press coverage about phone notches, when phone notches are just a terrible design compromise so that all of the stupid design choices can be made to seem to suck less.

    What next, monitors with notches for built in web cams??

    Why?? Why are we cutting fucking notches in the display??? This is stupid, and just a sign of bad design.

    I just don't get this, we don't notch doors or anything else, but somehow the shitheads who make phones seem to think the notch is the biggest innovation in design ever?

    Sorry, the notch is a sign of incompetence, and sacrificing the wrong thing to put emphasis on other wrong things.

    Catchpa: ruined ... better fucking believe it

    1. Re: This is stupid ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      We aren't "cutting notches into the display". We are extending the display into the dead area so that if you want you can have your status bar move up there and out of the full-witdh usable part of the screen. But if it really bothers you that much, just toggle the setting that leaves that part of the screen black/off and let the icons consume part of the screen you could be using for content
        Your choice really. There's no downside to giving users the option to do SOMETHING with that space

    2. Re: This is stupid ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Apple did it so it is cool...
      So glad my Mi Mix 2 has no notch - still thin bezel, which as you say is not something that crucial. And the Mi Mix 3 pushes the bezel to the limit while still notchless.

    3. Re:This is stupid ... by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Tell you what, give me a bezel so my fat hands can hold it, make it thicker so I don't need to worry about breaking it and so it has better battery life, take that stupid notch out, and stop sacrificing screen space so you can make it a fraction of a mm thinner.

      This is why I ended up with an Xperia XZ1 Compact, despite it being made by Umbrella Corporation. It's small enough to hold with one hand, has stereo speakers I can actually hear due to the bezels, lies flat and don't wobble or move around, and the battery lasts more than a work day. Now if only it had come without uninstallable and undisableable crapware, and had a cameraless model, I'd be really happy.

    4. Re:This is stupid ... by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      stop sacrificing screen space

      I don't think you have to worry about screen space since you haven't been able to buy a small screen phone with the latest specs in years. At least not from the big names. Apple's offering has always come with a bunch of features missing so that people would go to the small one that they announce in September (the SE or equivalent gets announced about six months later).

    5. Re:This is stupid ... by mobby_6kl · · Score: 1

      Maybe just buy the S8 Active then and stop complaining about things you don't seem to understand?

    6. Re: This is stupid ... by Luthair · · Score: 1

      Its semantics whether they're adding space or taking it away. The notch restricts the number of notifications that can be visible, the space beside the notch is also entirely useless when the phone is in landscape mode. I also wonder about manufacturer cost, a complex shape seems like it would be more difficult to manufacture than a rectangular screen and that extra cost would definitely be passed to the consumer.

      I had been leaning towards an S10 to replace my Nexus 6p as I assumed Samsung would maintain sanity and not remove the headphone jack or add a notch as Google has with the Pixel 3 XL, but with this announcement I can't imagine it happening..

    7. Re: This is stupid ... by e432776 · · Score: 1

      This.. appears to capture the situation perfectly. Samsung will be dropping the headphone jack next, I guess...

    8. Re: This is stupid ... by lexman098 · · Score: 1

      It's not semantics. We either did or did not have full screen displays two years ago. If we did, then they're adding a notch cutout. If we didn't, then they're just adding more screen in the corners that wasn't there before. In landscape mode you never had that space available in previous phones either.

  4. Samsung Samsung Samsung by nuckfuts · · Score: 1

    Can we get a few more Samsung stories in the front page please?

  5. Why? by sconeu · · Score: 1

    WTF is so f***ing awesome about the notch? Can someone explain it to me, because I don't get why.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    1. Re:Why? by Stormwatch · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Apple is trendy, therefore whatever retarded shit they do must be good and worth copying.

      --
      Circumcision is child abuse.
    2. Re:Why? by RickyShade · · Score: 4, Informative

      WTF is so f***ing awesome about the notch?

      It gives the display some extra real estate. It's only like 4mm, but that's a nice little 4mm!

    3. Re:Why? by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      [they do it because] Apple is trendy, therefore whatever retarded shit they do must be good and worth copying.

      While I hate silly patents, this is one case where I wish a patent got in the way of wider adoption. Same goes for pop-up ads and cross-site cooky tracking.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    4. Re:Why? by AHuxley · · Score: 4, Informative

      Bigger lens. Best lens. Make image of self and friends look great with best lens. The notch allows for space needed to add the best lens.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    5. Re:Why? by SirCowMan · · Score: 2

      It's extra space on the LG V20, and used as such.

      otherwise - functionally... visually... it's a hole top-dead-centre of the screen with a camera or two in it. It's a kludge being spun around by marketeers.

      --
      !Equality through palindromes semordnilap hguorht ytilauqE!
    6. Re:Why? by Trogre · · Score: 1

      ^^
      I nominate this comment of the week.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  6. Noooooooo! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Samsung.....I thought you were cool.....The notch is so so stupid. For crying out loud you made a commercial making fun of the notch.

    1. Re:Noooooooo! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Samsung.....I thought you were cool.....The notch is so so stupid. For crying out loud you made a commercial making fun of the notch.

      Oh yeah; there IS that...

  7. Just do pop out by Pinky's+Brain · · Score: 1

    Making a waterproof version of the Vivo Nex cam shouldn't be too hard.

    Face identification camera can be put under the screen, detect head with low quality shot through OLED screen, pulse an IR LED to get a low noise shot ... the face ID won't care about a bit of screen dooring from the OLED pixels.

  8. Their phones today have fixed batteries... by ffkom · · Score: 4, Informative

    therefore I would not consider buying one, anyway. My old Samsung Note 2 still runs like on its first day, thanks to it now using the 3rd set of cheap, 3rd-party, user replaceable battery and a fine installation of Lineage OS.

    1. Re:Their phones today have fixed batteries... by gweihir · · Score: 2

      Indeed. A not-replaceable battery is a severe design fault IMO and will reliably prevent me from buying. Compatibility with Lineage is another must-have. No, I do not care if this limits the selection.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    2. Re:Their phones today have fixed batteries... by dfghjk · · Score: 1

      "My old Samsung Note 2 still runs like on its first day..."

      That's too bad. You'd think that replacing the OS would be done to improve it.

    3. Re:Their phones today have fixed batteries... by ctrl-alt-canc · · Score: 1

      Indeed. We had more fun when Samsung batteries exploded.

  9. Are we there now? by AndyKron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There was a time when cup holders in cars was the best innovation car makers could come up with. I think cell phones are there now.

    1. Re:Are we there now? by avandesande · · Score: 1

      Considering what 'improvements' they have been adding to phones lately it is more likely we are on the top end of the S curve for cell phones.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    2. Re:Are we there now? by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      There was a time when cup holders in cars was the best innovation car makers could come up with. I think cell phones are there now.

      And then came navigation, cruise control, zoned climate control, to say nothing of advances of regenerative breaking and ultimately electric / hybrid electric vehicles. What you're saying then is cell phones are about to blow our minds with innovation?

    3. Re:Are we there now? by LordHighExecutioner · · Score: 1

      Indeed. They also did cup holders for PC, could we have something similar for a cell phone ?

  10. Makes no sense by mschuyler · · Score: 1

    1. The S10, which will be at least 3 models (S10, S10+, S10 Note) starting in February will not have a notch. We already have pics of it. 2. Samsung has just spent a year making fun of Apple's notch in countless commercials featuring people with notches on their foreheads. It would be a step backwards.

    --
    How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
  11. Looking forward to the future! by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    At the rate at which phones are decreasing in volume and increasing in touch input surface area by 2020 phones will be 99% touchscreens! I'm looking forward to purchasing my next pocket computer that needs a special holder (sold separately!) just to hold it without accidentally calling someone or buying some random app! You know how photographers "frame" an area using their fingers before taking a photo? Yeah, that's how you'll have to hold your phone and then you use your nose to click.

    The future is going to be super rad! ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:Looking forward to the future! by ffkom · · Score: 1

      At the rate at which phones are decreasing in volume and increasing in touch input surface area by 2020 phones will be 99% touchscreens!

      Why stop at the surface? By 2030, touch displays will cover the inside and the PCB, making more room for the 18 cameras on the outside - for the permanently recording 360 selfie-video which is live-streamed into the cloud.

      We are already long past the stage where new smartphone features are meant to be useful.

  12. What is really being said by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Samsung will copy Apple...again and again and again.

  13. Cup Holders Are Way Better! by HannethCom · · Score: 1

    No, cell phone makers have gone Stark raving INSANE!!!
    At least the cup holder is useful, cell phone makers are removing useful features, and handicapping others. (Removal of headphone jack, cutting into the screen)
    (Yes the Stark was capitalized on purpose and was meant as a Marvel joke)

    --
    Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon what's the difference? All steal money from devs and control with walled gardens.
    1. Re:Cup Holders Are Way Better! by LordKronos · · Score: 1, Insightful

      cutting into the screen

      Cutting into the screen? So what part of the screen are they cutting into? It seems to me that for a decade now, every single phone*** has had a bunch of dead space being wasted to the left and right of the camera and speaker. We've now expanded the screen to fill the space. It's quite a stretch to call that "cutting into the screen".

      Lets say you build an addition onto your house. If the addition doesn't span the entire width of your house, should we now say that the addition has cut into the living space of your house?

      ***ok, every single phone except the ones with pop up cameras....talk about a stupid design.

    2. Re:Cup Holders Are Way Better! by jezwel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On my phone that 'dead space' has LED indicators on one side that tell me if I need to bother looking at / turning on my screen to follow up on something. To me that's much more valuable than a little bit of extra notched real estate when I am using the phone.

    3. Re:Cup Holders Are Way Better! by LordKronos · · Score: 3

      That's a pretty big LED indicator. It seems to me that even with an LED indicator there would still have to be some dead space that could be used

      But more importantly, and I don't really keep up on the specs of all phones, but don't all phones with notches have OLED screens too? With OLEDs there is no backlight, so there is no huge battery penalty for just lighting up a couple of pixels 24x7, which is why some phones now have the ambient display option. So it seems that if it was really a big deal and enough people cared about the status indicator, they could just as well have any part of the screen act as a status indicator.

      And, oh look at that....part of the ambient display is that you DO see status indicators. Except instead of having to remember that a green light is email and a pink light is instant message (and alternating green and pink lights mean you have both an email and an instant message), you can now just see an icon for an email and an icon for an instant message. The little blinking LED light was really just a hacky workaround for the proper implementation, but you seem a little stuck on keeping the hacky workaround.

    4. Re:Cup Holders Are Way Better! by dfghjk · · Score: 1

      That's because you, and the few other noisy morons who constantly complain about it, refuse to acknowledge that there is useful stuff moved out of the non-notched area and into the notched area. The screen hasn't lost area to the notch, it's gained notification space that used to be dead. The notch takes up screen space that is dead otherwise.

    5. Re:Cup Holders Are Way Better! by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 1

      The iPhone XR is an LCD screen, and has a notch. From what I've read, it was a major hassle, too. Getting the backlights in was a big problem (and why the XR has wider bezels than the XS), and rounding the corners took some creative masking.

    6. Re:Cup Holders Are Way Better! by jezwel · · Score: 1

      The little blinking LED light was really just a hacky workaround for the proper implementation, but you seem a little stuck on keeping the hacky workaround.

      Only until a nice replacement comes along worth my $$$. I don't feel the need to upgrade my tech until it becomes annoying, and phones became fast enough for most things several years ago. Your point that AMOLED screens are now using the screen space next to the notch for notifications, well that will be much more useful to me than a couple of LEDs. I will do some investigation.

  14. Fuck everything by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    We're doing five notches!

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:Fuck everything by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      We're doing five notches!

      There! Are! FOUR! Notches!!!

  15. Re:Word of the year by LordKronos · · Score: 1

    "Notch designs"

    You know, I think that probably is worthy of being word of the year. There aren't a whole lot of words out there that have spaces in them.

  16. Can There Be Any Doubt? by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

    Next: There goes the Headphone Jack!

    Mwuhahahahahahaaaaa!

  17. Re:In other words by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

    Samsung will begin reselling Apple iPhones, rebranded as Samsung phones.

    Begin?

    You misspelled "Continue".

  18. Notches are Passe, I want a HOLE by aberglas · · Score: 1

    Right in the middle of the screen. Images could be made to warp around it.

    Much cooler than a mere notch.

    Take that Apple!

  19. Why must they constantly annoy us? by WaffleMonster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not really sure why smartphone vendors feel they need to take it upon themselves to dream up innovative new ways to poke, annoy and piss off their customers while at the same time raising prices to ridiculous new heights and failing in spectacular manner to deliver compelling new value.

    Not really surprising nobody's upgrading anymore given industry behavior.

    I'll upgrade tomorrow if any vendor can deliver the following.

    1. Removable battery
    2. Physical keyboard (e.g. BB KEY2)
    3. Not ridiculously thin
    4. Not ridiculously large
    5. No infinity edge
    6. No notches
    7. No headphone "courage"
    8. No AMOLED (IPS please)
    9. No (front) cameras
    10. No biometric unlock
    11. No locked bootloaders
    12. SD Card
    13. Configurable RGB indicator light for notification
    14. IR transmitter
    15. Real GPS
    16. SDR AM/FM ... LF-UHF preferred

    1. Re:Why must they constantly annoy us? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Sorry normally I would get behind such requests but that phone sound horrible.

      Also what do you mean by "real GPS" ?

    2. Re:Why must they constantly annoy us? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Why not just buy an old Blackberry off eBay then?

      Most of the stuff you complain about isn't a detriment to have at all. Don't want a front facing camera? Okay, don't use it. Don't like the notch? Turn it off. Don't want biometric unlock? Don't enable it.

      Also, what do you mean by "real GPS"? Even cheap phones these days have excellent GPS receivers, usually supporting multiple GNSS systems.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:Why must they constantly annoy us? by businessnerd · · Score: 1
      This seems like a pretty niche feature set, so if anyone does make it, expect to pay a lot more for it. But I really don't understand some of these requests, and sound pretty stubborn. Here's my take on each:

      1. Removable battery

      Seems nice in theory, but all it does is take up more space that could otherwise be used by a bigger, longer lasting battery. It also creates restrictions in where components can be placed, because the battery must always be accessible to the user. But there are workarounds for non-removable batteries. If battery life is a concern, you have battery extending cases (where there is an extra battery built into the case) or portable chargers you can throw in your bag. If you are worried about replacing a battery that no longer holds a charge, you could still replace the battery, just a little more involved. Really only something you should need to do every 2 years or so.

      2. Physical keyboard (e.g. BB KEY2)

      Every once in a while someone comes out with one, and the market overwhelmingly rejects it. All of my friends/colleagues who are former Blackberry die hards have moved on and never looked back. Typing on a tiny physical keyboard has never been pleasant. Learn how to use Swype. It is much more efficient. Compared to a physical keyboard, it is faster, easier to do with one hand, and also pretty easy to do without looking (still should proof-read, though, but that's the case no matter what type or size keyboard).

      3. Not ridiculously thin

      Define "ridiculously". It needs to fit in your pocket right? That's where most people keep their phones. Thinner means you can fit more in your pocket. If you say, "well I'm just going to slap a giant case on it anyway like an otterbox", well, then I guess thin is even more important so that a phone+case doesn't take up too much room. Is thin ever a detriment, though? It may not be important to you, or a major selling point, but do you actually have a minimum thickness that you simply could not ever go under?

      4. Not ridiculously large

      I'm with you on this one. I have smaller hands and I like to one-hand my phone. I used to travel a ton for work, so I needed something I could use while walking through an airport dragging a carry-on behind me. 5 inches is my max. I really liked my 4.7" original Moto X, though. That was perfect. Luckily, manufacturers seem to have gotten the message. Pixels, Galaxies and iPhones all come in 2 sizes now and the smaller one isn't just a cheaper, slower, inferior in every way version of the bigger one. Hopefully this trend continues and other manufacturers with more differentiated feature sets follow.

      5. No infinity edge

      I'm curious about your issue with an infinity edge. You don't want a phone that's ridiculously large, so an infinity edge only helps with this. You can pack more screen real estate into a smaller overall phone. If you mean like the screens Samsung has on the S9 and introduced in the "Edge" series, I get it, but Samsung is the only one doing this, so not hard to avoid them.

      6. No notches

      Legitimate complaint. I'm not a huge fan either, but I'm warming up to it. I guess it depends on how you look at it. Does it take away usable screen space, or does it open up more screen space that would otherwise be a large bezel? Again this goes back to size. You don't want ridiculously large, but this is a way to pack more into a smaller size. There is a lot of experimenting going on here (that's essentially what this article is about - Samsung is trying out a bunch of stuff to see what sticks) and I like the way OnePlus has kept it minimal. At the same time, though, I thought the very slim bezels on the Pixel 2XL, Pixel 3 (small size) and Samsung S9 are really nice and didn't see a need to gain an extra few millimeters.

      7. No hea

      --
      "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how drunk you get." -- H. J. Simpson
    4. Re:Why must they constantly annoy us? by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 1

      I'm sure the phone companies are listening intently to your list so they can find a way to sell exactly one phone to someone.

      If this is your list, welcome to the era of never buying a new phone ever again. Or making your own phone company, I suppose.

      Of the items you listed, I would find 1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 12 actively hostile to me. It makes the phones more cumbersome, less portable and less usable. If I want those things, I'll buy a laptop. 3 and 4 are relative, I'm ambivalent about 5, 6, 8, 11, 14 and 16, but only as long as they don't take up more space.

      I look at my smartphone as a lightweight (figuratively and literally), ultra-portable communication device. It shouldn't need a huge battery (or a replaceable one), it shouldn't need to be heavy, it shouldn't need expandable storage. This is all stuff that I need when I sit down or perhaps if my phone is literally the only computer I own.

      To each their own, I guess, but I feel like your list is antithetical to the very philosophy of the smartphone. And if that's the case, stop complaining about modern smartphones and buy something else.

  20. Ex Samsung fan here,.. by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

    Title should read "Samsung will copy everyone else, as usual, all phones MUST be identical, follow the fads, Apple is always right!"

    Give Apple, surprisingly some credit though, they in turn haven't stupidly copied this awful terrible, stupid curved display fad.

  21. Logic behind by DrYak · · Score: 1

    craptastic OSes, that always keep status icons on the top are the reason.
    Such status bars eats the first top couple of lines with something that you seldom need. (see Palm/HP's webOS for something that can even eat more screen estate).

    Logical answer that any sane dev would do : let's make the status not constantly display (e.g.: Jolla's Sailfish OS, all native apps are 100% full screen, but you can still use the "peek" gesture to have a quick look at status, on the occasion you actually need it).

    Apple's counter intuitive crappy solution : lets extend the display a bit around the speaker and selfie cam, thus we could still display status icon, while apps can get what would have been previous gen's full screen. Enter the notch with its own ton of crappy problems. (like weird unusual screen shape, devs trying to extend their apps into the notch and hack around it's weird shape, problem fitting all icons within the tiny notch when you have activated simultaneously every single last function, etc.)

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  22. Will stick to my samsung j1 2016 by yshielynn · · Score: 1

    Interesting, but I will still stick to my current smartphone samsung j1 2016 as long as its working lol. BTW. bought it from iprice.

  23. Almost certainly coming? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    "A slide during the keynote showed several notch designs that are almost certainly coming to Samsung-branded devices in 2019 and beyond," reports The Verge.

    I guess someone at The Verge was also waiting for a worthwhile update to the Mac mini, a thread started on 2013-12-07 that is 590 pages long, 14736 posts as I'm writing this.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  24. Marketing People Are Not Designers by BrendaEM · · Score: 1

    Notches solve nothing!

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    https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM