Hacker News Reader

Comment by gambiting | Hacker News Reader

>>The notch. Everyone hates it.

These broad statements irritate me. I don't hate it - I actually think it integrates super well with the UI and makes the X look unique among the sea of identically looking glass slabs. And I don't even own an iphone.

View on HN

As it does me, who are they to say what I hate? I most certainly don’t hate the ‘notch’ - I couldn’t care less about it other than hey - I’ve got some extra screen real estate on either side of the speaker and cameras so that the clock and indicators don’t have to cut into application space.

Tech journalists who are always looking for the next best thing and just HAVE to have a strong opinion on everything seem very reluctant to embrace change.

No one I know cares very much, they think it's neat, they all wonder at the manufacturing of the oled screen, but like you, they like the extra screen real estate.

I feel there must be some sort of 'too cool for skool' bubble that journalists live in.

I certainly don’t hate it either, but I also wouldn’t say I like it specifically. I love the phone altogether, and the notch doesn’t ever bother me, but sure, in theory it would be better if all the same features could be implemented without a notch. I recognize it as a reasonable design compromise that is justified and necessary given current technology.

And it looks like it's creating a cult - https://www.gsmarena.com/the_notch_is_spreading_for_no_good_...

Everybody hates it so much the other manufacturers are scrambling to copy it.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/4/17077458/iphone-design-clo...

Yeah, but they’re not copying it because it’s a good design. They are copying it to look like Apple.

That’s because the only purpose of the notch is to differentiate Apple phones from every other smart phone. It’s all about branding - https://medium.com/swlh/the-iphone-x-notch-is-all-about-bran...

Literally the only purpose of the notch is to provide space for the god-dammed technology in the phone.

Incorrect. I just told you what the only purpose of it is and gave you a whole article about it.

Somehow we’ve had sensing instruments facing us for years now without notches. And yet, here we are. It’s funny how Apple can get everybody talking about their stuff isn’t it?

> Literally the only purpose of the notch is to provide space for the god-dammed technology in the phone.

No, it's not. It's either for differentiation or to be able to (like the Essential PH-1 before it) claim an “edge to edge” screen (even though in Apple's case this excludes a big part of the top edge), but it's not to make room for the “technology”, which obviously would fit just fine with a rectangular screen and a top bezel.

In other words, you are suggesting the technology take up more room than needed. Your loss, I suppose.

No, in other words he is suggesting that the technology take up an area of screen that makes sense instead of one that doesn't make sense at all.

Makes sense to me. Looks fine, has some extra real estate on the screen… can’t see the downside really.

The shape of technology is more important than how much room it takes up. There's a reason why we all have rectangular phones and not round, triangle or square ones!

Your argument that "the technology [must not] take up more room than needed" is simply false. I can point to plenty of Apple products where the technology was fit into a bigger box than needed so that the box didn't look misshapen.

That sounds like both cases are a function of both aesthetics and the tech. I’m looking at my iPhone SE, and I’d kill for a notch in a bigger screen, that maintained the overall form factor of the existing phone. Right now about two finger-widths, one each above and below the screen, just exist to hold the home button and sensors. It seems like a marked improvement to enlarge the screen, and add a notch at the top.

Maybe this is one of those things that seems awkward until you make some direct comparisons with the alternatives.

That’s kind of a stupid move by Apple then, considering everybody hates it. Or maybe they don’t.

Your article speculates about why Apple doesn’t hide the notch, but doesn’t address why it’s there in the first place.

It’s there to have a place to house the various front facing sensors/emitters while sharing verticals space with usable screen area.

Once you decide to do that you have to answer the question of how to deal with the border line between the two.

Obviously, you don’t want something ugly.

(1) hide the border. This means anything and everything displayed on-screen next to the notch has to be on a black background.

(2) create a non-ugly border and let it show.

Perhaps the decision to go with (2) was influenced by branding considerations but it’s a secondary decision, not the “only purpose. And (1) isn’t exactly a great option, regardless.

I don’t know any iPhone X owner that hates the notch. That opening bugged me and I stopped reading there. :)

> I don’t know any iPhone X owner that hates the notch.

Surely that's survivorship bias? I dislike the notch so much that I choose to not buy an iPhone X despite being due for an upgrade.

Of course that’s survivorship bias. I wasn’t saying nobody hates the notch, just refuting his annoying assertion that “everybody hates the notch”.

When you spend $1000+ on a phone, you'll find any reason to justify its faults. If a person had a choice between the notch, and no notch, with the same functionality. I'm doubtful anyone would choose the notch for aesthetic reasons.

I disagree. Think about it less as a notch in the screen, but as an extra screen around the notch. I'm looking at my phone and it has the camera and speaker above the screen, but the sides are just empty black space. If I could, I would absolutely want to have extra screen there, to display the time or notifications. So yes, I would absolutely pick a phone with a notch over a phone without it.

The assumption was that the screen real estate would be equal, minus the notch.

Journalistic hyperbole? Take something that is controversial and exaggerate the negative side (e.g. everyone hates Trump when he clearly still has supporters).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com