As bezels shrink on our smartphones (and tablets), the benefits are pretty obvious just by looking at the devices. We get a lot more screen real estate to consume content, but it also means we get bigger displays without feeling like we've got giant phones, too. Making those big panels easy to hold is possible thanks to the bezels getting reduced.
But it also means that smartphone manufacturers have to make some interesting decisions to incorporate some standard features.
Mostly that's the front-facing camera, which is now being tasked with also being a biometric security feature, and not just a way to snap a selfie. As a result, we've seen some interesting creations ever since Essential kicked things off with their Essential Phone.
Essential was the first company to embrace the notch, but it's safe to say they did so in just about the best possible way. The notch on the Essential Phone is remarkably small, just a tiny cutout on the top of the screen. (The phone also has a chin, unfortunately.) Since then, the notch adoption has been pretty crazy. That movement was essentially kicked into overdrive with the iPhone X from Apple.
A variety of different smartphones out there in the wild have a notch of some kind. Some are small and some are large. But maybe one of the best parts of the notch invasion is on the software side, at least for Android devices that offer the ability to hide the notch in some way or another. Apple's iPhone X, unfortunately, doesn't really have that option, so the notch is just part of the experience now.
In the same way that the $1,000 phone has already been accepted by the market (the iPhone X, again, leading this charge), the notch has seemingly been accepted by a wider audience as well. But, while I am planning on picking up a Pixel 3 XL later this year, and will probably upgrade the iPhone X to some other Apple device with a notch, I can still safely say that I'm not a fan. I think this is definitely one of the worst design decisions to date, and I want it to go away already.
Samsung refuses to adopt the notch (for now), which is a good thing. It's made better by the simple fact Samsung has the best displays on the smartphone market, so you're getting a whole lot of awesome screen to look at with the company's "Infinity Display" and not having to sacrifice any of it for a notch.
And then there are the pop-out cameras, of course. That's definitely a thing.
I'm curious to know if you've accepted the notch. Whether that means you're planning on upgrading to a handset that has a notch, or you've already picked one up, are you completely adjusted to the design now? Or are you adamantly not in favor of it? Let me know!