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by dingo_bat 3053 days ago
Unless having a notch was their vision (which you are implying, but I highly doubt), they compromised. And as I said, the compromise was much bigger than having a discreet sensor on the back.

That you got used to it is irrelevant. People got used to not having control on their own hardware too, doesn't mean anything.
1 comments
ltnublet 3053 days ago
Not who you responded to, but I think that it's clear Apple intended on using the notch as a visually distinct identifier to an onlooker, "This is the new iPhone." Multiple times since I got mine at launch, people have noticed me using it and commented/asked about it. The hardware designers at Apple are clearly smart enough to be able to work out something if they didn't want the notch, but they (and marketing) decided to use the size of the sensor package to their advantage. Without the notch, there's no easy way to distinguish at-a-glance what brand the featureless-slab-of-glass is.

Regarding the second part of your comment ("that you got used to it is irrelevant"), during normal usage the notch doesn't obstruct any content on the screen. The screen real estate was gained by the removal of the bezels on the older models, so there's been an effective increase in vertical resolution despite the notch. In 16:9 content viewed in landscape, the notch is hidden by the black of the OLED, and is not noticeable. There's nothing to get used to other than there being a black notch at the top of the screen when used in portrait mode, which is made less abrasive by apps not normally taking control of the upper-left and -right corners (and so that vertical section would be unused anyway).

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dingo_bat 3052 days ago
> The hardware designers at Apple are clearly smart enough to be able to work out something if they didn't want the notch

I don't think it's clear. Do you have anything to support this assumption? I haven't seen an iphone that is bezel-less without any encroaching notch. They haven't yet been able to eliminate the camera bump, either. This is basic stuff. Don't have crappy cut-out on the screen, don't have protruding camera from the back. Also, even with thew notch, the side bezels aren't nearly as thin as they are on competitor phones.

Pretty clear that they weren't able to reach a design they truly wanted.

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