Indeed, the world wasn’t prepared for both the Vivo Nex and the Oppo Find X because everyone expected these manufacturers to stick to Apple design trends stay behind, waiting for the next big design reveal every September (Apple’s Special Event).
And to top it off, both of these smartphones don’t come cheap. The top end model called the Vivo Nex S is priced at a premium $780 with the base variant priced at around $702. The Find X too isn’t shy of being an Oppo and is priced at €999.
While many would earlier not be willing to shell out hard cash for any Chinese smartphones, Oppo and Vivo have managed to produce some desirable smartphones that every consumer out there would love to get their hands on.
While both smartphones have been launched in China, there is plenty of reason to believe, that they will arrive in India because of the priority that BBK gives to India as a market.
Another brand that comes to mind, which is innovating on the hardware front, is Chinese telecom giant Huawei. The Huawei P20 Pro's triple rear camera system is a radical design that was also a world first. It's Phantom Blue and Phantom Green back on the Honor 10 is unique.
Indeed, neither Vivo Nex nor Oppo Find X smartphones seem inspired by the iPhone X and kind of make it look like a notched relic from the past. I have mentioned this in my other piece, as to how Apple was the first and will in probability will be the last smartphone brand to leave the notch, thanks to its insistence on solid state parts and its FaceID.
Yes, Vivo, Oppo as well as Huawei have released phones with the display notch, but at the same time they are experimenting with the smartphone form factor as well, which many would believe has reached a kind of maturity. From being just a factory for making smartphones designed in the US and Korea, Chinese smartphone makers are now leading from the front when it comes to design innovations. Whether they will become a trend as do the Apple iPhones, is something only time will tell.
Meanwhile…
Google in the US has yet to provide official support for the display notch.
And it will be a while by the time Google launches its Pixel 3 (a year later with the notch, at least that's what the renders show) and releases the final firmware for manufacturers to chew on and integrate into their custom ROMs. And it’s not just the notch, there’s the in-display fingerprint reader as well, the support for which is bundled into Android P as a part of its Biometric API in the second Developer Preview.
In fact, Google’s absence in this notch revolution is sparking interest in custom mobile operating systems as well.
Google and Apple still offer the gold standard when it comes to software innovation on smartphones, and that is an area where the US will continue to excel. If you are an app developer, there are only two platforms that you will make your apps on — Android and iOS. There is no other option left. Chinese smartphone makers have their own skins atop Android, but we all know how that ruins the experience in most use cases. OnePlus' OxygenOS is the only skin that has remained close to stock Android and is the only interface which keeps getting regular updates. With every other skin, be it MIUI, ColorOS, FunTouch OS, EMUI, we are presented with an Android alternative which isn't always the best.
But the manner in which Chinese smartphone makers are overcoming these hurdles are surprising.
Vivo incorporated an in-display fingerprint reader with a workaround, all without official Android support. The same goes for the new 3D face unlock systems that have begun to replace the 2D systems that were earlier used as cheap knock-offs (with disclaimers) to counter features available on the iPhone X. Android’s hardware is clearly ahead of Android’s software but that’s not stopping Chinese brands from shying away and trying something new. Not anymore at least.
It is quite evident now that Chinese smartphone manufacturers have now become the innovators in hardware and design and this works well in their favour, because a majority of the hardware is manufactured out there after all. The entire ecosystem is present in China, that gives it an added advantage. In some places in Shenzen, you can walk into an electronics district and get all the parts needed to make your own smartphone as well. This allows a lot of Chinese players to rapidly prototype a device, some of which eventually make it to market soon.
Apple took an eternity to kill its bezels, and it will be stuck with the notch thanks to its design ideologies (for smartphones) that makes moving parts a strict NO. Apple’s not good with them either. Just have a look at the number of complaints (and lawsuits) its 2017 MacBook Pro keyboard has received. According to several leaks, Apple’s iPhones will still feature display notches in 2019 as well.
Apple may have been the trendsetter in the smartphone design for years, but the game is changing and the display notch dying out as a trend in less than a year should be worrisome, for Apple.
Fancy new designs, whether practical or not, are going to be the theme for 2019 and it will be the ones set by Android smartphone brands from China. Not Apple.