OnePlus 6 Confirmed To Arrive With A Display Notch, First Image Revealed

OnePlus has confirmed that the OnePlus 6, the company’s next flagship phone, will have a notch on its display. OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei shed some light behind the decision to include a notch on the OnePlus 6 display and how it differs from what other phone makers are doing.

“How big a notch is always depends on your choices as a company,” Pei told The Verge. “What you are essentially doing is moving the entire notification bar up, giving users more content on their screen.” The company also shared the very first official image of the OnePlus 6, showing what the notch in its display will look like.

It looks like the OnePlus 6’s notch is a lot smaller than what Apple implemented on the iPhone X and seems to be a lot closer to the notch on the Huawei P20. Pei said that the notch on the OnePlus 6 is different and implemented with “more thought and care.” He also said that they couldn’t have made it any smaller without compromising the quality of the phone’s other hardware features, like the earpiece, front-facing camera, sensors and the LED notification light.

“Our notch, it will be there,” Pei said. “It’ll be bigger than the Essential Phone, smaller than the iPhone.” The company also provided the exact size of the notch, which is 19.616mm x 7.687mm.

“It’s a very clear decision: more real estate for the user. In conclusion, learn to love the notch." - Carl Pei

OnePlus decided to add a notch on its next flagship phone not because of aesthetics, but to genuinely provide users with more screen real estate. This also reflects how the company implements gesture controls, which eliminates the need for on-screen software keys. Gesture controls are currently available to existing OnePlus devices as a beta software.

Pei also admitted that OnePlus may not have implemented gesture-based controls if it wasn’t for the iPhone X. OnePlus also agreed that Apple helps in accelerating the adoption of new technologies within the industry.

As for software, Pei briefly discussed how the company is manually testing the top 1,000 Play Store apps to determine which would need a compatibility mode for the notch. The company’s team has also shifted the clock to the left side of the screen to give more room for status icons. For playing videos, the OnePlus 6 will hide the notch.

Pei also pointed out that Apple’s iPhone X is the only smartphone with a display notch that doesn’t have a “chin” or bottom bezel. Unfortunately, the OnePlus 6 will still have a chin, since Apple’s solution in making a “chin-less” smartphone is more expensive and makes devices a bit thicker.

Other specs confirmed by the company include the 3.5mm headphone jack, a screen-to-body ratio of 90 percent and an overall size that’s just as large as the company’s existing phones. OnePlus also said that the OnePlus 6 won’t look like the Oppo R15. Oppo and OnePlus are both owned by the same company, BBK Electronics.

With OnePlus providing some new and official information about the OnePlus 6, it seems as though the upcoming phone might be released earlier than the company’s typical June launch date. A leaked image of the OnePlus 6 also surfaced recently showing that it will have a textured back of some kind.