Lately, we have been hearing a lot about the upcoming iPhone 14 series and it appears that the devices will come with some major changes which were expected to happen in the future iPhone models.

In the latest development, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, in his latest Power On newsletter, has claimed that the iPhone 14 series models won’t feature a notch for housing sensors. Instead, the phones will have a pill-shaped cutout on top of the screen.

Earlier, Apple had said that the notch was necessary for housing the sensors required for the front-facing camera as well as the Face ID feature. So, it will be interesting to see how the Cupertino-based tech giant manages to pack everything in a tiny space.

Prior to this new report from Mark Gurman, Korea-based publication The Elec had also claimed that the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max will come with a punch-hole cutout on the screen instead of a notch. Even Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has claimed about iPhone 14 models have a punch-hole cutout. These multiple reports about the same thing almost confirm this development.

Apple had first introduced the notch with the iPhone X and since then, it has largely remained unchanged. It houses the TrueDepth camera array which includes an infrared camera, a flood illuminator, a front camera, and a dot projector.

Reports also point that the Apple iPhone 14 and the iPhone 14 Max will continue to offer the notch but the Pro models in the series will come with a new pill-shaped punch-hole cutout for housing the sensors.

Some rumors claim that the company may adopt a laser-based time-of-flight architecture for Face ID while other rumors indicate a unibody lens design that will help the company reduce the size of the front camera module.

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Smartphone manufacturers have been using increasingly creative ways to achieve a full front screen body on for their offerings. Currently, one of the more popular ones is the punch hole selfie camera format. Now, Samsung is getting creative with this type of selfie shooter that it employs on its flagship devices as it has patented a new device that depicts a status indicator on the punch hole camera.

Samsung Electronics had filed five design patents with the CNIPA (China National Intellectual Property Administration) back in 2019. These patents all focused on the selfie camera, which was surrounded by a graphical interface. The interface serves the purpose of revealing the status of the task the user is performing and more. An example given in the patent description describes its use in a time lapse video, where the status indicator will display the progress status of the camera timer.

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While there had been rumors regarding the Galaxy Note 20 series arriving with an under display camera, the viability of the technology is still unknown. So, it is likely that the flagship series will launch in the latter half of this year with a punch hole format. Hence, we might see a status indicator around its single or even dual selfie setup on the front, as depicted within the patented designs themselves. The status indicator around the camera is in various shapes like square, ovaloid, and even circular.

The graphical interface also indicates other statuses like the downloads. This could be in the form of a status bar that fills up and progresses according to the live download a user may have in the background. This design isn’t completely unheard of, as the Meizu 17 also uses this in a certain manner, like having the punch hole camera to act as a battery indicator. So, we may see it in the near future, although, this is just a patent and has yet to be confirmed officially. Thus, take it with a grain of salt.

UP NEXT: Meizu 17 series launched with Snapdragon 865, 3D sensing camera, & Wireless Charging

(Via)

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The smartphone industry has been bestowed with a different kind of notch design, all in a  bid to trim down the bezels and give users a more immersive user experience. We have seen OEMs use a notch design, pop-up selfie, flip camera mechanism, waterdrop notch and of late, punch-hole design. Samsung can be regarded as the first to use the punch-hole design and is still the only OEM to use the design on an OLED screen since it manufactures the punch-hole AMOLED panels. That may change soon as the Vivo S5 is said to come with a punch-hole AMOLED screen.

A tipster has now leaked images of what he says is the punch-hole design that would be used on phones next year. The Weibo leak shows the punch-hole will be located in the middle of the display. It bears semblance with the waterdrop notch design except that it looks smaller. The tipster equally disclosed that the display will be used on models priced around a thousand yuan (~$100) which means it would be on budget phones.  That perhaps explains why it looks so ugly. In our thoughts, the waterdrop design looks cooler or better still, the punch-hole looks better on the side of the display.

What we can take out from the design is that it allows the front top bezel to be further trimmed giving it an ultra-thin outlook. The centralised punch-hole is located where there used to be the top bezel or notch so it won’t pose any problem of software adaptation. In addition, the front speaker is moved to the top edge of the phone.

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The industry is driving by trends and so, we can’t rule out the possibility that this design style can turn out to become popular with fans. Also, the idea that it would be found on budget models is also quite thrilling since there are absolutely no budget phones with punch-hole camera design presently. The punch-hole design would likely be for LCD screens, by the way.

We really don’t find this design attractive. What about you? Let us know what you think about the leaked punch-hole design in the comments section.

UP NEXT: Vivo S5, S5 Pro images appear on TENAA

The post Centralized punch-hole camera could be popular in 2020 says leakster, but we don’t like it! appeared first on Gizmochina.

After the successful release of its first pop-up camera phone, Elephone U2, the Chinese manufacturer seems ready to continue releasing cutting edge phones. Two photos of a new device surfaced today, showing a phone featuring a punch-hole selfie shooter and a dual rear camera.

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No further details were revealed by the company and the only thing we can tell for sure is that it will come with a gradient glass back as well as a rear-placed fingerprint sensor. The front of the device looks impressive with thin bezels and small bottom chin. We assume that more information will be available very soon.

At the same time, the current mid-range pop-up camera flagship is still on promotion on Geekbuying where you can get the 6GB/128GB version for just $249.99 until July 16th. Meanwhile, the Giveaway results are out on the company’s Facebook page! If you are interested, you can see all the details about it on the official product page and Elephone’s YouTube channel and get the chance to participate in future giveaways.

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