OnePlus has been in the limelight recently regarding some ‘top-notch’ features of its upcoming smartphone. In a recent interview, OnePlus founder Carl Pei hinted at the presence of a notch on their upcoming OnePlus smartphone. Since then, the company has been facing a backlash from its fans from ‘copying’ notable attributes of its rivals. In order to express the reasons for their choice to their fans, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau reached out to the OnePlus community, explaining their decision to go with the notch.

Pete goes on to describe that their intention with the next OnePlus device was to offer more screen space than before. The only way could have achieved that at the present stage was to adopt the market trend of display notches. While that questions the matter of aesthetics, which has been a primary criterion for OnePlus in their past offerings, OnePlus wants to offer more screen area without compromising the performance and the overall form factor, while “pursuing an optimal phone design.”

The notch also solves the issue of placement of necessary sensors in the right places. A centre notch holds the camera and all the other necessary sensors in the right spot, unlike some of its rivals (Mi MIX 2). Also, Pete states that the area taken up by the notch is not used by the interface most of the times unless somebody wants to watch a fullscreen video. The extended areas around the notch will usually accommodate UI elements such as the clock and notifications icons.

Lastly, Pete also states that the display is one of the most important areas for them and they would like to use such displays that are ready to adopt the notch while readily available to be used in mass-market models. While Pete hasn’t clarified on the type of display panel OnePlus will use in the next smartphone, does the mention of the phrase — “a display that is readily procurable is the only way we can keep up with global demand,” indicate the trading their brilliant AMOLED panel in favour of an IPS LCD panel? We only hope that OnePlus retains its strong points from its past devices while adopting a new technology.

(source)