Apple did not come out with the notch first. https://www.quora.com/How-do-people-keep-forgetting-that-App...

Sure, but that's not really the point. Apple didn't copy anybody when they used the notch — they were trying to make an edge-to-edge display and had to make a concession to house the front-facing camera and additional sensors for Face ID.

But ever since Apple released the iPhone X, suddenly there are notched phones everywhere. And these phones don't seem to be trying for an edge-to-edge display, so it's curious that they would choose to adopt a notch unless they're just trying to copy Apple. (Which is a viable suggestion since the smartphone market is more or less divided into Apple and Everybody Else.)

Thank you for sharing this; I hope more people can see this. Apple gets the credit for this notch when it was the Essential phone that implemented the idea first. At least in the Essential phone their notch was so minimal to just get the camera to fit that it was not very intrusive. Even though I'm not a fan of a notch, this worked fine.

It increases screen space for apps to use by pushing the 'taskbar' up. Other than an aesthetic complaint I don't see how this can be a bad thing.

Well, that's where all the Android notifications usually go, so ... that seems like a downside of having a notch?

We're getting into subjective stuff, but for me once I get more than 3 notification icons up there what I get from glancing at it is less "here are the specific notifications you have" and more "you have a lot of things you need to address". I think I generally don't get a benefit out of having 8 or whatever notifications visible at once.

I get that it is still a downside. It may not be a big downside for everybody though.

Notifications are on the side though. If you have so many notifications that the notch would cover them, you're probably not caring about those notifications anyway?

It's tech fashion - like bellbottoms.

I used to think people were crazy when they complained about this potential future, but it's here.

Perhaps, like when Apple "invented" the modern smartphone form factor a decade ago, it's the best usable form factor that everyone else recognizes and emulates (though the Oppo Find X seems to have a notch free version...)

Evidently it is something "we" want. I personally think it looks awful. Just compare the Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3 XL on the techspecs page. I think the normal top looks much better.

https://store.google.com/product/pixel_3_specs

I don't understand it either. It was a really weird design choice facilitated by Apple. My assumption is that Google doesn't want to be seen as a non-innovator by not having a notch in their phones.

If someone else can provide a more plausible reason, I'm all ears =D

I never got the impression anyone was saying the notch was inherently good. It was just better (as a tradeoff) than having to forgo the screen across the entire width of the device.

But Samsung seems to have no problem making notch-less phones with almost no bezels.

Huh? The S9 and the Note 9 both have bezels top and bottom. Samsung just decided to give up the ultimate screen size to avoid having any notch. Good on them for not just copying Apple, but they certainly don't have an edge-to-edge notch-less phone.

I didn't say it didn't have a bezel at all. But at 8.12mm, the bezel on an S9 is almost half the height of the iPhone notch.

And all Android phones have a bottom bezel.