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Comment by Shadonototra | Hacker News Reader

Beautiful phone, but the bump in the back... sorry i just can't

Who started this camera bump movement the past decade? it's very ugly... and not practical at all..

Have you ever owned one? It's quite nice actually to be able to rest your finger on the bump for stability when you're using the phone with one hand, and it lets you kind of easily prop the phone up on a wallet/notebook/whatever's around when you're reading something while eating.

On the contrary it's very practical, fits larger cameras and prevents the back of the phone from sliding flat against sharp grains scraping the back and camera glass.

It's ugly and annoying though but it's not there just for fun.

It protects the plastic back of the phone from scratching by putting the expensive fragile camera lenses right there.

The bump never rests flat and things that were going to impact scratch it don't care it's 2mm farther out.

At least the bump is symmetrical.

The bumps in one corner of the phone are the worst.

But realistically, even those don't matter because protective cases are effectively a standard part of any modern phone.

>But realistically, even those don't matter because protective cases are effectively a standard part of any modern phone.

Then you buy a thin phone on paper and make it fat with a case, better if they would put more battery and less glue in. But as always designers/marketing complicate everyone life so they push their new idea: "Form over Function"

I agree with that.

I would give up the bullshit sleek look for more battery and ruggedness in a heartbeat.

Yes, the symmetry is a huge win. I don't use a case with my phone, and the asymmetric bumps really mess up one of my primary use cases: I have the phone sitting on a desk or table reading the news.

I've been holding back on both Samsung and Apple's latest phones just because of the asymmetric bump. It is so annoying. Sticking with my old Note 8 for now even though it is out of support and receives no security updates.

I looked through the announcement and didn't see an answer to this question: does anyone know what the display technology is? LCD or AMOLED or...?

I'll agree on that, symmetrical bump is a welcome change

Well aside from the fact it serves to give you space for a better camera (I've heard Apple are working on some periscope style thing that'll negate the need for this) what Google are doing is smarter than Apple because by having it across the whole back you don't end up with the device being wobbly on a flat table.

I don't like the trend either. My understanding is that camera lenses are just thicker than the phones. The phones could in turn be thicker and provide more battery life (to some extent Apple did that with the iPhone 13), but I guess "the market" just wants thin devices... and powerful cameras.

I can't speak to the Google phones, but on the iPhone it serves a purpose.

It keeps the back glass from getting scratched all over by turning it into a tripod.

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