For a year, Samsung kept android users on their toes wondering if it would follow the footsteps of seemingly every other smartphone maker in announcing notch designs.
But in its annual Developer Conference, Samsung has finally unveiled its notch designs for 2019 mobile devices and beyond. Director of Product Strategy and Marketing, Hassan Anjum presented four designs named after their notch shapes, namely, Infinity U, Infinity V, Infinity O, and New Infinity.
Infinity U and V have the same appearance from afar, both located at the top center portion of the screen. Upon close inspection, Infinity V has an edgier shape while Infinity U is a clean half oval notch. Infinity O is located at the top left corner of the screen and is a complete circular cut-out. The New Infinity concept design has no notches or holes which could be promising for notch-haters if Samsung happens to make it possible in the near future.
Essential was the first company to introduce the notch design in early 2017, with a screen-to-body ratio of 84.9 % for the PH-1 model, followed by Apple with a much wider design for iPhone X months later. While many welcomed Essential’s simple U shaped cut-out, Apple’s distracting notch was not well received by many.
Notches are not aesthetically pleasing to look at, what with the unbalanced appearance it gives to smartphones, for one. Nevertheless, it is a necessary tool in minimizing bezels in smartphones without compromising the critical hardware of the device.
Earlier this year, much to the disappointment of many android users, some smartphone manufacturers gamely embraced the trend by releasing notch designs (ASUS & Huawei), while other companies worked their way around the problem by adding slider to the devices (Xiaomi & Honor). Now, it seems that Samsung wasn’t able to resist the call of the notch, despite mocking the feature just months ago in their hilarious Ingenius web videos.
