[metasaval]

Correct. And since the time between the two phones was so short, there's no way Apple copied Essential here. It's just a case of two companies trying to tackle a new problem and coming up with similar solutions. But it would be fair to say that Apple popularized the notch.

[dragonwriter]

> And since the time between the two phones was so short, there's no way Apple copied Essential here.

It's quite possible, since such copying does not have to start at the public introduction.

It may be coincidence, but you absolutely can't rule out copying just because the time from one public release to the other is too short for copying which started with the earlier release.

[metasaval]

I guess it's possible if Apple got a hold of pre-release materials on the Essential phone. But a company the size of Apple gets the design ready months, possibly a year, before release. The Essential Phone was officially shown off May 30, 2017 [0], so that's the earliest Apple could have seen the design without getting pre-release renders. The iPhone X was announced on September 12 of that same year. That means that, if Apple were to copy them, they would have to completely pivot their design, change manufacturing plans, get new displays, etc, in just over 3 months. I find that unbelievable personally, especially considering things Apple did to make the display work even better, like eliminating the chin by folding the OLED panel in on itself [1]. I don't believe it's possible that they got that working in 3 months. And I guess it is possible Apple obtained pre-release renders of the Essential, but even if they got it, say, 2 months before Essential's announcement, 5 months is still not a lot of time to pivot a phone's design.

[0] https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/30/15711170/essential-phone-...

[1] https://www.redmondpie.com/why-most-2018-smartphones-have-ch...