Thanks to the Apple iPhone X and Essential Phone, smartphone manufacturers have adopted a new trend by implementing a notch in their displays, all in the pursuit of edge-to-edge full screen design (bezel-less). As of today, for better or worse, notched displays have taken over the smartphone industry and almost every new smartphone is coming out with this design. Some manufacturers have tried different solutions to get rid of the notch completely by having a pop-up camera or a sliding camera design. However, there is a new trend on the horizon for smartphone display designs and it is called Punch Hole Display.
Before we look into this new design trend, let’s look at the evolution of smartphone display design as we are inching closer and closer to
the bezel-less future. When first implemented, the notch was the best way to house the camera, speaker and sensors (Light/IR/FaceID, etc) at the top of the display. Over time, the size of the notch became smaller and smaller as we have started to see water-drop or tear-drop notch designs. However, now it seems that the notch might be on its way out as some manufacturers like Samsung, Huawei and Lenovo have started to introduce the concept of Punch hole display. This means that your smartphone display will have small hole in the top corner or center of the display for the camera and sensors will most likely stay under the screen. Of course, this is obviously a temporary solution until we figure out how to mount the camera underneath the screen, so that we can finally achieve the dream of
edge-to-edge full screen design. However, at this points, it seems that 2019 will bring the Punch Hole display trend to the mainstream as we have already started to see some leaks with smartphones using this technology.
Samsung has already introduced the Infinity-O display, which might make its way to the Samsung Galaxy S10. However, based on the recent leaks, the punch hole display is expected to be released with Samsung Galaxy A8s, which will have the camera hole in top left corner of the display for the 24MP selfie camera.
Huawei is also planning to launch the Nova 4 smartphone with punch hole display later this month. The Huawei Nova 4 is expected launch on 17 December 2018, before Samsung gets a chance to release this technology. The teaser image for Nova 4 was leaked on Weibo and the handset was also spotted during a birthday party livestream in China.
In addition to Samsung and Huawei, it seems that Lenovo Z5s will also introduce the Punch Hole Display. The Lenovo Z5s is expected to have a front-facing camera hole in the top center of the screen. The Lenovo Z5s release is just around the corner as it has already passed TENAA certification in China.
Depending on the placement of the camera hole, this technology might face some challenges with the user interface as the hole will not provide any added functionality compared to the tear-drop notch as the area surrounding the hole won’t be usable. In addition, the hole will still get in the way of the on-screen content unless a software feature restricts the content from being displayed under the punch hole cutout. So if you are looking at all of these leaks and thinking about purchasing a new smartphone with punch hole display, we strongly recommend to hold off if you are not in an immediate rush. Looking the the implementation of the Punch Hole Display, we don’t think that this technology will provide any benefit for the end use.
In our opinion, the smartphone design of Samsung Galaxy S9 is still one of the best designs both in terms of usability and looks, as it provides good symmetry at the top and bottom, which also becomes useful when you are holding your phone for longer periods of time while watching videos or playing games.
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Source: PhoneArena, Hothardware, TheVerge
I am officially a tech addict and enjoy providing my views on matters related to this industry. I am always interested in trying out new tech gadgets and I have owned multiple smartphones including the legendary HTC One, SGS2, Nexus 4, iPhone 4, 5S, 6S, XR, Note 9. You can ask me any tech related questions in the comment section or on twitter @hookedNav