iPhone X Why is folding the OLED screen at the bottom necessary to avoid a chin at the bottom?

[Hieveryone]

I heard somewhere that most of these Androids have a chin because they don't fold the screen and that Apple by folding the OLED screen made it possible not to have a chin.

To me, personally, I can't STAND having a chin. Like maybe I'd get used to it, but to me I love not having one.

The notch is fine though. The chin, for me, is just super ugly.

 

[Cayden]

With OLED displays, the controller for the display is at the bottom, so it takes up some room on the bottom of the display, resulting in the chins on android phones. Because apple folded the display, the "bottom" of the display is facing inwards towards the device, such that adding the controller on the bottom doesn't require a chin.

As shown in the above photo, the lip of the display that comes up is where the controller connects to it, showing that the controller doesn't need to be at the bottom of the device if the display is folded

 

[mib1800]

I heard somewhere that most of these Androids have a chin because they don't fold the screen and that Apple by folding the OLED screen made it possible not to have a chin.

To me, personally, I can't STAND having a chin. Like maybe I'd get used to it, but to me I love not having one.

The notch is fine though. The chin, for me, is just super ugly.

The chin on the note 9 is just 2.5mm more than the chin on iPhone X. That's like making a big fuzz over nothing.

The notch is a blight on the screen. And much more noticeable.

 

[brig2221]

Thanks for asking this question as I had heard the same and was wondering the exact same thing.

Cayden, thanks for the response!

 

[Friarchuck]

The chin on the note 9 is just 2.5mm more than the chin on iPhone X. That's like making a big fuzz over nothing.

The notch is a blight on the screen. And much more noticeable.

It seems perfect then that there are devices that satisfy both people's preferences.

Someone else's opinion about the bottom of a screen? Big fuss.

My opinion on the top of the screen? Valid and reasonable.

 

[upandown]

The chin on the note 9 is just 2.5mm more than the chin on iPhone X. That's like making a big fuzz over nothing.

The notch is a blight on the screen. And much more noticeable.

You make it sound like the human eye can’t clearly detect 2.5mm.

It is noticeable. The Galaxy is stuck with the old chin and iPhone is a step ahead in that one regard.

And personally I find it funny that the androids choose to use both. When they could easily fit all the sensors in the chin with no notch. Of course we all know why, for sales.

 

[mib1800]

You make it sound like the human eye can’t clearly detect 2.5mm.

It is noticeable. The Galaxy is stuck with the old chin and iPhone is a step ahead in that one regard.

And personally I find it funny that the androids choose to use both. When they could easily fit all the sensors in the chin with no notch. Of course we all know why, for sales.

2.5mm is very noticeable and the 11mm notch is invisible....oic

P.S. The side bezel of X at 4.5mm is much noticable than the 2mm of S9/note. I wonder why X got stuck with such old huge side bezels.

 

[1050792]

You make it sound like the human eye can’t clearly detect 2.5mm.

It is noticeable. The Galaxy is stuck with the old chin and iPhone is a step ahead in that one regard.

And personally I find it funny that the androids choose to use both. When they could easily fit all the sensors in the chin with no notch. Of course we all know why, for sales.

It would be cool to turn your phone upside down to answer a call with all those sensors on the bottom

 

[Macalway]

So we have a notch, but at least we don't have a chin.

 

[upandown]

It would be cool to turn your phone upside down to answer a call with all those sensors on the bottom

Really? You couldn’t figure out the logical assumption that the chin would be at the top with the sensors and ear piece? I hope you were joking.

 

[1050792]

Really? You couldn’t figure out the logical assumption that the chin would be at the top with the sensors and ear piece? I hope you were joking.

Do you know what the word “chin” means? I hope you were the one joking.

 

[Ralfi]

You make it sound like the human eye can’t clearly detect 2.5mm.

It's not just a visual thing, but the handling of the device - no chin means a smaller form factor, which leads to a more ergonomic phone for many people with smaller hands who will be able to use the phone one-handed in more situations.

 

[mib1800]

It's not just a visual thing, but the handling of the device - no chin means a smaller form factor, which leads to a more ergonomic phone for many people with smaller hands who will be able to use the phone one-handed in more situations.

Think the ergonomic of using device one-handed has more to do with UI design than size.

I'm using my note 9 one-handed with one-hand-operation+ with enables navigation gestures from left and right edges (including back, home, task, show notification, move screen down).

Think it is easier using one handed than iPhone X even though note 9 size is much bigger.

 

[Lyn2012]

Think the ergonomic of using device one-handed has more to do with UI design than size.

I quite agree. Some of iOS makes one handed use of large phone virtually impossible. I wish they’d change the things that are swipe down from the top, especially the left corner. There must be a better way. (For me Android is never an option as I need reliable two way syncing - contacts, calendar - with my iMac without using cloud storage.)

 

[ANTAWNM26]

I heard somewhere that most of these Androids have a chin because they don't fold the screen and that Apple by folding the OLED screen made it possible not to have a chin.

To me, personally, I can't STAND having a chin. Like maybe I'd get used to it, but to me I love not having one.

The notch is fine though. The chin, for me, is just super ugly.

Lol the notch is ok but the chin ain’t. Stop it. I’ll take the chin over the notch anyday

 

[5105973]

2.5mm is very noticeable and the 11mm notch is invisible....oic

P.S. The side bezel of X at 4.5mm is much noticable than the 2mm of S9/note. I wonder why X got stuck with such old huge side bezels.

As an owner of curved sided Samsung phones from S7 Edge to S9+, I’ve noticed that Samsung has gradually reintroduced a bit of side bezel since the S8/S8+ came out. I think they got user feedback that there’s a sweet spot where some side bezel is actually desirable for better ergonomics. And having used these devices and talked with other owners, I think Samsung has done well.

The side bezels on the X might not look good but there’s a risk users will miss them in practical daily use if they’re trimmed off too much. It will be interesting to see if Apple does try to trim them down in future releases. If not, perhaps internal testing revealed to them that they already have the ergonomic sweet spot for this particular design.

 

[upandown]

Do you know what the word “chin” means? I hope you were the one joking.

Everyone else seemed to figure it out

 

[mib1800]

As an owner of curved sided Samsung phones from S7 Edge to S9+, I’ve noticed that Samsung has gradually reintroduced a bit of side bezel since the S8/S8+ came out. I think they got user feedback that there’s a sweet spot where some side bezel is actually desirable for better ergonomics. And having used these devices and talked with other owners, I think Samsung has done well.

The side bezels on the X might not look good but there’s a risk users will miss them in practical daily use if they’re trimmed off too much. It will be interesting to see if Apple does try to trim them down in future releases. If not, perhaps internal testing revealed to them that they already have the ergonomic sweet spot for this particular design.

I agree with your reasoning. But actually, I don't see the need to have bezels. If you use a case, the case thickness forms a buffer already. I like the look of the screen of my s8+ better than note9 with a case on. I can see a tiny black strip with note9 but none with s8+.

For the minority that use the phone without case, then can use app edgetouch to prevent accidental edge touch

 

[kasakka]

I quite agree. Some of iOS makes one handed use of large phone virtually impossible. I wish they’d change the things that are swipe down from the top, especially the left corner. There must be a better way. (For me Android is never an option as I need reliable two way syncing - contacts, calendar - with my iMac without using cloud storage.)

Try the reachability option, it can be enabled from settings. Basically you swipe down from the bottom bar and it moves the top of the screen down. I think it works quite well. Samsung's configurable one-handed mode is more elegant though and something similar would be nice on the 6.5" model.
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The side bezels on the X might not look good but there’s a risk users will miss them in practical daily use if they’re trimmed off too much. It will be interesting to see if Apple does try to trim them down in future releases. If not, perhaps internal testing revealed to them that they already have the ergonomic sweet spot for this particular design.

I'd say they are mostly to maintain a uniform look all around. They know they needed x mm bezels on the top and bottom so they added those also on the sides. It does help avoid accidental palm touches, my Oneplus 3 without a case suffers from occasionally a bit of my palm hitting the corners of the screen and it's damn annoying.

 

[Menel]

The chin on the note 9 is just 2.5mm more than the chin on iPhone X. That's like making a big fuzz over nothing.

The notch is a blight on the screen. And much more noticeable.

You can either have a notch, or a full solid bar below the sensor area of useless space for status bar information. Apple’s design incorporates notch as component of status bar to provide more screen real-estate.

Its a big part of the huge sales.

 

[mib1800]

You can either have a notch, or a full solid bar below the sensor area of useless space for status bar information. Apple’s design incorporates notch as component of status bar to provide more screen real-estate.

Its a big part of the huge sales.

Many don't realize this but height of the status bar on note 9 is about half the height of the X notch. Because the notch is counted as screen size, so in effect, you are losing more screen area (equivalent to half the height of the notch). As a consolation, you save half the height of notch in vertical dimension.

P.s. unlike iPhone status which content is fixed, android uses the status bar to fullest for notification icons/notification content - so it is really not wasted space.