What is the notch?

We are sure that on more than one occasion you have wondered what is the notch, especially because it is a fairly recent term that has gained prominence for a few months now, since it is related to smartphones.

For those who are not very into the subject, the term notch refers to a very specific detail present in smartphones . Although at first only some manufacturers were committed to including it, right now the notch is almost an essential element.

The notch is nothing more than a small upper tab that we find on different iPhones and other Android terminals. It should be clarified that the notch is a physical element , that is, it has nothing to do with software and therefore cannot be removed.

It can be in various ways, larger or smaller, although the truth is that the days are probably numbered after the different solutions that various manufacturers have devised to dispense with the notch that we will explain below.

Despite the fact that their presence means adding some other advantage like the ones we have mentioned, the truth is that many users do not like their presence and for all of them, in some mobiles, the possibility of hiding them has been included.

For example, phones like the Huawei P20, P20 Pro and P20 Lite, which have a small notch on the top, allow you to hide it and pretend it’s not there through a very curious software solution , filling it with black. in the form of a horizontal bar where the notch is located.

Benefits provided by the notch

What benefits does the notch bring to the terminals that integrate it? We could list a few, such as the following:

1. Larger screen surface: the notch can be more or less large, but in any case it allows you to increase the surface of the phone’s screen, which causes the screen ratio to increase in percentage.
2. Eliminate the upper border: this is relative because in reality the notch acts as the upper border, but in a much smaller way. It usually includes the front camera, a speaker and the occasional sensor.

Available notch shapes

The notch can be different shapes, these can be the ones that you can find in the mobiles that bring them:

1. U-shape: one of the most common shapes that mobile manufacturers have opted for.
2. V-shape: it is another of the best known and most seen designs on smartphones.
3. O-shaped: It is less visible than previous designs, but there are smartphones that still have them.
4. Very elongated: in this case we could include the iPhone 12, which has a notch that is quite long on the sides.

Phones that have a notch

At the beginning of its appearance there were few smartphones with a notch , but the truth is that this aesthetic element is practically present in most smartphones, some of them we leave you in this list:

1. Essential Phone: The Essential Phone was possibly the one that came up with this idea of ​​notch on Android phones since it was one of the first to implement it, although in this case only including it to place the front camera.
2. iPhone: The iPhone X was Apple’s first “all-screen” phone, as well as being the first from the company with the bitten apple to have a notch. Then they have been including the iPhone 11 and also the new iPhone 12.
3. Samsung: practically the mid-range of the manufacturer have screens with notches in different ways, for example, the Galaxy A02S, the Galaxy A12, Galaxy A32, M31, M21, M20, etc.
4. Realme: This sub-brand of Oppo has phones with notches, for example, realme 7i, realme 6i, realme 5i and some others.
5. Oppo: Oppo Find X2 Lite, Oppo Reno Z, Oppo A5 2020, Oppo A91, Oppo A9 2020, etc. have a notch.
6. Xiaomi: Mi 10 Lite, Mi Note 10, Mi 9 SE, Mi 9 Lite, Poco M3, Redmi 9A, Redmi 9, Redmi Note 9 Pro, etc.

We also find mobile phones from Huawei, Motorola, ZTE, Honor, old OnePlus and other manufacturers that have also included at the time or have a notch, because little by little it has been replaced little by little by the presence of pop-up cameras or even cameras integrated into the screens.

How to hide the notch

Those phones that have a notch can include some parameter in the configuration that at least allows them to hide their presence a little, although if this is not the case, you can make use of free apps that will help you with this task, such as Notch Style.

Notch Style is a free app that offers you the possibility of hiding the notch by putting a black bar right where this element is located on your phone, although the truth is that it offers different customizable options that you can adjust to your liking.

Future of the notch

Although it was massively implemented in its beginnings, the notch has been relegated to other options because it is a fairly intrusive element in some cases, as is the case with the iPhone 12, for which Apple is still betting.

However, the different manufacturers have been offering alternatives to the notch, some of them we have already commented on previously and that have been the perfect substitute:

1. Pop-up cameras: phones whose front cameras are hidden in the body of the phone and are motorized, they only appear when the user uses the camera application.
2. Cameras embedded in the panel: mobile phones with perforated panels to include a single or double front camera, dispensing with the notch, are becoming more and more common.
3. Hidden cameras on the screen: it is a new feature that we have hardly seen on phones, it is a technology that allows the front camera to be hidden on the screen without it being visible, although it is still a fairly green concept.

The future of the notch seems quite evident considering that these possibilities are already present, but there will probably still be some time before manufacturers can have a feasible solution to replace it, like Apple with its iPhone 12.

Surely it has already become clear to you what is the notch and the benefits it offers, although as an aesthetic element it will probably end up disappearing in a short time due to other more aesthetic options, until then we will see more phones with a notch in the coming months.