Apple is reportedly considering to drop the notch design for the upcoming iPhone 11 or iPhone XI in 2019. The notch which has been the center of many talks was actually ‘quite an elegant way’ according to Phil Schiller of Apple. The notch is the main factor which has brought Face ID and Animoji to life in the iPhone X. Apple had put in a lot of resources in the research and development of the parts and was eventually successful in bringing the size of those part to tiny levels, allowing them to house the hardware required for Face ID and Animoji in that bezel protrusion.
Funnily enough, those parts of the bezel protrusion are called Romeo and Juliet because they have to be paired together for the system to be in place and function correctly. ‘Romeo’ throws 30,000 near-infrared beams on the face and ‘Juliet’ collects these beams based on an algorithm that Apple developed. To develop this high-end technology, Apple reportedly paid $390 million to the manufacturer Finisar who innovated the TrueDepth sensor and worked to advance the Face ID technology.
With the help of Finisar and by bringing down the size of the kit to almost micro levels Apple has definitely earned a profit for their hard work, but it seems the notch might not be here to stay for long. It has definitely helped them achieve a larger screen-to-body ratio, but it’s not wrong to say the efforts prove to be clashing with their idea of ‘minimalistic designs’ which pretty much has been Apple’s hallmark.
"Apple has decided to eliminate the current notch design from the 2019 model and is discussing related parts and technology," This statement comes out of Korea as the OLED industry insiders give us a hint that talks might be in the initial phase as we speak to find out alternatives for the notch. Some ways to go about it can be a hole in the display or using sensors-emitters which pass through the display, from between the pixels.
The last piece of technology which we described has already been patented and proposes microscopic holes in the screen which are invisible to the human eye but let the sensors throw rays through the display without affecting the screen experience.
This raises questions regarding the front camera and the earpiece location. Our speculation is that they can be housed in a narrow slit beneath the screen or maybe it is possible that Apple embeds them into the bezel thus honouring the old times.
However, to continue the recent trends for this year, Apple has plans to continue the notch design for some of the phones which it’s going to release this year, for example, an affordable model of the LCD iPhone 9 or the iPhone X/Plus with OLED displays are expected later this year.
The news however looks solid that Apple has finally decided to let go of the notch and is probably already amidst talks to explore alternatives for the same. If Apple gets its innovation right (like every time!), then it is expected that the 2019 iPhone will attain a screen-to-body ratio like never before and will cross all thresholds of phone designs which have been established till now, therefore exceeding everyone’s expectations.
