Is Apple planning the death of the iPhone X's most controversial design feature?

While most users seem oblivious to iOS annoyances, visual design changes quickly become one of those "love-it-or-hate-it" things. And no iPhone design feature has been as controversial as the "notch."

But if a report by ETNews is correct, this feature could be gone by 2019.

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According to the report, Apple will dump the "notch" used to house the 3D sensor and camera module at the top of the display and move to a full-screen design where the components are embedded into the display.

What's interesting is the reported reason for this move. It's not because of customer feedback.

"Apple is looking for another strategy that will differentiate itself when Chinese Smartphone manufacturers are imitating and applying notch design to their new Smartphones."

So it seems that in a few months the iPhone X "notch" has become so iconic that it's already being copied.

This report, although rather light on details, doesn't surprise me.

The "notch" was always a design compromise, and there were plenty of credible rumors in the run-up to the unveiling of the iPhone X that suggested Apple was working on embedding sensors into the display in 2017. The timeline for the elimination of that "notch" doesn't surprise me either. To eliminate it after a year would make it obvious that it was a mistake, so 2019 feels right. It also gives Apple a chance to refine the technology, both in terms of the hardware, display yield, and cost.

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Although there are some who think that this "feature" is going to hang around for some time to come.

So if you fancy spending a thousand dollars on an iPhone, but don't like that "notch," you have a while to save your pennies.

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