Thanks to these two phones that I am about to cover, the "notch and no headphone jack combo" era of smartphones may soon come to a close.
Is it for real this time?
After a stint by Lenovo recently, I was considering that the phone that they deceivingly teased might not see the light of day for at least another year or two. The fact that they and even stronger brands such as LG and HTC are only able to increment closer towards the bezeless aesthetic with every new model such as the U12 plus and even samsung with all its assets and subdivisions was only able to shave it close with the Galaxy S9 proves this. The phones that break the mold are actually from smaller, lesser known brands such as Vivo and Oppo. The phones( which are actually what they depict!) are called the Vivo Nex S and the Oppo Find X.
Vivo Nex S : Clean and just as useful as the rest
For the image above can you see something unique about it? It's the fact that it has more screen real estate without the compromise of a notch. It actually competes in specs with the top products by having a snapdragon 835 with an adreno 630 GPU. It comes standard with 8 GB of ram and your choice of 128 or 256GB of storage. It wields a dual camera setup with a 12MP main shooter and a 5MP addition lens. What about the front camera you ask? It is actually hidden within the frame of the phone until it activates via a pop up method when you use the camera app, which solves the notch issue. Did I also mention that it has a headphone jack alongside a USB type C port?
Oppo Find X: Heavy hitter with a unique feature
What has this phone in the news not only does away with the notch but uses it at his headline feature. It is similar to the Vivo Nex S except it is lacking both a headphone jack and fingerprint scanner of any kind. It has the same specs as Vivo's offering but handles the camera solution in a far more elegant way. Both the front and rear cameras are integrated into the top part of the phone and is hidden behind the screen and the back. This means that the cameras are protected when they're not in use and only exposed to the elements when the camera app is opened. I can see lack of broken camera lens as a big selling point in the future.
What does this mean for the market?
If these phones get more traction beyond initial hype then we can shift beyond phone trends that only works for one phone because of it's special place in the market. Both phone's mechanisms for summoning the camera are unique but uncommon, so I hope aftermarket support is kept up so customers can try it out without worry( I seriously see myself trying to make the camera pop up 100 times just for the fun of it). It would also be in their best interest to keep up with the android updates if they want to retain customers for the sequel products. This might allow OEMs to innovate in their designs like making a throwback to keyboard designs e.g. the Blackberry Key One or 2. Either way these phones make the market much more exciting for a consumer.
Check out my other posts relating to Android
♕https://steemit/android/@cwise009/treble-is-paying-off-for-android
♕ https://steemit.com/android/@cwise009/yet-another-snafu-by-the-same-company
♕ https://steemit.com/android/@cwise009/android-wear-receives-a-crucial-upgrade
♕https://steemit.com/android/@cwise009/wear-os-a-tone-deaf-rename-or-a-possible-solution
♕ https://steemit.com/google/@cwise009/the-impressions-of-the-acer-chromebook-tab-10-and-the-significance-behind-it
♕ https://steemit.com/android/@cwise009/enough-storage-to-last-a-while-in-your-pocket
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Next time I am in the market for a new phone I will take these under consideration, I think that the smaller companies can build products that can compete with the big boys, we just need to willing to give them a chance.
Exactly. There are some main manufacturers that have no clear direction anymore so the smaller ones now have a chance to breathe. I'm just hoping they produce a phone that is a few mm thicker so it can be packed with as much battery as possible.
I do know from prior experience in my industry that smaller manufacturers can react faster to consumer wants and needs than larger companies with several layers of "management" that ideas have to go through for approval before things can get done, and in most cases can do it at a less expensive price to the end user especially when it comes to electronics.
Nice sir
Glad you liked it!
I like the improvements on the camera but not having headphone jack would be a really bummer for me. I have bluetooth headphones but the battery doesn't last long for my taste so when it dies, I usually plug a regular one and keep listening.
Thanks for sharing!
Yeah that is the main reason why I'm sticking with my first gen pixel. The main problem I have with these manufacturers doing this is either they have no accessories to do this for (i.e. they don't have their version of airpods) or they take it too seriously like HTC did with their U ultra where you could only use their headphones and adapters. Worse yet, that phone didn't even come with an adapter!
Hopefully we see manufacturers implement what we actually want soon instead of making their products cumbersome
Interesting, although I'm really still happy with my OP5, I'm not keen on this notch thing that has taken over the flagships. Hopefully, these phones can be a proof that the ugly notch is not required to make a decent screen/bezel ratio.
I feel exactly the same. I'm honestly hoping that we can use this as a way to have more focused test groups among manufacturers to see what the consumer wants. Then they would see that most of these controversial "features" are selling because they're on an iPhone and not because of the additions themselves.
Hopefully they don't skew the results like ZTE did when it crowd sourced features and all we got was a self-adhesive phone with eye-tracking...
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