Samsung Patents iPhone 8-like Sensor Notch Design

These days, it seems like just about every high-end smartphone-maker is offering an ultra-premium model boasting an edge-to-edge display, meaning that the touchscreen LED/LCD panel, quite literally, butts-up against the edges of the phone’s chassis. We’ve seen models from this form-factor category released by a number of OEMs, including Samsung with its Galaxy Note 8 and S8/S8+ flagships, LG with its V30, and even international OEMs like Xiaomi with its Mi Mix phablet.

To the bedazzlement of millions, Apple will join the likes of Samsung and LG next week, when the company unveils its own, unique take on the edge-to-edge display form-factor: iPhone 8. Among other major advancements, Apple’s iPhone 8 will sport a massive, 5.8-inch OLED display that covers all but a small portion of its front surface.

Much like Andy Rubin’s recently unveiled Essential Phone, however, the iPhone 8’s edge-to-edge display will literally cover the entire front surface of the phone, aside from a small but noticeable ‘sensor notch’ at the top, housing the earpiece, sensors, and 3D/AR-based Face ID camera system.

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the notch, however it appears from a recent patent filing that Samsung is, and has even dreamed up its own slightly modified variant of Apple’s sensor notch. The patent application was filed by Samsung on its home turf in South Korea, and was first made public by GalaxyClub.

As you can see in the images below, Samsung’s vision of a sensor notch is less noticeable than Apple’s and seems to resemble the small selfie camera notch on Rubin’s Essential Phone, if anything. The patent filing states that the notch would be used to house components like the “front-facing camera, earpiece, and sensors” on a Galaxy device.

Interesting and worth noting is that the patent was filed way back in early 2016, which either means that Samsung decided against the design when styling its Galaxy S8 and Note 8 smartphones, or perhaps that the company could be entertaining the design for a future Galaxy device like the S9. Only time will tell, but in the interim it’s interesting to see smartphone-makers rushing to market with devices that truly push the bounds of engineering and design as we know it.